BBCPERSIAN — broadcast
20260808 183000 UTC
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[00:00:23] We are trying to do what for goods
[00:00:26] return, what in relation to high prices.
[00:00:30] Of course, high prices are a real thing. They closed our way.
[00:00:33] We used to bring it cheaply. We used to bring it through an easy
[00:00:37] path. Now we have to turn around and bring it through different
[00:00:40] ways into the country.
[00:00:44] The ravages of war and sanctions on the body of Iran's worn-out economy.
[00:00:48] Under naval blockade , can the government cope with the people's
[00:00:51] livelihood? We ask an
[00:00:53] economic expert who will pay the cost of continuing the war.
[00:00:57] Rumors about the possibility of
[00:01:00] the resignation of Mohammad Bagher Zholghadr, Secretary of the Supreme
[00:01:03] National Security Council. Pezeshkian says there are differences that we are trying
[00:01:07] to resolve. We ask a political analyst
[00:01:10] that, despite the economic bottlenecks that Massoud Pezeshkian
[00:01:14] enumerated, why do extremists want to continue
[00:01:17] the war? Washington is looking for a plan
[00:01:20] for the safe passage of ships through the Strait
[00:01:23] of Hormuz. Trump's deputy says that he does not
[00:01:27] trust Iran's promises.
[00:01:31] Also in tonight's
[00:01:41] Will the Mecca agreement isolate Iran or bring more
[00:01:44] stability to the region?
[00:01:48] Environmental concerns about the closure
[00:01:49] of the Strait of Hormuz, the accumulation of
[00:01:52] invasive aquatic species, ships
[00:01:56] and... threatening the sea systems.
[00:01:59] 60 minutes. Live from BBC in
[00:02:22] more concerned about the people's livelihood than about the war. He said
[00:02:26] in a meeting with reporters that the way for goods to enter Iran
[00:02:30] has been closed and the government does not even have enough
[00:02:34] resources for importing gasoline.
[00:02:37] Mr. Pezeshkian said that one cannot chant that "we will fight"
[00:02:41] and then expect that there will be no news of high prices and
[00:02:44] shortages in the market. He referred to the resilience of Iran's
[00:02:47] crisis-ridden economy, which has been hit harder by about 6
[00:02:50] months of war and tension. In these
[00:02:54] circumstances, Iran's economic and naval blockade
[00:02:57] remains in place. The fate of negotiations with
[00:03:03] Hormuz is still unclear, and Tehran puts
[00:03:07] new conditions on the table every day. How much more
[00:03:10] can the Iranian economy fight? If this situation continues,
[00:03:14] where should the government get money and goods from, and
[00:03:18] finally, who will pay the cost of continuing the
[00:03:30] foreign currency from? This is an issue that has been the main
[00:03:33] concern of the government in Iran for years,
[00:03:37] and now the naval blockade by the US has dealt another
[00:03:40] heavy blow to Iran's crisis-ridden economy,
[00:03:44] which has led to a sharp decrease in foreign exchange
[00:03:48] income for Iran. It was
[00:03:50] expected that the recent agreement between Iran and the US would cover part of this budget
[00:03:54] deficit, but the resumption of the war after the attack on
[00:03:58] several oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz ruined this
[00:04:01] opportunity. During the period of temporary lifting of the blockade,
[00:04:05] Tehran exported a large portion of its floating oil
[00:04:08] reserves from the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman
[00:04:12] worth 6 billion dollars. Now Massoud Pezeshkian, the President
[00:04:16] of Iran, on the second anniversary of his inauguration, defended
[00:04:19] the Islamabad agreement with the US in a meeting with
[00:04:22] reporters. Because within its framework, Iran could
[00:04:26] export oil products and return part of its blocked money to the
[00:04:30] country. Sanctions are a
[00:04:33] reality. When we cannot sell
[00:04:35] our oil, it means we will not have
[00:04:39] foreign currency. Now, in our government, this pressure is at its maximum. Mr.
