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20260917 223000 UTC
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[00:03:05] Good evening, more than six months into the US and is already war on
[00:03:08] Iran, the
[00:03:10] a war is raising a fundamental question, has the United States
[00:03:13] realized that its war against Iran is not going to serve
[00:03:17] a neither in the interests of Donald Trump nor those
[00:03:20] of the American people. Washington and TV waged the war away
[00:03:24] enjoying overwhelming advantages in their airpower,
[00:03:27] intelligence and precision weapons, but Iran has to spend months
[00:03:31] adapting, developing new tactics, strengthening its
[00:03:35] air defenses, continuing missile and drone production and using
[00:03:38] asymmetric warfare to impose costs a far
[00:03:42] more technologically advanced opponent,
[00:03:46] and the pressure is no longer limited to the battlefield, the disruption of district
[00:03:50] of remoz is affecting global energy markets while Washington
[00:03:54] of continues to maintain tens of thousands of troops
[00:03:57] across the region, so what has he? learned from this war
[00:04:01] and how has it changed the American military
[00:04:04] calculations? That's what we'll be discussing tonight with our guests, but
[00:04:08] before I introduce the guest to you, let me bring in Press TV's political
[00:04:12] correspondents Homira Ahad to bring us up to
[00:04:15] of speed on the latest when it comes to Iran's
[00:04:19] military and combat readiness.
[00:04:22] Yeah, what we have been hearing in the last few months specifically from
[00:04:26] Donald Trump is that Iran's armies at the base at the... bottom
[00:04:30] of the sea iran is not having the capability retaliate, they
[00:04:34] are do not have funds to pay to their army
[00:04:36] of and in recently there was an interview
[00:04:39] a press con
[00:04:40] has been doing in these months and how Iran has been
[00:04:44] able to retaliate, how it has been able to improve its military
[00:04:48] capabilities.
[00:04:49] we recently had
[00:04:50] a report from the inspector journal
[00:04:53] of the war ministry of united states and according to that report which was
[00:04:57] from 28 february to 30th. June, it did
[00:05:01] not include the three months from 30th June, so till
[00:05:05] 30th June it is saying 30 MQ
[00:05:09] nine drones were 10, we have KC13. five
[00:05:13] we have Apache helicopter and the
[00:05:16] bases, the bases in the region have also been attacked during all
[00:05:20] these months and the report itself said that hundreds
[00:05:23] of buildings have been destroyed in these bases. now for our
[00:05:27] viewers to know these bases are cities in itself, so hundreds
[00:05:31] of buildings being destroyed in these bases means these bases
[00:05:35] are now almost non-functional and then we also had
[00:05:39] statements from different military... officials the
[00:05:43] United States saying that it is very difficult to rebuild these bases as
[00:05:47] as it will cost billions of dollars, so now when a military which according
[00:05:51] to Donald Trump does not have the strength which is at the bottom the sea
[00:05:55] has been able to incur so much of damage
[00:05:58] after the 15 day war in June,
[00:06:02] we can understand how prepared now it was
[00:06:06] during the 40-day war and even after the 40-day war it has
[00:06:09] impurised its capabilities recently. we saw one
[00:06:13] the smartest submarines the US being
[00:06:17] captured by Iran, so that is also one the
[00:06:21] important examples to show how Iran has been
[00:06:24] able to strengthen its military and
[00:06:28] you know incur huge damage to one the so-called mightiest
[00:06:32] military powers the world. Thank you so much Amira
[00:06:36] for that update and now onto our
[00:06:38] guests.
