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20260915 223000 UTC
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[00:02:57] Good evening and tonight's a spotlight. Mark 200 days
[00:03:01] since the United States and Israel launched a war of aggression against
[00:03:05] Iran, a conflict that began with the stated objective
[00:03:08] of of regime change,
[00:03:10] of crippling Iran's strategic capabilities and weakening its
[00:03:14] of leadership, but has since evolved into a prolonged
[00:03:17] of confrontation with consequences stretching across West Asia and the global
[00:03:21] economy. 200 days on, Iran remains at
[00:03:24] war, its political and military structures remain intact
[00:03:28] and the conflict has expanded for straight of removes, the economic pressure
[00:03:32] on Iran and the growing costs being absorbed by the United States
[00:03:36] and its allies. The question is no longer simply what
[00:03:40] happened during the first days of war. The bigger question is
[00:03:44] what these
[00:03:45] of 200 days have actually demonstrated about military power,
[00:03:49] of national resilience, deterrence, and a changing balance
[00:03:53] of power in the region.
[00:03:58] of of That's what we'll be discussing tonight with our guests.
[00:04:02] Muhammad John Hussain,
[00:04:04] of journalist and political analyst joining us from the
[00:04:06] of Iranian of capital of
[00:04:08] of of Tehran.
[00:04:12] And Shaw, author and
[00:04:14] of commentator joined us from the city of
[00:04:16] Belfast.
[00:04:20] Gentlemen, both of you, thank you so much for joining me at this
[00:04:24] hour. Let me begin uh with Mr. Hussein,
[00:04:27] our guest in Tehran. Well, the beginning of this war, mr. saying,
[00:04:31] the United States and Israel uh appear to believe that
[00:04:35] eliminating the head um or senior
[00:04:39] political insecurity figures and also Iran's leader
[00:04:43] ayatullah
[00:04:44] of sayid will lead to the situation that they wanted.
[00:04:48] um, right now we are having quite the opposite after 200
[00:04:52] days, your assessments on these 200 days
[00:04:55] overall, well thank you for having me here first of
[00:04:59] all, and Throughout these 200 days you've seen how the people of Iran
[00:05:03] have stood in the squares, in the
[00:05:05] of circles, a they have stood in the streets, they have been in
[00:05:08] a support
[00:05:09] of their government, and the assessment that the Iranians would somehow come
[00:05:12] out and follow whatever Trump was saying, was proven to be
[00:05:16] wrong from the first day. We saw that when they targeted the senior
[00:05:20] leadership of Iran when they targeted the supreme leader. We saw
[00:05:24] that despite Iran not having a supreme leader at that time, people were
[00:05:27] standing in the streets and chanting in favor the military forces who were holding front
[00:05:31] in Mosaiac defense formations without any
[00:05:34] particularly specific instructions regarding what to do, although they
[00:05:38] had cohesion with the decision makers, but we saw how the people stood.
[00:05:42] "and these 200 days demonstrate how people of a country
[00:05:46] can through resilience, through strength and how their military through
[00:05:50] might can withstand any the pressures being put forward
[00:05:54] to them, any any efforts to destabilize them, any wars that can be
[00:05:58] engaged against them by the greatest so callalled superpower in the world,
[00:06:01] and we saw that that so callalled greatest superpower in the world has turned out to be
[00:06:05] paper tiger, and we see how they themselves have got
[00:06:09] themselves stuck in the situation where they are now trying" to leave and the only
[00:06:13] way out is for them to listen to the conditions that have been put forward by
[00:06:16] Iran and to follow those instructions and to follow those
[00:06:20] conditions and to follow the agreement that was made with Iran when the
[00:06:24] Islamabad MOU happened
[00:06:25] so I think that these 200 days summarize how the entire world
[00:06:29] has changed in its in its ideology in its assessment as to
[00:06:33] how the world in fact works because a country like Iran which was
[00:06:37] thought of to be a weak state is now proving to to be a superpower in the
[00:06:41] world and people are still standing in the streets as we
[00:06:44] speak. Absolutely. Mr. Shoth. I wanted to put the same
[00:06:48] question to you, how big of a
[00:06:51] miscalculation would you say the US anders
[00:06:55] regime have gone through according to the past 200
[00:06:59] nights? Hello to you and your guests and your
[00:07:02] audience. I want to refer to the media in the
[00:07:05] United States of America and the west itself. Their assessment,
[00:07:09] their main media out. it's
[00:07:12] like the wall street journals, the New York Times
[00:07:16] and the rest them and Washington Post, all them they they they
[00:07:20] talk about this with the interviews with politicians
[00:07:23] and American influencers as
[00:07:27] well in there
[00:07:28] and strategic analys, they say how they
[00:07:31] were shocked, even some officials in from
[00:07:35] administration themselves, how shocked they were
[00:07:38] from the resistance that Iran showed, they thought...