[00:04:42] Pezeshkian, defending the elimination of preferential foreign currency, says that if
[00:04:46] this had not been done earlier, famine would have been certain
[00:04:50] during the war. God helped us. If
[00:04:54] this had not happened and the war had started, there would have been
[00:04:57] a shortage in the market.
[00:05:00] It was certain that we wouldn't find it in the market
[00:05:03] because we no longer had 28-toman dollars to give, and they wouldn't sell goods with
[00:05:06] free dollars. The sanctions, which in recent
[00:05:10] years have meant more high prices and poverty for the people,
[00:05:13] have poured billions of dollars into the pockets of intermediaries who are trusted
[00:05:17] by the government and during the sanctions sell Iranian oil in
[00:05:20] the black market and, by circumventing the sanctions, return the money
[00:05:24] indirectly to the country,
[00:05:28] but not always and not all the money.
[00:05:31] Government officials have repeatedly reported the disappearance of billions
[00:05:35] of dollars by these trusted individuals. If I could,
[00:05:38] suppose I could get a concession,
[00:05:42] get a dollar that the market had a difference,
[00:05:45] eventually, I would automatically get several billion dollars. We had to eliminate
[00:05:49] these. Apparently, Mr. Pezeshkian has not
[00:05:52] forgotten where the January protests started, the Tehran
[00:05:56] market, protests that were sparked by high prices and a livelihood
[00:06:00] crisis and quickly turned into the biggest internal
[00:06:04] crisis in the history of the Islamic Republic.
[00:06:07] With these
[00:06:10] pressures they are putting, they want to make people dissatisfied
[00:06:14] and, so to speak, force them
[00:06:17] to protest. The President here talks about the privatization
[00:06:20] of industries, another source to compensate for the
[00:06:24] budget deficit. Saipa and other
[00:06:28] different companies are now in the program so that we can transfer
[00:06:31] them as much as possible. In November
[00:06:34] 2019, when the government increased fuel prices to compensate for the budget
[00:06:38] deficit, it led to widespread protests in the country, which ended with
[00:06:42] the killing of hundreds of people. In the midst of the
[00:06:45] government's efforts to find new financial resources,
[00:06:49] oil exports from Kharg Island have practically
[00:06:52] stopped. This means that the US has put its foot on the chokehold
[00:06:55] of Iran's economy.
[00:06:59] Under the shadow of sanctions and war, many Iranian people are keeping
[00:07:02] their faces red with slaps. Apparently, the government is also
[00:07:06] struggling with a severe shortage of foreign currency. This raises
[00:07:10] many questions. Including, if Iran does not reach
[00:07:13] an agreement with the US and the sanctions are not lifted,
[00:07:17] where will the government get
[00:07:31] report. Mr. Pezeshkian also gave a report on the economic
[00:07:35] situation today, which was even more critical than before. He explicitly said
[00:07:39] that we have no money and cannot
[00:07:42] import goods. All paths are closed. We cannot even import
[00:07:45] gasoline this time. Do you think that the government
[00:07:49] can cover its expenses in this situation?
[00:07:52] Look,
[00:07:55] what Mr. Pezeshkian announced today
[00:07:59] is a very small part
[00:08:02] of the chaos and economic crisis that exists in Iran,
[00:08:05] and he announced it to the people as a report,
[00:08:09] while the people are rightly and
[00:08:13] harshly and bitterly dealing with all these issues and much bigger crises.
[00:08:16] The people are well aware of this issue,
[00:08:20] and fundamentally, these reports, part of which they falsely announce
[00:08:24] and conceal, all of these they blame on sanctions or
[00:08:27] war or these issues. The people know their worth, and in
[00:08:31] the past years, and especially even in the past months
[00:08:35] and before the start of the war, they witnessed what economic
[00:08:39] crisis was unfolding in the country, from shortages of energy
[00:08:42] carriers to foreign currency shortages and other issues. Now, Mr.