[00:06:47] We have Kevin Barret, editor at Anneles Tribune
[00:06:51] join us from Montana to
[00:06:53] US
[00:06:57] and Jahangir Mohammed, director of Center for Muslim Affairs, joining
[00:07:01] us from the city of Manchester, gentlemen,
[00:07:05] thank you so much for joining me in this spotlight program, we're going to
[00:07:09] begin with Mr. Barret, um, nearly... seven
[00:07:13] months into this war, Mr. Barretts, what has Iran learned in your
[00:07:17] opinion about how much of a military and
[00:07:21] combat is US capable of? yes, I
[00:07:25] think there are reports that Iranian
[00:07:28] military experts and officers,
[00:07:32] including high-level people, have been
[00:07:36] actually pleasantly
[00:07:38] surprised by the
[00:07:41] non-capability the... the americans and by their own
[00:07:45] capability to achieve their strategic
[00:07:47] goals, the the
[00:07:50] asymmetrical equation here is working in
[00:07:54] Iran's favor, the Americans have
[00:07:57] parked large number of bases around the
[00:08:00] region, and these bases are on flat land,
[00:08:04] they're not protected by topography, mountains,
[00:08:07] etc., and they're very nice, juicy
[00:08:11] targets. for Iranian missiles and drones, which are
[00:08:15] themselves protected, they're located deep
[00:08:19] underground, and the manufacturing facilities are also well
[00:08:22] protected, so we have
[00:08:25] this asymmetry between an American
[00:08:29] force that is vulnerable,
[00:08:32] and and Iranian force that is massively less
[00:08:35] vulnerable, including the Iranian navy with its
[00:08:39] ability to put its various kinds of assets,
[00:08:43] including these small speed boats, which are really hard to go
[00:08:46] after um, in these uh kind of uh crevices
[00:08:50] and uh into the shoreline where it's up against the mountains and
[00:08:53] so Iran has leveraged its topography brilliantly in this
[00:08:57] asymmetrical warfare uh and has succeeded in
[00:09:01] badly damaging in rendering largely
[00:09:03] unusable uh high percentage the American bases
[00:09:07] in the region, the Americans have basically retreated all the way to
[00:09:10] Jordan and then they've been... founded there and the next place they'll retreat
[00:09:14] to may be occupied Palestine (aka) the
[00:09:18] zionist entity, and I don't think Iran will have any
[00:09:22] compunctions about destroying US bases there either, along
[00:09:26] with perhaps aspects the zionist
[00:09:29] entities, genocidal military machine,
[00:09:32] so and this is not just some perspective that we're
[00:09:36] people will hear here on Press TV, they'll hear
[00:09:39] this in mainstream analysis in the United states,
[00:09:43] there's general agreement, even by such
[00:09:46] neo-conservatives as Robert Kagan, that this war has been
[00:09:50] a complete catastrophe for the United States and and for
[00:09:54] its uh, its junior or perhaps senior partner,
[00:09:58] Israel, and that essentially the United States has
[00:10:01] has very badly lost, it's the most significant defeat since World War
[00:10:05] II, and the longer the USA is, the worse it will get, so the
[00:10:09] Iranian planners have learned that all their
[00:10:12] planning worked out at least as well as
[00:10:16] they had expected, that's right, now let me bring in Mr.
[00:10:20] Muhammad our guest and the city of Manchester as well,
[00:10:24] your... thoughts on the same question, Mr. Muhammad, how would you say that Tahon has
[00:10:28] adapted its military strategy to the US
[00:10:32] and how it fights? um, and when it comes to
[00:10:36] the latest um updates that we have had, as our political
[00:10:40] correspondent also said, Iran brought down today
[00:10:43] another MQ9 drone which brings the number uh
[00:10:47] to more than 40, the total number of MQ9 drones that have been
[00:10:51] shot down by the Iranian armed forces,
[00:10:55] more than 50, I'm sorry, um, which is according to some estimates,
[00:10:59] roughly 25% the US reaper fleet. Your
[00:11:03] thoughts on that? Well, I think
[00:11:06] Iran strategy is not
[00:11:10] really just a product the current
[00:11:14] situation. I think Iran has
[00:11:18] long prepared for war with
[00:11:21] Israel and the United States and it's probably the only.