[00:07:43] Trump, he should he thought in few days,
[00:07:47] according to the Musad and Netanyahu's assessment, the
[00:07:50] depectate the the leadership and that's it, and then the
[00:07:54] country will will collapse. They were astonished
[00:07:58] to see the late
[00:08:01] martterat built
[00:08:04] an over so institutions in the
[00:08:07] country, layer after layer of that institution, we seen them
[00:08:11] action. holding the country intact, their
[00:08:15] leadership in politics and civil affairs in in
[00:08:19] military defense, and all of that taking places
[00:08:22] in and very swiftly and harmony. Iran was
[00:08:26] quickly answering and standing against one the
[00:08:30] mightest attacks and criminal wars ever been weighed
[00:08:34] in history. They thought they gna do
[00:08:36] a shock and baghdad 2003
[00:08:40] style, and that's it. the Iran like
[00:08:43] house of cards would collapse, we saw the west is becoming
[00:08:47] like house of cards and the zianist entity as well and collapse,
[00:08:51] and they're the one who their own military
[00:08:54] assets is not available to defend them,
[00:08:58] we saw their own aircraft carriers
[00:09:01] leaven the region
[00:09:03] totally in rus, we heard
[00:09:07] of news their own personals in these
[00:09:10] military destroyers and aircraft car is
[00:09:13] committing suicide, they
[00:09:15] cannot lost, we see their logistic lines coming from
[00:09:19] the the middle the Indian ocean insted of
[00:09:23] Bahrain and Qatar and this region to take
[00:09:27] a long long germ is to arrive to feed
[00:09:31] these soldiers in their ships who
[00:09:34] are the receiving little to what they used
[00:09:38] to to to receive before so the whole thing is
[00:09:42] put the pictures back in its
[00:09:46] right perspective, there is nation who standing
[00:09:50] together, united behind their leadership, they are
[00:09:53] outrage and the seeing their country and civil
[00:09:56] infrastructure be bombarded, their leadership being
[00:09:59] assassinated by a country acclaiming they are leading
[00:10:03] the free world, the western free world and they seen them as
[00:10:07] a criminal and and terrorist who is
[00:10:11] attacking? peaceful people, that is exactly
[00:10:15] right. Mr. Hussein, we have seen a large
[00:10:18] funeral processions after the morchism of senior
[00:10:22] security and military officials. really
[00:10:25] speaking, the Iran's late leader Ali
[00:10:28] Khamenei, which more than 40 million people attended his
[00:10:32] funeral processions, it wasn't only the biggest funeral procession
[00:10:36] in recorded history, it was the biggest um recorded uh
[00:10:40] in recorded history, the largest human gathering that we have
[00:10:44] witnessed so far. To what extent have those
[00:10:48] final ceremonies and also the nighty rallies that have been going
[00:10:52] on for the past 200 nights have been showing. you the
[00:10:56] level of miscalculation by the enemies of Iran
[00:10:58] a
[00:11:03] deliberate formation by the zianist regime to say through different
[00:11:06] institutions that they fund through different channels and united
[00:11:10] states agency for global media and the national endowment for democracy of course play their part
[00:11:14] in manufacturing agenda and manufacturing propaganda that
[00:11:18] the Iranians are perhaps not happy with their country and as you correctly pointed
[00:11:22] out is the largest gathering ever to have happened. across history and
[00:11:26] we saw with our with our own eyes how it was even difficult to
[00:11:29] breathe being in those spaces and it was very well managed by the Iranians otherwise
[00:11:33] otherwise they would have been
[00:11:34] a threat of stamped over there there was so much crowd and all the
[00:11:38] journalists who were there from different countries around the world looked at the entire
[00:11:41] situation with their own eyes as to how many people there were so it has become
[00:11:45] an un indisputable fact that Iranians are for
[00:11:49] their government Iranians are in support their leadership and they are standing
[00:11:53] together as a united country. "the miscalculation, I think in
[00:11:57] part was not so much with the US administration officials,
[00:12:01] I think that they were more so pressurized by by the
[00:12:05] Israeli regime and by them that you know perhaps they might be
[00:12:08] exposed to other things, they might be exposed to leverages and since
[00:12:12] Apac controls 300 more than 355 members the congress in the
[00:12:16] United States, I think that they sort of pushed the United States into
[00:12:20] this war whilst the United States clearly knew that
[00:12:24] perhaps..." "the situation is not as the Israelies tell them, so
[00:12:28] I think that the leaders in the United States and the
[00:12:31] Israelis have pushed the the people the United States
[00:12:34] into into a place where right now people are struggling over there with basic
[00:12:38] necessities. Donald Trump has stated that he cannot afford medicaid, medicare,
[00:12:42] day care, all these things. In fact, the their economy is under a
[00:12:46] high level of debt, 40 trillion dollars above debt they have right now,
[00:12:50] prices of fuel and gasoline in California for example, you
[00:12:54] saw that they reached..."
[00:12:55] to do 9.99 dollars, theoretically they can't grow more,
[00:12:59] so we see right now how their miscalculations or how their deliberate
[00:13:02] attempts to do something that they perhaps understood that cannot happen
[00:13:06] and yet they took their chance, we see how the American people are suffering,
[00:13:10] so I feel, I personally feel bad not just for whatever
[00:13:14] happened in the region, but because the fact that the people the United States
[00:13:18] who are yet again protesting against their government, who do not stand with what their
[00:13:22] government is doing, they are the ones who are suffer. and they are the ones who are
[00:13:26] basically paying for all the decisions that the American administration is doing and
[00:13:30] I think the American people realize now as to how the American foreign
[00:13:34] policy is not only tilted but
[00:13:36] it is entrenched with the Israeli interests and their
[00:13:40] expansionist plans in the region so I think that that
[00:13:43] miscalculation with which they they made earlier perhaps
[00:13:47] they they have not yet understood their lesson and perhaps they might plan
[00:13:51] to do something against Iran but I I know for fact that this will only
[00:13:55] prove to be for at their own peril and they will again
[00:13:58] understand that whatever they're thinking about Iran and whatever they think about Iranian
[00:14:02] people is wrong. Absolutely. Mr. Shoth,
[00:14:06] I'm interested in knowing what has been the effects
[00:14:10] the past 200 days on regional and
[00:14:14] global balance of power. This is very important
[00:14:18] question, the 200 days they
[00:14:21] showed how a united people. behind their
[00:14:25] leadership and those people are so proud their
[00:14:29] achievement, let me put it this way,
[00:14:33] this this 200 days they change
[00:14:37] the whole prospective the geopolitics
[00:14:41] regionally and internationally. today
[00:14:44] if i want to say it this way, there is few
[00:14:48] countries who if you wage on them that such a war,
[00:14:52] maybe they can last, maybe it's china, maybe
[00:14:55] Russia and the United States of America and now Iran, the same
[00:14:59] countries are the only countries in the world who
[00:15:03] they can say food wise
[00:15:06] and regional, I mean
[00:15:09] in domestic production, they are
[00:15:13] self-sufficient like Iran, China,
[00:15:17] the Russia and the United States of America, these countries can, if they
[00:15:21] lock their own borders, they can survive for for.
[00:15:25] period of time while the fighting, this is the only four
[00:15:28] countries in the world, Iran, one them, today Iran
[00:15:32] is moved from regional player to
[00:15:36] a global player. talking about the new
[00:15:40] the new political system and the international order
[00:15:44] after this war will be different, what is before that war
[00:15:48] is not like when like today or tomorrow, it's totally
[00:15:52] different, and all of that came didn't come from nowhere,
[00:15:55] this is came from revolution happened in
[00:15:58] 1979, it started building schools,
[00:16:02] building universities, research centers,
[00:16:05] educating the women and de man in the country,
[00:16:09] eliminating all kind of backwardness in that
[00:16:13] country, giving power and empowering the people,
[00:16:17] and from there we can see, I heard, I said that
[00:16:20] before, but I want to say it again, I heard and a
[00:16:24] Japanese well known thinker and academic
[00:16:28] saying in research, today Japan is number
[00:16:32] 13 in the country in research, scientific research institutions,
[00:16:36] Iran is number 12. Iran is head of Japan today, if
[00:16:39] you look at Iran today, Iran in nanotechnology, in
[00:16:43] space technology, it's it puts its own satellite
[00:16:46] systems by its own indigenous rockets in
[00:16:50] orbit. Iran is it, it
[00:16:52] have its own satellites who's watching all over the
[00:16:55] region, and this is how Iran can spot what the Americans doing,
[00:16:59] and this is how Iran can target its own its
[00:17:03] own weaponry to be within even zero.
[00:17:07] meter accuracy in there, so all of that came
[00:17:11] from educated nation, it's the leadership the revolution
[00:17:15] invested heavily in developing this country while it's
[00:17:19] been bloccaded and beseed by the the western
[00:17:23] countries who thought they lost a milking cow, the
[00:17:27] shah of Iran used to provide for the west, let me say the last point
[00:17:30] in here, sharan used to supply the zinis
[00:17:34] entity with the free oil, that free... used to
[00:17:38] attack all the Arab countries in that
[00:17:41] region. Absolutely. Thank you so much for those
[00:17:44] insights, Mr. Shath. I'm going to come back to that. Mr.
[00:17:48] Hussein, the Pentagon Inspector General has reported
[00:17:51] major US munitions shortfall. After the first
[00:17:55] months of this confrontation with Iran saying with more than
[00:17:59] 22 billion dollars worth of munitions only
[00:18:02] expended. This shows us the level of economic
[00:18:06] expenditure that the US. has been um allocating to this
[00:18:10] war, we do not know the exact numbers in the past 200 days, yet
[00:18:14] again you are saying that they are still thinking about
[00:18:17] another round of confrontation with Iran, how would you say that will
[00:18:21] look like in the future? that interceptors have fallen perhaps by
[00:18:24] 80%, whilst the Israeli regime has not used their
[00:18:28] own interceptors, they have relied on the United States and the basis in the Middle
[00:18:32] East to provide cover for them, and we see now not only that that
[00:18:36] their interceptors have shollen. but also their bases have been hit really
[00:18:39] hard. Dr. Abbas Arakshi when he very recently when he tweeted we
[00:18:43] saw that tweet and we we saw the report from the Pentagon that stated that
[00:18:47] hundreds of military structures were destroyed by Iran and effectively
[00:18:51] 20 the bases according to their own news websites, for example
[00:18:55] media outlets like BBC and New York Times, they themselves say that 20
[00:18:59] bases have been destroyed, the CIA center, the headquarters in
[00:19:03] Riyadh has been destroyed, the United States if it chooses to
[00:19:06] go... for another round and I think that there is some
[00:19:10] likelihood that they might be they might be thinking about it, but I think that
[00:19:13] again this is this is a miscalculation because if they try to
[00:19:17] do so and if for example they try to you know look
[00:19:20] at kulang and they try to do something they
[00:19:24] perhaps do not yet realize how the response the Iranians will be,
[00:19:28] they don't know so far that whatever the Iranian generals have been saying that the
[00:19:32] Iran has not used its new technology, they have not revealed their new weapons, many
[00:19:36] the weapons have not been tested even. so I think that this miscalculation that they
[00:19:40] will take, this will this will take the war outside the region
[00:19:43] as stated previously by many the leaders, so I think that another
[00:19:47] miscalculation would be detrimental for the United States and that will be the last
[00:19:51] push for the dedollarization all around the
[00:19:54] globe and we will see a massive economic crisis for the United States
[00:19:58] itself, because the dollar stands on credibility and it stands on all of
[00:20:02] this confidence that 1974 agreement has provided.
[00:20:06] Thank you so much for your. insights and those were Mohammed John Hossain journalist
[00:20:10] and political analyst join us from the city of Tehran and Saib
[00:20:13] Shath author and commentator joining us from the city of Belfast. Thank you
[00:20:17] both for your insights tonight and
[00:20:19] that brings us to the end of this edition over a spotlight program. Thank you so much for
[00:20:23] joining us and
[00:20:24] bye-bye.
[00:20:42] This week on expose what happens when the headlines stop telling the whole
[00:20:46] story when CNN rewrites the chronology of a war when
[00:20:50] military commandants warn that the conflict is becoming
[00:20:53] unsustainable when social media turns the spotlight on Washington's
[00:20:57] loyalty to zionus Israel when Jordan pays the price for
[00:21:00] hosting foreign forces when the numbers expose what political
[00:21:04] speeches try to conceal. Expose this week follows the
[00:21:08] story across the platforms with one question: who benefits
[00:21:12] from the story we are being told and who pays the
[00:21:15] price? American lies exposed this week on
[00:21:18] exposed.
[00:23:05] The question now circulating through business and political circles around the
[00:23:09] world is this: does Iran have the right to charge ships for passing
[00:23:13] through the straight of hormoz? The answer is not simple: Hormus is
[00:23:17] natural international straight, but does being... natural mean
[00:23:20] being cost-free, the modern world still runs on maritime
[00:23:24] transport. more than 80% of global trade moves by
[00:23:28] sea, oil, gas, food, metals,
[00:23:31] medicine, cars, industrial components, and consumer
[00:23:35] goods, all travel between continents by ship. in other words, the
[00:23:39] backbone of global trade is still shipping, and these vast oceans
[00:23:43] depend a handful of narrow, highly sensitive passages, the
[00:23:47] suez canal, the Panama Canal, Bab el
[00:23:51] Mandeb, the straight of Malaca,
[00:23:54] Gibraltar, and the straight of Hormus, the
[00:23:57] energy artery the Persian Gulf. Some these roots are
[00:24:01] artificial, they were once land, then transformed into waterways
[00:24:05] through massive human investment. Sues and Panama are clear
[00:24:09] examples, giant engineering projects built and operated
[00:24:13] through excavation, dredging, traffic management, constant
[00:24:16] maintenance, and complex infrastructure. That
[00:24:19] is why... my passage through them is not free, but the story of
[00:24:23] Sweez is not only economic, it is deeply
[00:24:26] political. For years, Britain and France benefited from the canal's
[00:24:30] revenues. In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasir
[00:24:34] nationalized the Sues Canal and declared that waterway
[00:24:38] located on Egyptian soil had to be under Egyptian
[00:24:41] sovereignty, despite the military attack launched by Israel, Britain and
[00:24:45] France to reverse that has passed the $10 billion dollar mark,
[00:24:49] but not all choke points. points are artificial, some are natural, such as the
[00:24:52] Bosperos and the Dardinels in Turkey, the straight of
[00:24:56] Malacca, Gibraltar, and the straight of
[00:25:00] Hormus. In natural straights, states generally
[00:25:04] cannot charge vessels simply for the active passage in the same way
[00:25:08] road tool is collected, but that does not mean these roots carry
[00:25:11] no costs. In many such passages, fees are collected for
[00:25:15] specific services, navigational assistance, lighthouse
[00:25:19] services. Search and rescue,
[00:25:22] pilotage, tug support, port
[00:25:25] management, traffic control, and environmental
[00:25:29] protection. Now return to Hormus. The straight of
[00:25:33] Hormus is one the busiest and most sensitive maritime roots on
[00:25:37] earth. Every day, around 200 vessels may pass through
[00:25:41] this narrow corridor, oil tankers, LNG
[00:25:44] carriers, chemical tankers, container ships, and
[00:25:48] even naval vessels. In such an environment, a collision
[00:25:52] between two ships is not simple accident. Lives can
[00:25:56] be put at risk, chipping lanes can be disrupted, millions of
[00:26:00] dollars in damage can occur. Oil, fuel or chemicals
[00:26:04] can spill into the waters the Persian Gulf. This is not two
[00:26:08] cars scraping bumpers a street. It can become an
[00:26:12] environmental and economic crisis, but unlike
[00:26:15] cars, massive vessels need significant time,
[00:26:18] distance, and coordination to change course or come to a full
[00:26:22] stop. That is why passage
[00:26:26] through Hormus requires constant management. Just like
[00:26:29] crowded urban road, the straight of Hormus. needs designated
[00:26:33] inbound and outbound lanes, traffic separation
[00:26:37] zones, maritime warnings, coastal
[00:26:40] monitoring, radio coordination, and
[00:26:43] crisis management mechanisms. For years, Iran
[00:26:47] and Oman, as the coastal states the straight have carried
[00:26:51] major share of this responsibility. While the global
[00:26:54] economy has benefited from this route, much the burden has remained
[00:26:58] with the region: air and water pollution, the risk of fuel.
[00:27:02] spills, possible collisions, search and rescue
[00:27:06] operations, wider security and
[00:27:10] environmental consequences. In this context, Iran's
[00:27:14] question becomes easier to understand, is it reasonable for the
[00:27:18] world to benefit from vital straight without contributing to the cost of
[00:27:22] keeping it safe? And more importantly, is it fair for countries that
[00:27:25] depend on the security of this route to impose political pressure,
[00:27:29] economic sanctions and even war on Iran? while still
[00:27:33] expecting essential services in this corridor to continue free of
[00:27:37] charge. From Iran's perspective, the ear of providing
[00:27:41] such services without compensation is over. This does not
[00:27:44] mean closing maritime roots or using the straight of hormous as a
[00:27:48] weapon. It means creating a transparent, legal and predictable
[00:27:52] mechanism for sharing the costs the services that keep this route
[00:27:56] safe and usable. If Suez and Panama collect fees for their
[00:28:00] artificial waterways and if some'. natural straits also
[00:28:04] have financial mechanisms for safety related services,
[00:28:08] then the straight of Hormus cannot be treated forever as a completely free
[00:28:12] route. The fact that Hormus is natural or international does not
[00:28:15] exempted from the costs of management and protection, and its
[00:28:19] strategic importance is exactly why financing its safety and
[00:28:22] management must be taken
[00:28:24] seriously.
[00:30:02] Press TV Headlines Iran says a Pentagon report on the damage done to US
[00:30:06] military assets in the region is just the tip the iceberg
[00:30:10] and uh real figures much
[00:30:12] higher.
[00:30:16] A new report says U.S. aggression against Iran has cost
[00:30:20] $38 billion dollars so far and