[00:08:46] Pezeshkian is deflecting today because there will be
[00:08:49] much more serious crises ahead. An economic tsunami will
[00:08:53] probably be ahead. The government of the Islamic Republic has faced
[00:08:57] a very big bankruptcy, and we have been
[00:09:00] witnessing it in recent days. The fact that he refuses
[00:09:04] to do so, the conflicts that exist in the power struggles, now the government, considering that
[00:09:07] the institution of the government is essentially the entire ruling structure
[00:09:11] in the Islamic Republic. With the crisis of war and the fact
[00:09:14] that its entire foundation and totality are facing destruction,
[00:09:18] and that it is better that it is possible that this entire structure and organization
[00:09:22] will face disintegration to provide for this issue, it has turned
[00:09:25] to other hidden ways that it had and
[00:09:28] through regional solutions that it entered through
[00:09:32] money laundering that it carried out through the smuggling channels that existed,
[00:09:35] and with being subjected to more sanctions, and with the blockade
[00:09:39] that it faced, illegal sales.
[00:10:08] One solution that some economists talk about
[00:10:11] that the government has used in these years is that,
[00:10:15] as they say, it has put its hand in the pockets of the people,
[00:10:19] for example, by increasing taxes or
[00:10:22] by printing banknotes, which has caused inflation, and
[00:10:25] inflation itself is the biggest cost that has been imposed
[00:10:28] on the people. Do you think that the government
[00:10:31] can cover its expenses and the costs of the war
[00:10:34] through these means?
[00:10:38] In any case, what we are witnessing now is that the prices of the majority
[00:10:42] of goods and public necessities and even
[00:10:45] basic goods in Iran are much more expensive than what
[00:10:49] they call the Persian Gulf region and even other
[00:10:52] countries. This means that providing
[00:10:55] goods in Iran, in terms of their equivalent foreign currency,
[00:10:59] whether dollar or euro, is much more expensive compared to other countries,
[00:11:03] and this clearly shows that both the government
[00:11:06] and other structures of the government, such as the Revolutionary Guard Corps
[00:11:09] and other sectors that are involved in brokering and corruption
[00:11:13] in the government, the corrupt systems that have created cartels in this regard,
[00:11:17] all of them sell and offer goods at several times the price
[00:11:20] to the people in the first stage. In some places, they try to create
[00:11:24] very significant monopolies.
[00:11:42] These revenues that are obtained from this way, or for example,
[00:11:45] from the increased prices of services that
[00:11:49] the government provides, such as the increase in electricity prices, which are services
[00:11:53] that it provides, can these really
[00:11:58] compensate for the huge expenses that the government has,
[00:12:01] for example, can it cover the salaries of employees
[00:12:05] and pensioners through this way?
[00:12:08] Absolutely not. Economists, that is,
[00:12:11] the biggest analysis in this regard, is that it is not possible
[00:12:14] with this type of income. That is why it is constantly
[00:12:18] being examined, and the reports that come out and the assessments that come out show
[00:12:22] that many banks are on the verge of bankruptcy. The reason
[00:12:25] is that the government takes many actions
[00:12:28] to print money and increase
[00:12:32] the amount of liquidity. As we know, very large economic
[00:12:35] enterprises are dependent on the government.
[00:12:38] The government owes a lot of money
[00:12:41] to them, and they have very heavy
[00:12:45] debts. This shows that the government of the Islamic
[00:12:49] Republic does not have the capacity to bear this heavy economic
[00:12:53] burden, and with very small revenues,
[00:12:56] such as revenues from increasing the price of electricity, water,
[00:13:00] and gas, which will be very heavy for the people to bear, it cannot carry its own
[00:13:04] burden and is on the verge of a major economic bankruptcy. Another
[00:13:07] problem that the government is currently facing is that
[00:13:11] it has also lost its foreign exchange
[00:13:14] revenues in a way, especially, for example, in the metals
[00:13:18] export sector, in the part that was damaged
[00:13:21] in the war. How can it replace these revenues?