[00:11:25] country on the planet that is properly prepared for a
[00:11:29] war with the United States and Israel and
[00:11:32] it's learned from the United States
[00:11:36] strategy in Iraq and other
[00:11:39] countries and to call the United
[00:11:42] States military having a strategy, I
[00:11:46] think basically
[00:11:48] the the US only ever had one strategy like
[00:11:51] Israel, it's mass casualties, but
[00:11:55] from the air, total destruction, and if
[00:11:59] you're not prepared for that, then of course that's
[00:12:03] very painful and that will lead to
[00:12:06] people and regimes
[00:12:09] collapsing. Iran obviously is
[00:12:12] watched that and has prepared its missile
[00:12:15] strategy, it's defense, it's underground
[00:12:19] strategy, so
[00:12:23] the current strategies are... product of long-term
[00:12:26] planning and recognition the
[00:12:30] enemies weaknesses and strengths and
[00:12:34] in reality
[00:12:35] you know these powers
[00:12:38] are like the US are just mass murderers, they don't care about human
[00:12:42] life and you know they don't
[00:12:45] care about theft and looting and
[00:12:49] destruction of property, they may have international rules
[00:12:53] and order but they don't apply the... to themselves,
[00:12:56] so Iran and the only ways really the US we
[00:13:00] know and the west retreat from
[00:13:04] wars is either through loss of lives, body
[00:13:08] bags, or through economic loss and I think
[00:13:11] Iran has played its cards very
[00:13:15] well and it's recognized that destruction
[00:13:19] of military capacity the United
[00:13:22] States coupled with with strategic
[00:13:26] patience and then now preemptive strikes
[00:13:29] and loss of military
[00:13:33] equipment, cost imposing
[00:13:36] warfare leading
[00:13:39] economic loss and as well as the impact on the
[00:13:43] global economy,
[00:13:45] it is the achiles heel as well as
[00:13:49] lives, so clearly Iran cannot hit the
[00:13:53] US uh... and
[00:13:55] obviously um it's adopted much better
[00:13:59] strategy which is to um
[00:14:03] to recognize what its weaknesses are
[00:14:06] and defend itself against what
[00:14:09] how how it normally fights so i think
[00:14:13] Iran has has fought an intelligent
[00:14:16] war and uh that
[00:14:19] has brought down the sort of
[00:14:23] us and power that it
[00:14:27] normally demonstrates by just crushing
[00:14:31] crushing others, absolutely. um, kevin,
[00:14:35] when it comes to sustainability of this way of
[00:14:38] fighting, which side would you say can sustain this
[00:14:42] way of fighting more? right, well that's the question
[00:14:46] that will be answered over the next months and
[00:14:50] perhaps even years, because there's no
[00:14:54] indication. that the zionist lobby that
[00:14:57] dominates the current US president and the rest
[00:15:01] the American government in terms of its West Asia
[00:15:05] policies is going to back off and call this
[00:15:09] off. I mean it would be nice. We hear Trump saying
[00:15:13] that we're on the verge of an agreement seems like about every week.
[00:15:17] Usually right before the trading starts on Monday and uh and
[00:15:21] then
[00:15:21] he uh backs off and issues his threats uh
[00:15:25] later in the week, and so that roller coaster probably will
[00:15:28] continue. there are various reports
[00:15:32] that there's a possibility the Americans will escalate with some sort of ground
[00:15:36] invasion possibly. around the US elections
[00:15:39] in early November, but it's
[00:15:42] it's I think it's unlikely that the Americans are willing
[00:15:46] to admit defeat primarily because their lunatic
[00:15:50] narcissist commander and chief is the last person on earth who
[00:15:54] will ever admit that he's lost anything, but also
[00:15:58] because the US empire will be crippled by its
[00:16:02] exit from west Asia and the petro dollar will be threatened,
[00:16:05] which
[00:16:06] is that's the basis the... US imperial domination of much the
[00:16:10] world, so it it's a
[00:16:13] very difficult situation for everyone, the
[00:16:16] Americans uh, they they're probably going
[00:16:19] escalate before they finally end up admitting defeat and it could
[00:16:23] drag out for a long time, so that issue the war of attrition, and who can
[00:16:27] sustain this uh over the long haul, that's the real
[00:16:31] question, and as we've seen, Iran can go to a wartime
[00:16:35] economy, keep its assets well protected. and
[00:16:39] continue to pummel any American assets that come into the region,
[00:16:42] and I believe, as to many other analysts, that Iran has
