Author, translator, and Islamic exegete Blake Archer Williams joins us live from Tehran. What do Iranians think about Trump-n-Yahu’s deranged threats? What does Shia eschatology suggest about the end-times war between the (Christian and Muslim) followers of the one true Messiah, Jesus (alaihi ssalaam) and the demonic legions of the Zionist Antichrist? Is there a theological reason why cowardly Sunni Muslim nations have failed to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque and fight genocide, while Shia nations and peoples courageously risk their lives?
Excerpts:
Kevin Barrett: So where do we even start? The world doesn’t get any less crazy. Just when you think that it’s exceeded its limit in maximum craziness, something else happens. And Trump has really been doing quite a brilliant job of that, doing insane and often horrific things… One of them is opening the door wider to a Netanyahu-U.S. war on Iran that could really cause a lot of havoc, not least of all for the U.S. empire. And there’s increasing chatter about that. What’s the view from Tehran?
Blake Archer Williams: Well, personally, I’m not too worried about it, and I don’t see too much panic going on around here either, even with them moving the B2s to Diego Garcia or whatever. I think that most Iranians see it as so much bluster, you know, because the United States has been trying to take out the political order of the Islamic Republic here for the last 47 years. And every year the Islamic Republic gets stronger—militarily anyway. If they were going to do it militarily, 10, 20, 30 years ago would have been the time. I think that the generals are telling him “look, this is not going to be a walk in the park and there’s going to be hell to pay.” So I don’t think the authorities here are too worried.
And, you know, I mean, it’s crazy. I heard Witkoff say he’s bought into this Israeli line that the last time Israel tried to attack Iran and their planes were sent back because the air defense radar system locked in on them, they said that they destroyed practically all of Iran’s air defenses. And so Witkoff was just repeating this line. And he obviously believed it. And if he believes it, Trump believes it. So who knows? But I think that the generals know better. And ultimately, they’re the ones that would have to execute the order. I think that they’re going to refuse it. But even if they do try to attack, it would be a mistake on their part. And they have a lot more to lose. Because like General Hajizadeh, the general in charge of the aerospace branch of the IRGC, said it nicely: “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
The 10 or 11 million barrels a day that is exported from Saudi Arabia is only exported through Ras Tanura. It’s the only deep sea port that can accommodate oil tankers. So all they (Iranian armed forces) have to do is to destroy the piers at Ras Tanura, which doesn’t take much, and it’ll take six months to repair. And, you know, there go the gas prices. And once Joe Sixpack sees gas prices doubling and tripling and quadrupling, they’ll slowly but surely come to realize that this does not make America great again, but it’s more like make Israel great again. And there’s going to be repercussions to that, and that would change everything.
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