[00:13:26] Look, experts need to examine this carefully because many of these
[00:13:29] revenues are not real revenues, and they are not
[00:13:33] even legal and transparent revenues. Many of these
[00:13:36] cases are subject to international sanctions by the United Nations, the Security Council,
[00:13:40] and also the US Treasury. That is, many of these
[00:13:44] cases cannot be legally exported,
[00:13:47] and if they announce statistics, sometimes they are very
[00:13:51] dark statistics. Many of them are brokering and smuggling activities
[00:13:55] that are carried out, or bartering that is sometimes
[00:13:58] done indirectly and at much lower prices with
[00:14:02] countries like China and these, which has now become much
[00:14:05] less with this naval blockade, and many
[00:14:09] of these, the costs that were incurred in this regard,
[00:14:13] included these instigations in the region, included
[00:14:17] the actions that these militias took under the title of, well,
[00:14:20] but now the government does not even have these revenues. That is,
[00:14:24] a part of its expenses, for example, from the export of
[00:14:27] metals and these things, it used to cover. Now, those are gone. What
[00:14:31] substitute does it have? How can it compensate for these?
[00:14:34] If you also published a part of
[00:14:37] it, look, in this press conference that Mr. Pezeshkian had today,
[00:14:41] he acknowledged that he does not even have the ability to continue
[00:14:44] another war, even its initial support. That is, soon the government
[00:14:48] of the Islamic Republic will have to take another
[00:14:52] action that they themselves call economic surgery, but.
[00:15:01] They will make energy much more expensive, and they will again proceed
[00:15:05] to issue banknotes to compensate for some
[00:15:09] of these costs, because they have no other productive
[00:15:12] and constructive solution and no
[00:15:24] that an agreement
[00:15:27] on Hormuz is near, Tehran insists that the reopening
[00:15:30] of this waterway depends on the US accepting its
[00:15:34] conditions. Abbas Araqchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, said that Tehran and
[00:15:38] Muscat have come close to an agreement
[00:15:41] on a new shipping route, but the opening of this
[00:15:44] waterway requires other conditions, including compensation for violations
[00:15:48] of the Islamabad agreement by the US. Meanwhile, Massoud
[00:15:51] Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, defended negotiations
[00:15:55] with the US to achieve
[00:16:11] conditions whose main
[00:16:14] point was that continuing the war is not
[00:16:17] beneficial for Iran's economy and Iran no longer has economic
[00:16:21] resilience in these
[00:16:24] war conditions. However, we see that despite
[00:16:27] these, the sound of these
[00:16:31] imbalances does not reach a certain extremist
[00:16:34] faction, and they do not change their course.
[00:16:39] What is the reason? I think the reason goes back to the different
[00:16:43] standards that these different groups have,
[00:16:47] and the root of the disagreement is precisely this. Look, today Mr.
[00:16:50] Pezeshkian confirmed the differences, although, for example, yesterday
[00:16:54] he denied the issue of his resignation, but regarding Mr.
[00:16:57] Zolqadr, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, he said that there
[00:17:01] are problems, we will solve them and then we will return
[00:17:05] to this issue. However,
[00:17:28] if you remember, a few years ago, Dr. Velayati, who was the chief advisor to the late leader of the Islamic Republic, advised the Iranian people to
[00:17:31] learn from the people of Yemen. The people of Yemen
[00:17:34] against the enemies.
