In a final death pangs of a regime, they are at their most
dangerous and there is a kind of scorched earth policy where the
mullahs are saying if we go and the people of Iran will be left
with a barren wasteland and we're going to kill as many of.
You as you think. That's actually happening right
now at the same time as they're weakened.
We do have an amazing opportunity here.
So we're now in a situation where if the following
diplomatic movements happen, you will see this regime go pretty
quickly #1. Hello and welcome to the
forecast. Iran is facing its most serious
unrest in years, with protests sweeping the country despite a
near total Internet blackout and a deadly response from security
forces. Washington is threatening new
tariffs. Western governments are debating
whether to escalate sanctions and blacklist the IRGC, and the
German Chancellor says that he believed the embattled Iranian
government is in its final days and weeks.
I should also add that Washington is still threatening
military action. The stakes, in other words, are
rising far beyond Iran's borders.
One of the most outspoken voices on what should happen next is
the comedian and actor Omid Jalili.
Born in London to Iranian parents, he's been sharply
critical of the regime and vocal about what he believes the
international community must do next.
Omid, good to have you on the. Floor to be here, Matt.
Thank you. Let's start first of all about
you, if I may, your connection with Iran.
You just said your parents were born there.
You know, How Iranian do you, especially in these days?
I feel, I feel very Iranian. When we spoke, we spoke Persian
at home. The Iranian heritage was
something that was I was very proud of.
I went there twice when I was a kid, once when I was three, once
when I was 6, and I always felt very proud.
I was always talking about there was another kid at school who
was Iranian in my class and we spoke Persian loudly and
proudly. And then everything changed
around 1979 and all the images on the BBC and everything was
these fundamentalists and crazy people.
So we kind of went quiet. I went shy.
I suddenly became name Chico from Milan.
I did. I rejected MyHeritage.
And of course there was a complication because I come from
a persecuted minority. I'm a Baha'i and the Baha'is
were also being slaughtered and executed.
And it was something I was keeping quiet and was living
with this very difficult thought that I felt Iranian, but also
felt very rejected by other Iranians because of my the
Baha'i faith that was my family's.
And how's that changed over the years, and especially at moments
like this? Hugely.
Things have hugely changed, I think as the regime has gone on.
People kept quiet. You know, we talked about this,
that Bahais were kind of killed and then they were thrown in a
ditch and to get the bodies back you had to pay lots of money.
And also the invoice included bullets, the bullets that were
used to kill your loved ones. You had to pay for that.
But the Iranian society kept quiet.
They said that's them, that's them, that's not us.
And then as they started really persecuting people of all walks
of life, all civilians in Iranian society, people thought
this is wrong. And we have to like when, when
they, we, we never spoke up for the Bahais.
We never spoke up for the Baluchis or or the Jews.
So now Iranian society absolutely speaks up for the
Bahais. And we know there's an Internet
blackout at the moment. It's been going on for quite a
few days and this is unprecedented 5 days.
So what kind of information are you getting from Iran, from
friends and relatives and how you're getting it?
Yeah, we're getting it a little bit through VPN, Starlink, A lot
of these things unfortunately in cut now.
But a friend of ours unfortunately lost their
brother. And what was shocking was they
said that to release the body, you pay the money and you also
have to sign a document that this person was one of the
regime forces killed by one of the protesters.
Really. That's extraordinary.
Extraordinary. You have to lie about you know
you have. To lie about your otherwise
don't get the body so. And pay money.
And I don't think they did. They're now the protesters
saying we are not leaving the streets until they go, I mean,
and they keep killing the people.
When you consider the historical precedent that when you've had
these extraordinary outbursts of rage in the past, and this is
bigger than previous ones it seems, but we've had them in the
past periodically the regime has prevailed with brutality at the
end, yes. And so the big question is could
this happen again? Could history repeat itself,
however tragic that maybe it? Could, but we have to be very
careful in the West. Are we just going to parrot
regime narratives? I mean this is The whole thing
kicked off on the 29th of December.
