Glenn Diesen

GD—Marandi elaborates on the failure of the U.S. and its allies to destabilize Iran or open the Strait of Hormuz by military means, highlighting Iran’s ability to retaliate and escalate the conflict. He discusses the role of proxy forces like Yemen’s Houthis in potentially closing off the Red Sea to further pressure Gulf states allied with the U.S. The interview critiques Western media narratives and political discourse, particularly the false dichotomies imposed on commentators and the demonization of Iranian leadership and society. Marandi argues that Iran’s demands for a political settlement include reparations, regional security guarantees, and a restructured Persian Gulf security framework that prevents future aggression or attacks by U.S. or Israeli forces.

GD—Theodore Postol, an MIT professor and expert on missile defense and nuclear weapons, provides a detailed technical analysis of the ongoing conflict involving Iran, Israel, and the United States. He emphasizes that the war is fundamentally about missile capabilities and missile defense systems, with each side trying to inflict and absorb damage. Postol challenges optimistic narratives, asserting that missile defense systems, including advanced ones such as Patriot and Iron Dome, have very low interception rates and are rapidly being depleted. Iran possesses a vast arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones, and benefits from real-time, high-resolution satellite intelligence provided by China and Russia, enabling precise targeting of critical infrastructure in Israel and Gulf states.

GD—Potential Consequences of War: Iran’s retaliation would not be limited to US military bases but would extend to American interests and allied regimes in the region, including family dictatorships in the Persian Gulf and Azerbaijan, which supported US and Israeli actions.
Energy exports from the Persian Gulf, Caucasus, and Red Sea would be severely disrupted, triggering a global economic crisis.
Despite US claims of energy independence, the ripple effects of such disruption would cause catastrophic economic damage domestically and globally, affecting consumers, factories, and families.
Marandi suggests the best outcome would be for Trump to back off and pursue peaceful resolution, similar to his withdrawal from the Yemen conflict, where he declared a symbolic victory despite defeat.

GLENN DIESEN—The space-based component of the Golden Dome is particularly concerning because it would require thousands of satellites to achieve any meaningful coverage, leading to prohibitively high costs potentially reaching trillions of dollars. More critically, deploying such a constellation would create a massive anti-satellite (ASAT) capability, threatening the satellites of other major powers such as Russia and China. This could destabilize international security by provoking an arms race in space and increasing the risk of a conflict that would generate long-lasting orbital debris, potentially making low Earth orbit unusable for decades or even centuries.
Postol warns that the deployment of such systems risks emboldening ill-informed political leaders to miscalculate in crises, possibly triggering nuclear escalation due to misunderstandings about missile defense capabilities. He highlights Putin’s concern that American leaders might mistakenly believe in the efficacy of these defenses and act recklessly, increasing the danger of nuclear war.

PASCAL LOTTAZ—In this detailed conversation, Glenn Diesen and his host Pascal Lottaz discuss the recent European Union (EU) sanctions imposed on individuals accused of spreading “Russian propaganda,” focusing particularly on the case of Jacques Baud, a retired Swiss intelligence colonel and respected analyst of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Baud’s sanctioning reflects a broader trend within the EU to suppress dissenting narratives by labeling any alternative viewpoints that challenge the established pro-Western narrative as destabilizing or pro-Russian propaganda. The dialogue exposes the erosion of democratic principles, such as freedom of speech and separation of powers, within the EU, where the executive branch wields disproportionate power to sanction individuals without judicial oversight.