[00:17:42] The standard that the groups opposing
[00:17:45] the agreement and insisting on continuing the
[00:17:49] war have is this. That is, in fact, until they bring
[00:17:53] the Iranian people to this state, in their opinion,
[00:17:57] it can still be continued. While Mr. Pezeshkian, as
[00:18:00] someone who manages the country's affairs, as the saying goes,
[00:18:04] holds the treasury and has to spend, sees
[00:18:07] that now more than 50% of the people have fallen
[00:18:10] below the poverty line, and the inflation
[00:18:13] of the past 80 years has been unprecedented,
[00:18:17] and the people have reached the threshold where they can no
[00:18:19] longer endure it. That is why
[00:18:23] some people, like Mr. Pezeshkian, Qalibaf,
[00:18:26] and Araqchi, say that the war must be ended here, and
[00:18:29] some dignity will also be achieved for the
[00:18:33] Islamic Republic. But the group that is opposite, like
[00:18:36] the hardliners and well, the extremists like
[00:18:40] Mohsen Rezaee and others, say that no, we can still
[00:18:43] continue the war, we can take revenge, and we can also
[00:18:47] gain more concessions. Well, that's the point. You mentioned
[00:18:51] that in the past, these same opponents
[00:18:54] existed, for example, there were many oppositions in the JCPOA
[00:18:58] negotiations, but the situation today is very different
[00:19:02] from that time. Many of those politicians
[00:19:05] are no longer there. Iran's situation is also different. Do you think
[00:19:09] that this group of hardline factions can create a
[00:19:13] stalemate in the negotiation process or
[00:19:16] decide about the war? Well,
[00:19:20] look, until now, they have created a stalemate and
[00:19:23] thrown obstacles. In the course of, in fact,
[00:19:27] after the agreement, we saw the shootings that took place
[00:19:31] in the Strait of Hormuz against ships. Again, a new
[00:19:34] round of war was, in fact, in the southern
[00:19:38] coast of the Persian Gulf, the Persian
[00:19:42] Gulf coast, was created. But anyway, both Iran and
[00:19:46] the US have progressed to the brink of a full-scale
[00:19:49] war again, similar to what happened in the 40-day or 12-day
[00:19:53] war. Therefore, they have this power. These
[00:19:57] obstacles, these, in fact,
[00:20:00] wrong analyses and miscalculations
[00:20:04] have always been present in this group. Look, the Islamic Republic, these are the same
[00:20:08] groups that have made the Islamic Republic more like a gambler
[00:20:12] who doesn't know when to leave the gambling table.
[00:20:15] If a gambler doesn't know this, like
[00:20:19] these hardliners who want to insist
[00:20:23] on the war, they will worsen the
[00:20:26] situation beyond the disaster that has already occurred. This is not
[00:20:30] the first time, as you said, even before the JCPOA,
[00:20:33] during the 8-year war between Iraq and Iran, these same extremists
[00:20:37] like Mohsen Rezaee were saying that if you give us money,
[00:20:41] we might, for example, if we get access to a nuclear
[00:20:45] bomb by 1992, defeat Iraq.
[00:20:48] Now, with the same wrong and illusory
[00:20:51] thinking, they want to impose this war on the people
[00:20:55] again and continue it. Mr. Toufighi, at that time,
[00:20:59] during these historical periods you referred
[00:21:02] to, the leader of the Islamic Republic acted as a
[00:21:06] brake. But now, how much has the absence of Mojtaba
[00:21:10] Khamenei exacerbated this situation? Do you think that these factions are
[00:21:14] supported, and conversely, does he also need the support
[00:21:18] of this group?
[00:21:20] Look, if Mojtaba Khamenei has learned a lesson from his
[00:21:24] father, provided that he is actually alive, and these
[00:21:27] messages, we can only say that he is appointed,
[00:21:31] because in fact, he has not been seen, nor has his voice
[00:21:35] been heard after the war. Therefore, if he has
[00:21:38] learned a lesson from his father, this very issue of
[00:21:41] treading a middle path, that is, he tries to have,
[00:21:44] for example, the hardliners with him, and he also tries
[00:21:48] to preserve those who are more
[00:21:51] moderate. The same approach of
[00:21:55] playing both sides is what we
[00:21:59] see, for example, on the one hand, the Revolutionary Guard Corps comes
[00:22:02] and says that the Leader agrees with the agreement.