I went on the Guardian website and saw the first piece that the
Guardian put out was an opinion piece by Abbas Arapchi, who's
the Islamic regime foreign minister.
And I said, what the hell are you doing, Guardian?
What the hell? And then other people were
saying, well, this is a reality. You know, that there is a there
is a line they're pushing and they're going to be quite quiet.
So will history repeat itself in the sense that will there be
another crackdown and we just move on?
We have a real responsibility in the West to not keep parroting
regime narratives and actually do something about it.
And we can very simple actions. Well, we had a story on last
night told by our reporter Poric O'Brien of, you know, two
families. In one case, their young
daughter was killed. She was shot in the head,
executed on the way home. And in another case, the kid was
arrested, the young man was arrested, and he will face his
execution on Wednesday. So that's unbelievable.
That's no trial, you know, kangaroo court, you know, the
usual stuff. And we've seen this before in
Iran. I just wonder, from what you can
glean, and we've asked this question to just about everyone,
what's different this time? Apart from the sweep, you know,
and the numbers of cities engulfed in this rage, what is
different this time? What is very different is a Gen.
Z, the younger generations, I mean, my generation of people
who saw the revolution of 79 happened, we just think, OK,
we've not that we've checked out like nothing is going to happen.
The younger people who were on TikTok and Instagram is open,
you can see and they see freedoms in the West.
They don't understand why they don't have the freedoms.
So which is very, very upsetting that a lot of those Gen.
Z people, you know, Niko Sharkarami and all these young
people were killed because they were standing.
They were the first people in the front line.
And even now we see the regime as following teenagers home
after and shooting them in the head.
So what's different now is also there's never been a figure that
the people can get behind. There has to be an opposition
leader. One has emerged and his name is
Reza Pahlavi, who is the son of the former Shah.
And and of course, that rings alarm bells for a lot of people
saying, oh, God, is this going to be, it's a legitimate concern
that, oh, we're just going to have something worse and all
that. But Reza Pahlavi is someone who
is incredibly educated. Everything he said seems to be
very reasonable. And he's talking about coming
back not to re establish the monarchy, but to help the
country transition into a secular democracy.
I want to talk about him a little bit later, but just, you
know, dwelling on the young people especially, I mean,
what's what's always struck me about Iran, and I've only been
there once, and that was quite a long time ago.
It was after 911 when we thought the things, you know, the
Americans might attack Iran, you know, somehow.
And of course, they had nothing to do with 9/11 whatsoever,
which didn't stop them from attacking Iraq.
But what really struck me then, and what I've been told by my
Iranian friends and colleagues all the time since then, is that
this is a highly educated population.
It prides itself on the number of PhDs on the great
universities. And although it is a theocratic
regime, it is also very secular in terms of its education.
Yes, it is not beyond the wit of man to imagine that young people
who've been well educated want to share in some of the spoils
and luxuries and entertainment and fun and information, you
know, and intelligent ecosystem that other young people
elsewhere are, you know, are participating in.
And that's what's happening. Except the other government, yet
again, is trying to stop it. That's actually brilliant.
I'm so shocked because it was so brilliantly said.
Matt, thank you. And I think that is the the main
thing is why Iranians are so offended by people saying, oh,
this is an American LED revolution.
It's an Israeli LED LED revolution.
Iranians have agency. They're intelligent, they know
history, and they know what they.
Do it's an ancient civilization. It's an ancient civilization,
the cradle of civilization that started in, in, in Persia.
We're very proud of King Cyrus. There's some quotes of his on
the UN building. So we're, we're very proud of
our heritage. I used to joke about the fact
that, you know, our civilization brought you language and
mathematics. We brought you a federal system
of government running hot and hot and cold water while the
early Britons were running around painting themselves blue
and buggering wild boar. And when I did that in Ipswich,
someone shouted out what's wrong with that?
Which kind of said everything, It's Ipswich.