[00:16:46] the capability of sinking American aircraft carriers and other ships,
[00:16:50] a sunken aircraft carrier would be
[00:16:53] a mega disaster for the United States. The reason Iran hasn't done
[00:16:56] that so far, according to this analysis, is that it
[00:17:00] knows that that would have a public relations effect sort of like
[00:17:04] the the sinking the Maine or the battleship Lucitania. or Pearl
[00:17:08] Harbor and it might be used perhaps in conjunction with uh other
[00:17:12] false flag events that would then be brought out by the other side uh
[00:17:15] to try to bring the American people into accepting
[00:17:19] escalation, so I think Iran hasn't even used a lot of
[00:17:23] its capability, including that anti-ship capability,
[00:17:26] escalation options that the American escalation options
[00:17:30] that the Americans just don't have uh, and for that reason I
[00:17:34] think that the uh Americans who are losing their position. in the world and they're
[00:17:38] losing their empire, they're losing their sustainability, and they're threatened with financial
[00:17:42] catastrophe, the AI bubble looks like it might be about to pop and that could take
[00:17:46] down the whole western economy and to some extent global economies with
[00:17:50] it, there are all these mega disasters looming on the
[00:17:53] horizon, and that gives uh Iran a very,
[00:17:57] very strong hand in this. mhammad, there
[00:18:01] is a strong evidence, muhammad, there is a strong evidence
[00:18:05] of Iranian tactical adaptation, also Iran's missile
[00:18:08] production has resumed according to reporting cited by the
[00:18:12] Jerusalem post uh from the US and west Asian
[00:18:15] officials, the US is also burning uh through its
[00:18:19] expensive air defense ammunition. How would you read all of
[00:18:22] this? well, I think
[00:18:25] obviously there is a war in
[00:18:28] Ukraine,
[00:18:31] and the US and Europe are also supplying
[00:18:35] lot of equipment and... weapons to ukraine
[00:18:39] and the last seven months and
[00:18:43] longer have led to depletion of
[00:18:46] resources, but I think also we have to take
[00:18:50] into account the political
[00:18:52] situation, Trump is not popular
[00:18:56] at home, he's not well like anywhere in
[00:19:00] the world, and and really this illegal
[00:19:03] war that Israel has launched with him.
[00:19:08] uh nobody really wanted uh
[00:19:11] and uh the economic situation is
[00:19:15] getting worse in in America and in Europe
[00:19:19] so all that has an impact um
[00:19:22] but uh
[00:19:23] you know uh I think um there was
[00:19:27] a miscalculation the US thought like Venezuela it would
[00:19:31] go in, it would take out the regime and take Iran's
[00:19:34] oil and wealth and that failed. in Venezuela it
[00:19:38] succeeded and they I I don't think they
[00:19:42] were expecting this level of resistance and
[00:19:46] damage to their economy, but I think
[00:19:50] after the mid-terms and after the Israeli elections I
[00:19:53] would suspect that to uh cripple Iran
[00:19:57] to uh cripple
[00:19:59] Iran, so uh Iran is probably
[00:20:02] preparing for that,
[00:20:05] ultimately ultimately...
[00:20:09] um, you know, they they are a bind with the
[00:20:12] situation in Homous
[00:20:14] and in in
[00:20:17] Yemen, and
[00:20:20] really Israel is stuck as
[00:20:24] well in Lebanon, in Gaza, in
[00:20:28] Syria, so lot of things are going
[00:20:31] on, and we will
[00:20:35] wait to see Israel of course. uh wants the
[00:20:39] destruction of Iran and will continue to
[00:20:43] push the US, yes that goal,
[00:20:46] but Iran has has to survive.
[00:20:50] it will uh survive and uh we'll we'll see
[00:20:54] how long the US and the west and the
[00:20:58] um the public in in the west are prepared
[00:21:01] to um take
[00:21:05] material losses which is ultimately their biggest
[00:21:08] weakness. Kevin, our other guest, Mr.
[00:21:12] Muhammad mentioned the possibility of another
[00:21:16] round of war against Iran, how would you say?
[00:21:20] that round will look like, so many are talking about the
[00:21:23] possibility of a ground invasion of Iran, which the
[00:21:27] possibility is no longer merely
[00:21:31] theoretical, it's more than 50,000 US
[00:21:34] personnel as it has been reported have remained on alert in the region of
[00:21:38] west Asia, and the Washington Post reported that some deployments are
[00:21:42] being extended into 2027, the year that Donald Trump
[00:21:46] himself and so many officials in his administration has
[00:21:50] that that the war might extend up until that point, how would
[00:21:54] you say that will turn out for the
[00:21:56] US?