[00:22:05] The agreement was with his consent. On the other hand,
[00:22:09] when he sends a message, he says that, in fact,
[00:22:12] I had a different opinion in principle. This
[00:22:16] intermediate situation, unfortunately, has
[00:22:19] been to its detriment. During Khamenei's time, it was the same.
[00:22:23] If you remember, the JCPOA, even in the years before the JCPOA,
[00:22:26] in the early years of the nuclear issue, during Khatami's time,
[00:22:30] the issue could have been resolved in a way, but they
[00:22:33] dragged it on so much, it continued to the point where it actually
[00:22:37] led to this war, and now the same approach
[00:22:41] and the same policy of these people who do
[00:22:44] not think about national interests have some ideological
[00:22:48] illusions, and they think that
[00:22:54] the cost of these ideological illusions has been paid by the Iranian
[00:22:58] people with their lives, their wealth, and
[00:23:01] even their future over the past 47
[00:23:05] years. The difference this time is that Iran's situation
[00:23:09] has entered a war and has lost many things.
[00:23:12] Even now, the war has costs, and Pezeshkian's government says
[00:23:16] it doesn't even have the money to meet the daily needs
[00:23:20] of the people, let alone the costs of the war. In this case,
[00:23:24] what do you think can satisfy these opposition groups?
[00:23:28] Look, these opposition
[00:23:31] groups usually
[00:23:33] sometimes try to play the role of a madman,
[00:23:37] and as Mr. Shariatmadari said, we should be
[00:23:40] like a car whose brakes are cut
[00:23:44] and steering wheel is cut, only accelerating.
[00:23:48] But with all this, we have seen that when
[00:23:51] the very principle of the system is in danger,
[00:23:55] and well, this can also
[00:23:58] be said that parts within the
[00:24:01] leadership's office,
[00:24:05] although it has not yet been formed, but
[00:24:07] its remnants largely exist.
[00:24:11] This balance, I think, if the issue
[00:24:14] of Mojtaba Khamenei's absence
[00:24:17] does not disrupt this balance,
[00:24:21] usually these hardliners stop at some point,
[00:24:24] and that point is the expediency of the system.
[00:24:28] But well, as you said, this is a war,
[00:24:32] and it is possible that in some circumstances, the other side, Mr.
[00:24:35] Trump, in his last tweet, if you remember,
[00:24:39] made a threat and said that, in fact, I will do
[00:24:43] something that has not happened since World War
[00:24:46] II. Well, many analysts said that such
[00:24:50] a thing has not happened in wars after World
[00:24:53] War II. The issue, for example, of using an atomic
[00:24:57] bomb or, anyway, new technologies or similar issues. Well,
[00:25:01] it is possible that in a miscalculation,
[00:25:04] these hardliners sometimes want to insist
[00:25:07] too much, and this miscalculation may
[00:25:11] actually make the situation very complicated.
[00:25:14] Of course, if only the Islamic Republic itself were destroyed, there would be no problem.
[00:25:18] The issue here is Iran's resources, Iran's infrastructure,
[00:25:31] Duns, the Vice President of the US, says that Tehran has assured
[00:25:35] Washington that it will allow the maximum possible
[00:25:38] amount of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. But the US
[00:25:41] will verify this promise of the Iranian government. This is
[00:25:45] while the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Revolutionary Guard
[00:25:48] Corps say that negotiations with Oman are not related
[00:25:51] to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the US must accept
[00:25:55] Iran's conditions for opening
[00:26:09] really is, that is, that there
[00:26:13] is no trust, but at the same
[00:26:15] time, there is a desire to reach
[00:26:19] an agreement. He says that until they actually
[00:26:22] see that the Strait of Hormuz is open and the same amount of
[00:26:26] oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz before
[00:26:29] the war is passing again, they
[00:26:33] will not really trust the statements
[00:26:37] of the officials of the Islamic Republic.