Yeah. So, so for, for, for me, this is
something where we don't want to be patronised.
We don't want we, we don't want to get involved in kind of the
culture wars of Britain when it was very clear, you know, the
Iranian people always supported Palestinian rights.
In fact, there was a football match where the Iranian regime
came out and they were flying a Palestinian flag.
And it was quite shocking where the fans were singing stick that
Palestinian flag up your backside.
And everyone was saying, why are they saying that?
And it's not that they don't stand with Palestinians.
They know that the Islamic regime is playing lip service
to, they don't care about Palestinian rights.
They only have two focuses. And I think people listening to
this podcast need to be very clear on this.
And this is not controversial. It's written down.
There are two reasons why they're doing this and people
saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
So we stand with Iran because they're against Israel.
Excuse me, Not only does Iran want the destruction of Israel,
but if you look at the IRGC constitution, it is ultimately
to kill all Jews everywhere. So if you're supporting Iran,
that is the narrative you're support.
Although the degree to which, for instance, Reza Pahlavi, the
the son of the Le Char supports Israel and is supported by
Israel, you know, is incredibly controversial.
And I've got, you know, Iranian friends have been texting me
saying how dare you put anyone who is, you know, who is
associated with Reza Pahlavi, you know, on your program
because this guy is an Israeli stooge.
Now, there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that, but
but the fact that the Iranian community, you know, is so
divided amongst itself, yes, about who to support, who not to
support. There were 2020 Iranian
opposition television channels here out of Los Angeles often
called Terangeles because of the Iranian community alone.
So there is division in your community whether you like it or
not. That, that, that, that's no
question of that. And you know, the the way
Iranian culture is, we're we're divided in our families and
we're divided whenever we all get together, we start fighting
and start criticizing each other.
But I, I think what the Iranian people are trying to say,
because people get very disturbed because why lots of
Iranians, we stand with Israel and they've got lots of Israeli
flags in their things. A lot, a lot of people like pro
Palestine friends of Iranians saying, look, I can't really be
supporting this if it's in any way supporting Zionism or, or
Israel. So we can't conflate the two.
You know, people are getting killed in Iran, the Palestinians
are being killed in Gaza. What Rezapallaby was was doing
by meeting the, the, the, the Israeli people, I think he's
trying to reflect Iranian society who say Israel, we have
no, as the people, we have no problem with Israelis.
I think that's the very, there's always a difference between the
people and their governments. So what the people of Iran are
saying, we have no problem with Israelis and Israelis also have
no problem with the with the normal Iranian side.
So then you've got Donald J Trump.
We should talk about. We should talk about Donald,
right? Donald Trump, the president of
the United States, who is, you know, who's sending out some
conflicting messages here. So on one side, he says we're
going to intervene. It's going to be tough.
We're going to pay them. You know, they're going to pay a
heavy price, The regime that is for, you know, using any
violence against peaceful protesters on the streets.
Which they did repeatedly and still didn't do anything.
Right, exactly. So you've got that red line
which seems to have, you know, been crossed and he's done
nothing about it. And then you've got him
threatening just last night, 25% sanctions against any country
that does business with Iran, which would be, for instance,
China and quite a few European countries as well.
So, yeah, as someone who really wants to see change this time
around, Omid, what would you like Donald Trump to do and not
to do? The former security minister Tom
Tugenhat was on Andrew Marr and they were talking about this,
where is Trump going to do anything?
And Tom Tugenhat said he's already done something.
He's he's got rid of Maduro and so Trump by cutting off Iran
from Venezuela because they're very deeply connected.
And I think there was an idea that if the regime fell, a lot
of the regime members would flee to Venezuela, where they set up
supermarkets, they've set up all their car manufacturers and
drone factories and missile factories.
By cutting that off, that's also isolated the regime.
So in one sense, even though it's a bit crazy what he's done,
as far as the people of Iran are concerned, well done.
Right. I mean, Iran is not in the same
position it was in even a year ago because we've had the 12 day
war. We had the systematic
destruction by Israel of Iran's proxies in the region.
Severely weakened, right? Severely weakened.
I mean, not total destruction, but severely weakened.
Hezbollah's another one, the Assad regime has fallen.
That was a massive ally, very important ally of the of the
ayatollahs. So Iran is in a much weaker
position than it has been perhaps at any stage since 1979,
since the revolution, do you think?
But that makes it more brutal because this is it for them,
right? This is the last chance saloon
for this regime to survive. Or does it mean they're more
likely to fold at some stage? This is a very good question and
it's the the answer's going to be a little bit complex, but
I'll I'll give it a shot. You know, the in a final death
pangs of a regime, they're at their most dangerous.
And there is a kind of what you would call a scorched earth
policy where the mullahs are saying if we go and the people
of Iran would be left with a barren wasteland and we're going
to kill as many of you. As you think that's something
right? Now that that's actually
happening right now in the city of Rasht where they were trying
to get the people to open up their shops, so begging them.
And then when they didn't open up, they fire bombed all the
shop, 200 shops. And they said this is what
protesters do to you. So they're they're spinning that
at the same time as they're weakened.
We do have an amazing opportunity here.
The people of Iran were asked 10,000 of them, what do you
actually want? 10,000 people.
And this human rights organization distilled it down
to two specific requests. One, leave us alone politically.
When this regime is gone, we'll deal with us.
What we're going to do politically and #2 what would
really help us is if you put the Islamic Republican Guard Corps,
the IRGC, put them on the terrorist list because there is
a domino effect here. And, and it's a big the, the
British government has not done it.
And there's many reasons for it because maybe you want to keep
the British Embassy open. That brings Intel.
And I think the Americans may have asked the Brits to keep it
open. And that's fair enough.
We get it because. America has no diplomatic
representation. Not hasn't that because they've
put the the. Embassy was seized and you know,
you know, and diplomats take it hostage.
The IGC is on the terrorist desk in America.
So, so we're now in a situation where if the following
diplomatic movements happen, you will see this regime go pretty
quickly and as from the request of the reigns #1 for their
safety, get the British people, the British Embassy in Tehran,
flown back immediately. Get them out.
Two, close down the embassy and three, freeze the assets and
then then put the IRGC on the terrorist.
Because if you do this, which is very important, the regime gets
isolated. There's no more money coming
through. All the people who are in, who
work with them, India, China will have to distance themselves
and the regime will be but. I'm not sure if that's right
there because they're already to some extent isolated.
There are already many sanctions in place and and they have their
friends in Beijing, they have their friends in Moscow, they
have their friends in Pyongyang and that you know that axis of
resistance as they like to call it, it kind of works for them
it. Kind of works but you see as
British people who we believe in human rights, we believe in
standing up for the oppressed and if we don't take these
actions a lot of British people ask me, well, what do we what do
we now this is very. Important about our conscience
or no? No, no, actually changing the
reality. It is about changing the
reality, but it's also about our conscience because people are
asking this question. British friends of mine are
saying by not putting the IRGC on the terrorists, it means
we're somehow involved with this regime.
Do we really want to be in business with these people
they've just killed? Reportedly, we don't know for
sure. They've just killed 12,000
protesters. Now we come from a generation
where we saw Tiananmen Square, we saw the Berlin Wall come
down, we saw these things happen with our own eyes unfold before
us. 12,000 is if that is true, that's a massive this is the one
of the most amazing stories ever.
But if the Brits don't take any action, and they've been silent
so far, British people are going to say are we?
Complicit. But we know that especially
British involvement with in Iran is an incredibly sensitive
subject because the Brits were involved back in the 1950s with
the removal of Mossadegh, A democratically elected Iranian
Prime Minister. You know stuff.
Right, No, but I think, you know that is so.
If we suddenly say things, this government says things and
stands up there, there will be no.
Finish what you were saying? No, but what You got rid of him
because he had got rid of them. Yeah, this is very important
that people know. All those petroleum companies
came in because you've got oil here.
We can drill it for you because what are you going to give us?
We'll give you a percentage, probably 30-40, maybe 50%.
He was. They were there for a while and
they never gave a single penny. So Mossad there got rid of them.
And then for 60,000 it's all covered in a film called Coup 53
directed by Walter Murch, who did all the Godfather movies.
They, they never gave them pennies.
So Mossad they got rid of them. And then to fire back they, they
spent £60,000 and created a revolution to get rid of Mossad
there. And then they brought the
monarchy back. OK, So what I'm trying to say is
that any kind of foreign meddling in Iran, you know,
especially from the Brits and the Americans, is seen with deep
suspicion by the people. Yes.
Understandably. But here's the thing.
Obama has now very clearly said that when there was a green
movement, when NEDA was shot in the head, the green revolution,
the green revolution, that was unbelievable.
And we really thought that was it.
Obama had a chance to do something and he never did.
Instead, he signed the JCOJOCAP deal.
The. Iran nuclear deal.
The Iran nuclear. Enrichment for fewer sanctions.
Yes, exactly. And apparently billions of
dollars were passed to America. And he's now said, I regret that
that was a real chance to get rid of him.
Now we're in a situation going back to Donald Trump.
We're in a situation where he can intervene somehow.
We don't know how, but the people on the ground believe
this would be America righting the wrongs of the past.
And, and that is one way, if Donald Trump wants to become a
hero overnight and possibly even get a Peace Prize in 2026, if he
was to wrong to right the wrongs historically of all that
meddling. And by the way, all that
meddling is why we saw Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, that all
that kind of stuff is, is the stuff that is given that makes
people worry about Iran right now that he could actually right
a lot of those wrongs. So if the Americans were to
launch military strikes, right, against Khamenei or against the
Revolutionary Guard installations or whatever, what
makes you think that that would actually work?
That would first. Of all I never said that.
I never said that. What makes?
Well, I mean, but you but you that.
Makes Iranians think that. That makes Iranians think that
because it would if they were during the 12 day war with
Israel, which is very weird. I was very upset, you know, to
see, I mean, quite a few 100 people died and you don't want
to see war. You don't want to see but a lot
of Iranians inside Iran. Were cheering them on.
They kept taking out the heads of the IRGC.
The next person to cover, they took him out.
They killed so many. I even got an e-mail declaring
me the head of the IRGC and I respectfully turned it down
because I wasn't quite happy with their workplace security
arrangements. So that was a little joke I've
been doing, but people in Iran were kind of cheering that on
because we know all the oppression comes from the IGC.
Thousands, 100 thousands of people have died in Syria,
100,000 people died in Iran because the IGC.
So when you're killing those people, I'm speaking for the
people of Iran. There's not, I'm not just saying
there's not me, but I'm saying they were kind of cheering it
on. So I'm not saying I'm never
would stand up for war, But if there is some kind of military
action, which would, I would say, neutralize the threat of
the people who are actually killing the people on the ground
right now, young people, young girls, teenagers, if that was to
be stopped somehow, I would think the people of Iran would
be. They wouldn't say no.
And just on the numbers, I mean, again, the numbers are sketchy
because we're not on the ground. I think human rights groups are
saying 2000 roughly have been killed by the authorities in in
recent weeks. The numbers of arrest I think is
at about 11,000 or more. But again, we don't know the
exact numbers. Yeah, that is a significant
number of people to mow down in order to stay in power.
Whether it's 12,000 or 2000 even even.
But two or three numbers do not, I mean, let's, you know, we
don't need to exaggerate the numbers because they're bad
enough as it is, right? So.
We agree on that, absolutely. OK.
By the way, they're starting the executions on January the 14th.
I mean, one of the problems, I guess, with any revolution, one
of the challenges is that you do need a unifying figure.
