English → Arabic transcript

No, Pete, we can't have two separate objectives. This is now what, and it goes back to Lindsey Graham begging the Saudis to come in here. You're not going to get the Arab states to come in here because they understand the makeup of the war changed Saturday night. Now you have a Persian nationalist movement. This is why President Trump's initial objective was to support

the overwhelming dissident groups in the, in, in, in Persia that hated being under the boot of the Ayatollahs and the Mullahs. Why is that not happening? Yes, they're still under huge threat. But one of the reasons here is this, this war shifted on Saturday night because the Israelis did something that the president absolutely didn't want to have happen.

And we can't, we shouldn't be trying to gloss it over. We should be trying to address it. And we should be trying to address it with the American people. Trita Parsi, you join us now. You're, you, you, you are, you know, you're Iranian, you've worked with those guys. So this is not like a, and it shouldn't be an even-handed assessment,

but give me your assessment of where we stand right now. Particularly as my theory of the case is now we're into, we've, we've, the Israelis have managed to unite the Persian people that were not united. And one of the central thesis of our efforts was to make sure that we had their back as they took it in their hands to overthrow the Ayatollah and this Islamic Republic, sir.

Thank you, Steve. Just, just to clarify, I was born in Iran, but my family fled when I was four. I've studied Iran for more than 25, 30 years. And in that process, obviously, I've spoken to people on all sides, including people deep inside the Iranian government. Your assessment is absolutely correct. The attack against the oil refinery was a major, major turning point in all of this.

Already prior to that, there had been signs that this war was turning in the eyes of many Iranians against Iran as a nation rather than against its theocracy. You could see that when Trump was talking about arming the Kurds, you know, things that sounded as if the US was going to support a separatist movement, fears that exist for a long time that the West is seeking Iran's dismemberment.

But the targeting of the oil refineries really hit the point home that this is not about taking out the repressive capabilities of the state, you know, the Basij, the IRGC, and then allow the population to rise up. Rather, this was targeting the nation as a whole because people in Tehran cannot breathe right now. I spoke to a person the day after. He said that he could see many people who had chosen to stay in Tehran, they gave up.

They're leaving the city right now because they actually cannot breathe. And he saw that on the streets, spontaneously, some people, as they were packing up their stuff and leaving, were starting to chant slogans against the United States, against Israel. And these did not look to be, you know, the usual supporters of the regime. I mean, the 15, 20% that would come out and protest on a regular basis in favor of the regime.

These looked like a completely different segment of society. And I've heard this now from several different people. And this was the risk all along. I think we should take note of one thing, Steve. Remember that in Iraq, in Libya, when there were these campaigns to regime, change the regime, there were never any instances in which you saw a very, very large crowd come out in support of those regimes. And that's not to say that this specific theocracy is particularly popular.

In fact, I don't think it is at all. But it does have a support base of 15 to 20% of the population. And we saw massive numbers coming out from that support base yesterday, celebrating their decision to name the son of the Supreme Leader as the next Supreme Leader. We never saw any of these things in Iraq or in Libya. And I think that tells us something. It's a very different situation. This is an unpopular regime, but it does have a support base.

And then the rest of the population tend to be very, very nationalistic. And in normal circumstances, they would have been completely against any foreign invader. In this case, there was a segment that seemed to welcome it because they were just so sick and tired of this theocracy. But those sentiments seem to have shifted very fast as it's become clear to them, this is a war on the country, not a war on the regime.