[00:26:40] Duns' argument is that, in fact,
[00:26:44] the two countries, Iran and Oman,
[00:26:46] should somehow maintain the security
[00:26:50] of ship traffic. And he even emphasizes
[00:26:53] that there is no talk of collecting
[00:26:56] tolls. We know that
[00:27:00] previously, officials of the Islamic Republic had said that they wanted
[00:27:03] to collect 5 to 7 percent in tolls.
[00:27:07] Throughout these negotiations, their emphasis
[00:27:10] was on collecting Iranian shipping tolls.
[00:27:13] Their conditions, which you talked about,
[00:27:16] are specifically the lifting of the naval blockade,
[00:27:20] the withdrawal of American forces from the region, and
[00:27:24] this is completely, in fact, the cessation
[00:27:26] of war with Iran and with Iran's
[00:27:29] proxy forces in the region. Therefore,
[00:27:33] despite all this, Mr. Duns comes and says
[00:27:37] that negotiations are moving towards the possibility of this agreement
[00:27:41] being reached, but they need to see in practice what happens.
[00:27:44] In a way, it shows that
[00:27:48] it is highly likely to be fifty-fifty,
[00:27:52] it may happen and it may not happen, and
[00:27:55] Washington still doesn't know
[00:27:58] what will happen to this agreement. Mr. Trump
[00:28:02] had previously said that he plays a direct
[00:28:06] role in these negotiations. Iranian officials say that Mr.
[00:28:10] Trump and the US are trying to somehow show that
[00:28:14] the US has no role in this matter and that Iran
[00:28:17] and Oman are making decisions. On the one hand, as you
[00:28:21] yourself pointed out, Duns says that they do not
[00:28:24] trust Iran much, but on the other hand,
[00:28:28] in recent days, we have heard many times that various US officials say that the negotiations are going well.
[00:28:37] What is the view in the US
[00:28:40] on these negotiations with Iran? It
[00:28:43] seems that a group, even among those who are actually
[00:28:47] supporters of Mr. Trump, say that this must happen at all costs
[00:28:51] and this issue must be resolved.
[00:28:54] But another group views the
[00:28:58] situation with great pessimism. An example is the statements
[00:29:01] of Mark Esper, the former Secretary of Defense
[00:29:04] in America during Mr. Trump's first administration. Of course, he was dismissed
[00:29:08] by Mr. Trump himself. He
[00:29:11] believes that delegating the security
[00:29:14] and control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran and Oman is a very
[00:29:18] dangerous
[00:29:20] situation. From this ambiguous situation where America's
[00:29:23] role in these negotiations is not clear, he criticizes
[00:29:27] a bit. In this interview, he says we don't know if America really had a
[00:29:31] part in this agreement
[00:29:35] or if America's demands were also taken into consideration. Therefore, there are concerns
[00:29:38] from this side that if America completely
[00:29:42] hands over control to Iran and
[00:29:45] Oman, it will in fact lose in this
[00:29:48] front. Of course, people like Mark Esper. Mark Esper was someone
[00:29:52] who was not very happy with the initial memorandum
[00:29:56] of understanding and believed that Donald Trump should withdraw
[00:29:59] from that memorandum. People like him
[00:30:04] generally view the negotiations with the Islamic Republic with suspicion
[00:30:07] and believe that
[00:30:10] there should be a full-fledged military
[00:30:13] confrontation.
[00:30:24] the Strait of Hormuz, where you can now practically see
[00:30:28] that the number of vessels and tankers that are
[00:30:31] passing through this strait is almost
[00:30:34] very, very negligible. Iran and Oman have been
[00:30:38] negotiating for days over a mechanism to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,
[00:30:42] but now Iran has also put new conditions
[00:30:46] on the table. As
[00:30:49] Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the Secretary of the Supreme National
[00:30:53] Security Council, stated in his statement, he has set
[00:30:56] conditions that are somewhat similar to the Pakistan
[00:30:59] memorandum of understanding, but a bit more extensive in that regard.