So the Iranian revolution of 7879 had Ayatollah Khomeini
Khomeini, who was based in Paris at the time, as the unifying
figure. They used the network of the
mosques, you know, and of course, the Islamic faith in
order to organize the revolution which worked for them.
What is the unifying figure genuinely now and what is the
unifying structure around which people can organize, you know,
some kind of, you know, successful revolution against
this regime? It's very clear that an
opposition leader is is emerging.
It's Reza Palavi, who's the son of the Shah, and he's someone
who's been directing things from outside the country now.
He's he directing them? He is he just jumping on the
bandwagon? No, he is absolutely directing
people what to do to do. He's been speaking through
Tanois in cities and saying, go on to Iran International.
There's a live broadcast, scan your QR codes and join the
people. And it's like saying, you know,
the revolution will be televised with QR codes.
So he, he is, he's directed. Does he want a resurrection of
the monarchy? Does he want to sit on a new
throne? He said he wants to come back
and transition the country to a secular democracy.
Do. You believe him?
Personally, I have to say he's an educated man.
I I can't imagine that he would want to live in Iran.
I can't imagine that he would stay longer than a year, 2
years. But if they're if the people,
because when they're on the ballot get used to it, he might
get used to it. And on the ballot paper, if
people do want to monarchy, they will have to put that down like
a constitutional monarchy that runs longer, a secular
government. Do I believe it like here?
Yeah, exactly. Do I believe him?
I I don't know. I've never met him.
I like the look of him. I like the cut of his jib.
I like everything. He seems very reasonable.
Everything he says is very educated.
He speaks Persian, French and English absolutely fluently.
And whatever he represents, it's a damn sight better than these
people, these regime people with their nonsense.
But they're kind of fundamental. So it's basically people have a
choice. Do you want fundamentalist or do
you want someone who's educated? That seems to be.
The choice but but the but the regime will say do you want us
or do you want to go back to the thing that we removed with
another revolution? Yeah.
And I think right now you can hear I, I've gone through maybe
1200 videos, I would say with hand on heart confidence, about
6 or 700 of those videos of the protesters are all calling for
his name and they're actually calling for a monarchy back
which. I'm watching a lot of TV.
I don't. I'm not sleeping.
I haven't had sleep. Yeah, I've not slept for maybe
the last two weeks. I've probably had about 12 hours
sleep. I care not just as an Iranian,
as a human being who's into human rights, this is the most
incredible story unfolding before our very eyes.
And if you really want to be with the people and human
rights, watch what these people are doing.
Because against all odds, I've seen videos of, you know,
security forces with guns shooting at young guys who were
still running forward dropping. But I just think, my God, look
at the Kishka's on these guys. They won't stop.
And that is why it's the most incredible story unfolding on
the planet right now. I mean, as we know with some
revolutions, when they take place, if they overthrow the
existing people in power, what, what sometimes follows is civil
war, chaos, the complete, you know, disintegration of the
country. We saw that in Libya, for
instance. Libya is in the, you know, was
in a very, very bad state after the the removal of Colonel
Gaddafi and his death. Is that something that you are
prepared as a British Iranian to put up with if it if that's the
cost of getting rid of the IT dollars?
I will say this, that is a legitimate fear.
And if anyone thinks that or expresses that, that's
absolutely fine. What we, what we won't tolerate
is people saying this is all Israeli LED and American LED.
We don't tolerate that. But that is a legitimate fear.
But as we said before, Iranians have the agency.
And you said to yourself, they're some of the most
educated people. So I think I would like to think
they're learning from history. But it is an it's a real worry,
which is why even if this regime is overthrown, I'll still be
watching to see what's going on because I'm nervous.
I'm worried you don't know if the country will descend into
chaos. You just don't know.
If in three weeks time or a month's time the protests have
died down, it may happen. I'm not saying it will happen,
but it might happen. Are you still going to be
watching every night? You're still going to be, you
know, engaged with the same degree of interest that you are
now. I will I will keep yes, if if
this drags, I'm going to I'm in it for the long haul.
Basically whether even Tom Tugan hat the the Minister for
Security. In the previous government of.
The previous, yeah, even Tom Tugan hat though Minister for
Security of the previous government, he said, look, the
regime are gone. Whether it's announced in the
next few days, next week, we wait until Norouz, which is
March 21st or maybe at the end of the year, it's going to
happen. So I'm in it for the long haul.
And it's it's just something I have to, I'm resigned to this.
It's something I can't stop watching.
And then if this regime goes, which we believe is an
inevitability, I'll be keeping an eye and doing what I can to
help raise awareness and hopefully they will have some
kind of democracy. It's hard to see how any regime
that governs by coercion more than by consent.
And of course there are some people in Iran who still believe
in the regime because their jobs depend on it.
Whatever. It's hard to see if you're just
governing mainly by coercion, that you can string this out.
It's impossible. And and and you.
Know but it but it could be months, it could be weeks, it
could even be years. And in that time, an awful lot
of stuff could happen. I will say this, which I think
is very, very important. Yes, there are a lot of people
who are ruled by coercion, which is why I've been asked.
I mean, as a member of the Baha'i Faith, we've had a lot of
persecution. From the you know about.
This. Yeah, from the mullahs and all
this. But I will say this to the
people of Iran because they're talking about killing mullahs,
the two, about stringing them up from lamp posts.
I honestly believe a lot of those mullahs have to keep quiet
and toe the party line. A lot of them don't believe in
this nonsense. A lot of them could be great
people. So I would ask the people of
Iran don't go around killing and burning mullahs because a lot of
them are probably and we've seen some mullahs come out.
They were saying down with this regime.
This is this is not Islam. And I think it's we've.
Also seen protesters burn mosques.
We see, yeah. But this is very important for
people to know. The people of Iran have no
problem with Islam. We have a problem with
fanaticism and fundamentalism. And all my Muslim friends have
said this is not Islam. They're actually giving a
terrible name to religion. So I'd like to say to the people
of Iran, don't go around randomly.
I think a lot of the mullahs need to be brought to account
but don't kill them because a lot of them have been paying lip
service because if they don't support this regime, they'll be
killed by the regime. One more, I mean, President
Trump has threatened to intervene and he might be the
kind of, you know, the intervention that the people
like you, lots of Iranians are yearning for.
At the same time, President Trump is also on the record with
his actions and his words for tearing up, you know, human
rights agreements. You know, he's just pulled the
US out of 66 bodies, you know, many of them to do with the UN,
many of them to do with human rights.
Are you confident that that he's doing this, you know, for the
sake of the Iranian people? Of course not.
At the end of the day, who knows
what's going on? What are the machinations going
on? Maybe there's a deal going on
right now, like, OK, Pallavi, you're going to come in.
What's in it for us? Maybe that's going on.
Nobody knows you. You can't say hand on heart.
Because last time I checked, Iran has a lot of the stuff that
Trump really likes. Oil.
Yes, exactly like.
Venezuela. Lots of oil, yeah.
No question he is a deal maker. And I think what what Iran, Iran
is a pragmatist realist. We are hoping that if if there
is a deal going on, it'll, it'll end up being for the people of
Iran because at the moment they seem to be expendable.
The people of Iran, like we can talk about Gaza and speak out
for them, but no one really cares about the people of Iran
they're getting. I think they do.
I think. I think.
I like to think people do, you know, but, but with with regards
to your question, does Trump actually believe in the human
rights of the Iranian people? I would say I don't know, I
can't. He says he does.
But but we kind of understand if
a deal is in place somehow, vaccinations behind the scenes,
that happens. Hopefully it'll be for the
people of Iran and not against them.
Omid Jalili, we'll leave it there.
Thank you very much indeed for coming on the forecast.
Thank you very much. That's it for the forecast.
I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.