‘No doubt’ Iran will strike back against Israel, says Iranian academic

We spoke to Iranian academic Mohammed Marandi from the University of Tehran, who is close to the Iranian leadership.

We began by asking how he thought the government of Iran would respond to Israel’s strike.

Mohammed Marandi: There will definitely be a retaliation, because the Israeli regime initiated this aggression. They bombed the embassy. The Iranians struck back to bring about deterrence. Then they assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. So, the Iranians have struck back to bring about deterrence and to end this. But the Israeli regime is insistent on repeating aggression. So I think there is absolutely no doubt that Iran will strike back and it will strike back substantially.

Matt Frei: But if Iran didn’t strike back at the moment, if you called it quits, then this whole spiral of violence might be over. And that’s good for everyone, isn’t it?

Mohammed Marandi: That’s not what Netanyahu and the people around him are like. These people are carrying out a holocaust in Gaza. They’re vicious, they slaughter people every day. They have no moral boundaries and they abide by zero commitments. They don’t listen to their own allies in Washington who fund the genocide. So obviously, the only way for the Iranians to stop this is to slap down Netanyahu. Otherwise, the only other solution would be for the West to yank hard on his leash. But they’re not going to do that.

Matt Frei: But Mr Marandi, you know that if there was another strike against Israel by the Iranians and this got more serious, the Americans would inevitably get involved on the Israeli side. And that could mean the defeat of your country, of your government.

Mohammed Marandi: No, Matt. That would be the defeat for the global economy. Because if the United States was foolish enough to get involved, the resistance in Iraq will kick the Americans out of the country. And all American bases in the region will be gone. And those regimes in the Persian Gulf that host American bases, those oil-rich dictatorships and gas-rich dictatorships, they will be seen as hostile. So you can say goodbye to oil and gas from our part of the world and goodbye to your economy.

Matt Frei: The government in Tehran oppresses its own people, as we saw in recent years with the demonstrations, the peaceful demonstrations that were brutally put down with people executed and arrested. So I wonder what you’re more afraid of if this escalation gets out of hand, your own people or the United States government, either under Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?

Mohammed Marandi: I can talk a lot about what goes on in Iran, but someone who works for a media outlet that is closing its eyes. As we speak, women are being slaughtered not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank, in Syria and of course in Lebanon. Your government is a part of this genocide and journalists who are quiet, they’re all implicit. They’re all implicated. And Western diplomats, they are all implicated. They all have blood on their hands. And no matter how much perfume of Arabia you use on your hands, that blood is not going to go away.