[00:22:01] was that for me? yes, Mr. Barret. Okay, yeah, I, I
[00:22:05] think the likelihood of successful US ground invasion of
[00:22:09] Iran is virtually nil,
[00:22:13] because to genuinely occupy and regime change
[00:22:16] Iran, um, and assuming that everything... went right, it
[00:22:20] would require a million or so US
[00:22:24] troops, and where are those going to come from? the
[00:22:27] Israelis recently published a call for the
[00:22:31] United States government to offer debt forgiveness program
[00:22:35] in return for people uh joining the US military, in order
[00:22:39] to build up American troop levels to this point that they could
[00:22:43] conceevably uh threaten Iran with serious ground invasion uh
[00:22:47] aimed at regime change, but that was met
[00:22:51] with cat calls and uh eyeball rolls here in
[00:22:55] the United States, the United States
[00:22:58] is not interested in pursuing this war any further, the American people are sick
[00:23:02] of it, and so as I said earlier, the only way we could even
[00:23:05] imagine that they would be able to uh
[00:23:09] really escalate into a ground invasion
[00:23:13] beyond grabbing a couple of islands for a short period would
[00:23:16] involve uh some sort of false...
[00:23:20] scenario, a 9/11 style event blamed on
[00:23:23] Iran that could be used to try to rally the American
[00:23:27] people uh and convince the
[00:23:30] military people that it was worthwile to
[00:23:34] continue this losing war, so that's what I would
[00:23:38] keep an eye on, and I think it's a good idea for people to spread the word and
[00:23:42] talk about that and say, look, we know that governments deceive
[00:23:45] their populations to justify wars of aggression, that's what happened with...
[00:23:50] 9/11, it's what happened with the lies about Iraki, weapons of mass
[00:23:53] destruction, similar things have happened throughout history uh, so we need to be on
[00:23:57] alert and realize that if there's report, a spectacular
[00:24:01] report about a Trump assassination attempt or something, maybe a real
[00:24:05] assassination or dirty
[00:24:08] bomb, nuclear dirty bomb blamed on Iran
[00:24:11] or some sort of mega cyber attack that succeeds
[00:24:15] in uh depriving Americans of uh electricity and
[00:24:18] internet for... substantial time uh
[00:24:22] and and there's chaos and so on, people need to know in advance that if
[00:24:26] something like this happens, it probably won't be Iran that did it, it's
[00:24:30] probably the Israelis and their friends who want to try to convince the
[00:24:34] American people to ramp up this war, but I don't
[00:24:38] see how they could possibly be successful, Iran is strong,
[00:24:41] united, has a
[00:24:43] impermable posture in this
[00:24:46] asymmetrical war, and the American s uh just
[00:24:50] does not hold the courage uh least of all the
[00:24:54] will to do this. this this war is blatantly illegal.
[00:24:58] trump didn't prepare the American people for it at all. the
[00:25:02] his popularity is off the charts uh low, lower than
[00:25:06] any premium thing to try to mount a serious ground invasion of Iran. that
[00:25:10] doesn't mean they won't do it, because the Israelis are crazy, they're extremists, they're
[00:25:14] millenary and messianic maniacs, and they
[00:25:16] have so much power in Washington, including perhaps Efstein files. the
[00:25:20] white house that we can't put anything past
[00:25:23] them, thank you both of you for your insights,
[00:25:26] does Kevin Barret, editor at all andalist tribune, joined us
[00:25:30] from Montana the US and Jahangir Mohammed director of
[00:25:34] Center for Muslim affairs join us from the city of Manchester, thank
[00:25:38] you both, and that brings us to the end of this edition of our
[00:25:42] spotlight program, thank you so much for joining us, and
[00:25:44] bye-bye.
[00:29:06] Step into the cockpit of
[00:29:08] history.
[00:29:13] This documentary reveals how Iran's f4 fighters, once
[00:29:17] symbols of power, became the front line a brutal
[00:29:20] war.
[00:29:24] Withness the courage, sacrifice, and survival against
[00:29:28] impossible
[00:29:28] odds.
[00:29:57] Top stories here on Press TV. Press TV is condemned abduction of its west bank
[00:30:01] reporter by Israel. occupation forces and urged international community to take immediate
[00:30:05] action for: