Professor Marandi Discusses War from Inside Tehran

they're posting images and memes like this on their social media accounts from their various

“embassies, brave American hero, or a coward hiding in a catering truck. They also posted.”

The one they claimed was hiding in a bunker, was martyred in his office, yet the one who boasted about his massive warships and advanced beat to bombers ended up fleeing in a food truck. The Iranian embassy in Zimbabwe posted from I've got a great idea to what have I done then they repost the story of Trump hiding in a food container to leave Turkey, a boarding military plane because of his fear of Iran and it says Iran won the war and the Iranian embassy

amongst Donald Trump and says the strongest army in the history of humankind. So you know how Donald Trump said the whole world was laughing at us once. No they're actually laughing at you Donald. I saw this being reposted as well. Trump's zoo once you have obliterated your enemy show strength

“by hiding in the food. You have Iran's embassy in Armenia reposting the Washington Post.”

Trump underwent an elaborate plan to hide his flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom last month using a catering food truck amid Iran threat. And it just keep getting worse from there. The Iranian embassies were posting Donald Trump's meme about. Iran has no money. 51 years of bad behavior. The Iranian embassy social media accounts posted his attention to our economy while he is still the president of the United States is admirable to share this concern

with him. We just want to mention that the average price of regular gasoline in the U.S. is four dollars and one cent. By the way, that is the highest average for U.S. gas prices in August in U.S. history. And Iran, they're also posting commander and sleep dream about opening the straight. Perhaps in your dreams, it would be open. And it's a video of Donald Trump falling

asleep as he basically does now every time he is in public, which again, is further humiliating

to us here in the United States and bringing us so much shame. They're posting images like this, the biggest loser. And it's Donald Trump and Jimmy Carter knowing that Donald Trump is terrified that he will be a Jimmy Carter as what Donald Trump says. Well, Donald is way worse than that. Like, like, let's be very clear. It's way fricking worse than that. There is this post from an Iranian embassy in July, 2026. The U.S. Secret Service secretly moved Trump to a military

plane in Ankara using a catering truck due to a security threat, the White House, Trump on the way back home. And it's Trump in a fatty food truck over there. And the more information that comes out, the more humiliating it is, the Daily Mail reported inside the catering truck, sat Trump's most trusted inner circle, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail. That in particular, the 35-year-old Natalie Harps selection to ride safely with Donald Trump was

quote a no-brainer. She was Donald Trump's first pick sources are telling the Daily Mail.

And with all of this going on, Donald Trump is saying that USA has told us what he said yesterday,

“has total control over the straightive for moves. I think we will keep it. Our naval”

blockade is being called by everyone, a wall of steel. And there is nothing around can do about it. No one's calling it the wall of steel. No one knows what the hell you're talking about. And every day, dude puts us through a humiliation ritual, just freaking stop, man. Just sign off, go away, go with Natalie Harp to Epstein Island or whatever you want to do. Go to the Albanian island with the, with Natalie Harp and Ivanka. They look alike. Go go there. The hell

you do actually don't know. I like, I like the Albanian protesters. Don't go to the Albanian flamingo island. Go make your own island. I don't know. Go go somewhere else. The, the Iranian port authority that had been working out with a man. They go claims and repeated posts by US officials that the straightive or moves is no longer blocked. Do not change the reality. The straightive or moves remains blocked. And will not be reopened until Iran's conditions are accepted. And over here,

you can see Iran's Persian Gulf straight authority is accurate. If you actually look at what's happening in the straightive or moves. And if you look at the flow of tankers through the straightive

has destroyed the US military. Our munitions are done. Our soldiers, our sailors, our marines

“on the US supercarriers, the US supercarriers, Abraham Lincoln and George HW Bush have the lowest”

morale in history. Six of them wanted to jump overboard and in their lives because, recently, because of the torment they are going through. This is an utter horrorshow. And what's Marco Rubio talking about Secretary of State? Well, he's going on Steven Miller's wife's podcast. Complaining that if he were to go back on the keto diet, he may get us into more wars. You're playing this clip. I did, at one time, maybe four or five years ago. I tried this thing called the keto,

I mean, you've heard of this keto. And you just eat all this protein. And so you go through this

massive withdrawal from sugar and carbohydrates for the first 72 hours. It was a near-psychotic

“event. If I did this in the job, I would be in a Mr. President, we must bomb, you know,”

you know, purgoy. And it's like, why? I don't know. I'm just really mad. I haven't had any sugar. And then you have more criminal Pete Heggsiff saying, well, under Biden, he focused on gender issues and diversity and dudes and women's, I don't know what you even talking about here play this clip. Because just 18 months ago, the previous US administration under Joe Biden, especially the previous administration here at Southern Command.

Student front of you promoting priorities like gender issues, women peace and security, or climate change, or diversity, dudes and dresses. I've said this before, but the Department of War is done with that nonsense. And then to add to the humiliation ritual, you have Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, saying, we are bankrupting around. This is a victory. This is a smack. This is what we wanted to lose control over the straight of our moves and the

Red Sea and to have to abandon all of our military bases and run out of interceptors and then have the so-called commander-in-chief hiding in food trucks because he's scared of Iran. Aw, victory here play this clip. So today, before I got here, I did something that I thought was

“very important. I checked President Trump's social media to make sure this was not my last speech”

in Israel. As you know, he typically fires people in the middle of the night by way of social media. So I wanted to make sure that there was a reason for me to come. I'm happy to report that so far now. I want to get a perspective from inside Iran right now. I want to get a perspective from a professor at the University of Tehran, Professor Morandi. I just interviewed Professor Morandi in Tehran. And I have questions for him. I want to ask him what's actually going on in Tehran right now.

I want to ask him what his perspective is on Donald Trump continuing to claim. Trump controls the straight of or moves. I want to ask him about the potential deal between Iran and Oman. The U.S. has been involved in this at all. And what's the status over there? Let's bring in Professor Morandi. Now I want to bring in Professor Morandi, Professor at the University of Tehran. He was actually with the negotiating team working with the media over there in the Islamabad and negotiations

with the Iranian negotiating team. I want to speak to you about what's generally going on in Iran right now. The sentiments regarding where we are at these, whenever you want to call the situation, I want to call it a negotiation taking place. What's your view of just kind of the current status of where things are right now? Well, the mood in general has been

one of the clients and resistance. And it's quite amazing what Trump has succeeded in doing.

Since the war began, before the war began, a significant segment of Iranian society wanted some sort of solution with the United States. But since Trump betrayed Iran at the negotiating

Iran and the United States were negotiating and during those negotiations, the United States attacked

“Iran. That has led even those Iranians who are liberal, Western-oriented, or influenced by Western”

media, or Western-funded Persian language media, they have shifted great deal. And they become much more skeptical of the United States and much more supportive of the stance of the state, of the government, of the Supreme National Security Council in dealing with the United States. That's something that I have also experienced personally, anecdotal, but some of my students who

previously were very critical if not hostile towards the Islamic Republic because they believe

the Islamic Republic was unwilling to deal with the United States and to deal with the United States, their views changed dramatically. And another thing is that although it's not really the number

“one topic nowadays, but before the 12th day or last year, I think roughly half the Iranian”

population believed that Iran should have nuclear weapons. But now, even that's the state and government officials have always been saying that we do not need nuclear weapons and they

were always explaining why we do not need nuclear weapons. Yet now, according to the goals that I saw

two, three months ago, a spare strong majority believed that Iran should have nuclear weapons. So what Trump has done is that he's shifted Iranian public opinion towards, I think, a small minority, believe, a small majority believed back then that we shouldn't have nuclear weapons. But now, strong majority believes that we do need nuclear weapons. So Trump has single-handedly has convinced many Iranians that Iran should develop a nuclear weapon despite the fact that the government,

the leader, political parties for the most part are still saying we shouldn't pursue nuclear weapons at least from now. I had read that the Iranian government prepared a psychological profile on Donald Trump. They read the art of the deal in preparing for, again, these negotiations or whatever it is. And there was a psychological profile regarding Donald Trump's behavior, even if he's capable of doing a deal or not doing a deal, going back and forth kind of having phantom discussions one day.

We're speaking, they were not speaking and just saying all of these things over and over again. What do you know about that? Like, when you see the post, for example, that Trump was making earlier today, we own the straight-of-promose. I control it. I'm going to be on the pirate, the memes that he posts, obviously, y'all are watching that pretty and seeing the behavior.

“And so, what's the general view? What's the general view of that right now?”

Yeah, I've read about it. I don't know the details and I don't know how true it is. I think it's probably true, but I don't know the details. What I can say is that in general, the interest in Trump has at his statements and his posts have decreased a lot. Last year, I think he was taken more seriously at the beginning of

this war, somewhat seriously, but I think by the first after two, three, four weeks, I'm just guessing.

Interess in general and his statements, his threats, his truth, social posts declined. And now, when he says something, it has literally no impact. No one bothers to talk about it or it's not discussed on television or on any of these online programs and Iran or these telegram channels. It's sometimes reflected. I mean, if he says something about Iran, you'll see it in the news

that it had a year and a half ago or even four or five months ago. He said so many things,

so many different times. He's made so many different threats. He's changed his mind so many times in such short periods of time that his statements are not really relevant anymore. Talk to us about Iran's engagement at the foreign ministry level and at other government levels with other countries at this point, both the countries that are the neighboring countries, China, Russia, others, even Europe, I saw that foreign minister Iraq too is speaking to his

German counterpart the other day and before that Italy, are you seeing kind of a different type of

“engagement and is Iran, do you see being treated differently at that foreign ministry engagement level?”

I know there's a lot to impact there, but I'm observing new security structures being created

and Iran's involvement looking different than it was before the February Trump Netanyahu attacks in the invasion. There has been enormous change. After this war in particular, after the 12th day war there was some change, but after this current war, there's been going on for five and a half months or so. Leaders across the world have been treating Iranian officials with much respect and the Chinese leaders and the Russian leaders in particular have been saying that

Iran's status in their eyes and the eyes of others have grown enormously.

“And it's largely because of the fact that most people outside of Iran believe that Iran would not”

survive the war, let alone win the war. Although I personally and many people in Iran,

we never had any doubt that everyone, but many of us never had any doubt that Iran would overcome

and that it would succeed, although I'm pleasantly surprised that it did even better than I expected. But anyway, outside of Iran, the general sentiment among friends of Iran, while people who I was personally in contact with, let's say, some people abroad during the war, they were very skeptical about Iran's future. But after the war, Iran's status has grown immensely. And even the Europeans who unfortunately, due to centuries of empire,

they would regularly speak with Iranian leaders and diplomats with a particular type of arrogance, they have great difficulty in doing that nowadays. They are behavior towards Iran, they're still in the American camp, the Europeans, unfortunately, to their detriment. But the way in which the approach of Iran and the Iranians has definitely changed.

“I remember back in late April, Donald Trump was saying that based on”

the way the blockade was working, which we know it wasn't, but that the pipes were going to fill up and it was going to burst and there was three days and Iran was going to explode. And now he says we're semi-negotiating and we're just going to low-key it because if you read his posts and then our media here, regurgitates it, you know, there's that he says, you know, Iran and Tehran, that they're broke, they can't afford anything, you know, it's all being destroyed and the blockades

working perfectly. Can you tell, we have lots of international viewers, what's actually happening, you know, in Tehran and across Iran, what's the condition like and what's a day in the life like and, you know, we don't really get to see cameras of what's going on and he posts that. What's really happening over there? When life in Tehran is quite ordinary, it's if you travel Tehran tonight and it's 1 a.m. here,

but if you travel Tehran tomorrow and walked around the streets or took a bus or a taxi, you travel around using the metro, it would be very normal and you would probably not see any damaged buildings because it's a huge city and and also some of the the damage buildings have

If you walked down the streets, the restaurants are full, the shops are full of customers,

“but I'm sure that if you went and asked the shop owners, or the restaurants, how is business”

doing? You would probably say that it's not doing all that well and that business is not great. I'm sure some of them are doing quite well, but I would imagine that the overall sentiment is not that great. You wouldn't notice if you just drove around town or walked down the streets, it's just like any other pretty wealthy city that exists in the world. Tehran is a very large city, it's a beautiful city, foreigners who come here, you are very impressed by how clean it is,

they take out the trash every day, it's very, it's a very developed city. In comparatively speaking, it's not a Shanghai, but it's still, it's pretty good. The mood in Iran right now is, I don't know

“if the word hawkish is appropriate, but people are resilient, they're steadfast, and they believe”

that Iran has to be firm. Not many people believe that negotiations are being used right now. There is a segment of society that believes that, but in general, the skepticism towards the United States is enormous. So they support armed forces and they support the strong position taken by the state, because they don't see anyone in the United States as being a real negotiating partner. That's one of the attributes of Trump. One of the things that Trump has done is that he has

united people in Iran in a way in which I've never seen before. At least since I was a teenager.

And we saw this in the funeral, the animosity toward Trump and towards his regime, and the U.S. government in general, when many millions of people participated in the funeral in Tehran. And for the first time Western media had to acknowledge the sheer size of the funeral, whether in Tehran or the Holy Cities of Rome and Mashhab. So you saw a huge, you saw, I'm really unprecedented, crowds, 10 million people participated in the funeral when

“you combined the three cities. And the possibility towards the U.S. government, I think, was profound.”

People sought revenge in the funeral. So what Trump has done is amazing. And I think that he

himself, alone, and Netanyahu, of course, alongside him, they have made it much more difficult for the United States to get anywhere with Iran, because the mood in Iran has shifted so much against the United States. So even during the negotiations, which I, as you pointed out, traveled with the negotiating during the negotiations, there was a lot of skepticism. And I would meet people on the streets, even though I was not a negotiator who would say that why are you negotiating? What is there

to negotiate about? They killed our kids, they killed our school children, they killed the leader, they're completely untrustworthy, they'll attack us again. And after the MOU was signed, and then Trump began to undermine the MOU, and ultimately, you restarted the war, this mood intensified. Again, I mean, perhaps there was sort of, there were more people who were beginning to say, well, maybe there's a solution out there, but after Trump effectively tore up

MOU, because he violated all of the different articles from article one onwards, the mood again, again, hardened. And of course, this is my anecdotal experience, but when I would, even though I again, I'm not a negotiator, but many people, since they saw me with the negotiating team assumed that I was a part of the negotiations. Most people who would ask

me, or speak with me about negotiations, most of them were critical.

So where do we go from here? Trump says, and I guess when you even start something now, right, and I reflect on this, Trump says it's words, it's okay, well, what does that even mean,

our moves. I mean, we here in the United States have now seen our gas prices. I think it's the highest

average ever in history right now at this point in time. The strategic petroleum reserves have hit a tank bottom. That's not a state secret. I mean, y'all, y'all follow this. I mean, you, you, you know these issues. I saw one of the Iranian generals talking about, you said, you know, it's not even like they're even doing anything purporting in the American interests. They took away just looking when the stock market closes. And that's when they time these things.

It's like, you know, and I saw that come. So one, maybe there's, you all know that,

you know, is there a path forward? Is there, is there, is it basically the MOU and it needs

“compliance with the MOU? Where do we even go from here, or is it really at this point?”

Just kind of wait it out and wait until 2029 until another person comes in or where do you see it? You know, in Iran, people know a lot more about the United States than the number of people who know anything about Iran in the United States. In English is our second language at school. Many people are are fluent or these partially fluent in English. A lot of people follow American politics. You have most academics that import universities are fluent in English,

or at least they can read and write in English. So there's a strong understanding of Iran in general. I'm not saying the whole population follows American politics, but there's a substantial number of people who do. And I have, I have students who's English skills, at least when they speak, they're more fluent than I am. So that I think that shows how things are here. And there are very few books in the United States that I would endorse about Iran that would give a clear understanding

“about the country because the problem in the United States is that if you want to get anywhere,”

you have to be hostile towards Iran. If you want to get a job at a good university, if you want to get a position at a think tank, you can't do it by saying Iran is a normal country, which is legitimate. And the state is legitimate. And it has popular support among the people, the state, and so on. You just, you might as well get a different job and go and work in the supermarket. So there's very little that people material in the United States that I think people can read

very few books that would help them understand Iran. That is a big problem. And that I think is made worse by the fact that Trump has no real experts on Iran anywhere near him or in the

“National Security Establishment. And therefore everything that he says and everything that he hears”

is based on inaccurate information or propaganda or material provided to him by the Zionist lobby. So I'm very skeptical about the possibility for any form of progress at the negotiating table. We already have a deal. We have an agreement of these demo you, which Trump himself signed. But he effectively violated all of the deal. He was supposed to release Iran stolen funds. He refrain from doing that. He was supposed to force this rate he regime to withdraw from

Lebanon and stop the killing. He refrain from doing that. He was supposed to lift the sanctions on the Iranian oil exports. He removed them and put them back in place within a few days. And then this goes on. I mean every article in memo you, he undermined. And then in article five, where he was supposed to where the Iranians were supposed to control the state of almost abnormal places, trade and the passage of ships through the straight. He went and set up his own corridor

with the Saudis and Emirates in the Quate. He's in violation of article five. And that ultimately

undermined it, in Iran no one believes that his signatures worth anything and that negotiating

“with the United States is worthwhile. So I think the only thing left really is actions. If the United”

States, for whatever reason begins moving towards some sort of implementation of them or you even if it doesn't declare it, that would be what the Iranians are looking. The only thing that's important for Iran right now is implementation. And for the United States to carry out its commitments. Because again, as I said earlier, Trump's signature means nothing. Do the Iranians believe that the United States is going to carry out its commitments? No, I think there's a lot of skepticism.

And there's a lot of talk right now that Iran will just have to wait till Trump's presidency is over.

So this conflict could hypothetically go on for well over two more years. And when Donald Trump says that Iran would be incapable of waiting it out and that time is on the side of the United States, what's the general view there? You know, just when that is a talking point that happens here a lot, which is we just keep this blockade. You know, we've got the two supercarriers there. You keep the blockade. And then that'll resolve it. Two years, you know,

this is Trump says, you know, then that's the best strategy. Iran won't be able to last that long or something like that. What's before we go, what's kind of the view there when he says that. I don't think that these, I don't know if anyone who thinks that Trump knows what he's talking about. When the war began, Trump demanded unconditional surrender by day 40. But he accepted the Iranian 14 point plan as the framework for negotiations. That was accepting

defeat. Then he started the siege warfare, assuming that he robbed collapse. And he ultimately

had to accept the MOU. So it was the global economy and the U.S. economy that was being hit hard that forced him to accept it. Remember, he spoke about Herbert Hoover, the Great Depression, and he didn't want to be a president like Hoover. So it was clear that the siege back then wasn't working. And then he restarted the war again. It failed. And now we're in siege warfare again. The Iranians are going to be patient. It will hurt. But Iranians will be patient and ultimately

the global economy is heading toward a cliff. And the Iranians recognize that. And it is going to hit Trump hard. It's going to hit the global economy in the American people hard. This is it's hitting us hard. But the Iranians know that they have to persevere. They have no option. But the ordinary Americans, they have no incentive to resist. Because it's not their war. They know that there's Rayleigh regime designed this lobby and posted upon them. And they're suffering because of war

“that was completely unnecessary. So I think it's pretty clear that the Iranians will definitely”

outlast Trump. And the Iran, Oman, negotiations as part of the Gulf organization. I know those discussions are continuing. I know that it seemed like last week the United States tried to try to be like, I'm involved in that. And I think Iraq is like, you're not involved. We're not talking to you about this. We're doing the deal with Oman. Any sense of where that's going. It seems they're working on a route. You're working on a route together.

What's what's the other way to serve? There is an agreement with Oman. They're not declaring it. Because there's no reason to. Since the United States has opposed the siege, the Iranians have no intention of opening the state of normalism as a result. But there is an agreement. The two sides have agreed. The Iranians will have oversight both over ships coming into the Persian Gulf and ships leaving the Persian Gulf through the straight-of-arms.

And there will be a fee. And so they've agreed upon that. There of course details as to how

“everything will be carried out. But I think what is important for Trump to know”

is that that has been agreed upon. And I'm sure he knows the details. Or he's been told the details. I doubt he cares to listen and to whoever explained it to him. But I think they've explained him that the Iranians will be taking peace and they will have oversight. The Americans push

Iran from having full oversight. But the Iranians told Oman on numerous occasions that look,

“we want to do this with you. We want to do this together because these are not international waters.”

This is a territorial water of Iran in Oman. It's not wide enough to be international waters. But if you do not cooperate with us, we'll do it alone. And this is a security issue for us. Water has been wasted on our people. And we're not going to

we're not going to just leave the trade of homes like it was before. And so ultimately the

Americans backed off in Oman, they agreed the Iranians and the Omanic government came to an agreement. But again, this hasn't been declared yet, although they made positive noise about the negotiations. But it hasn't been declared because right now whether there's an agreement or not, nothing changes as long as the United States is imposing a siege on the Iranian ports. And also as long as the United

“States were friends from implementing its commitments in the MOU that Trump's high.”

That's fascinating because two weeks ago, Treasury Secretary Bessons said, "We've got this deal. It's about to be announced." And then Trump kind of swooped in and wanted to kind of take credit for it as though it looked at the deal that I did between Oman and Tehran. So hearing you say, "Yeah, look, they did the deal. It's just why would they announce that if the Strait of Hormuzas closed at this point?" And it would basically, what Trump's going to take credit for doing a deal lead into,

while the Strait remains closed, oh no, all of the commitments of the memorandum of understanding. And then we can implement the structure. Anything we miss that you think is not being you know, kind of talked about, you know, that you think there's disinformation or misinformation

“about that, you know, that was on your mind.”

The Iranians make a clear distinction between the American people and the US government. And they have no hostility towards Americans. I've had many American friends travel to Iran on numerous occasions. And they would even come to Iran during a time when they're anti-American protests.

And they participated in them to see what's going on. And they were treated with great respect always.

So Iran's problem with the United States has to do with the political regime, the leadership of the country. And it's not just Trump. Trump is more crude and more dissonous and more hostile, openly hostile than previous presidents. But the United States has, you know, yes government has always been very hostile towards Iran. And the rise have been a victim of his policy for many decades. Since 1953, when the Americans have carried out the coup against

the country and overthrowed over through the national government and imposed a police state between that decade. But despite all that, as I said, any American who travels Iran would really within a couple of days, recognize that Iranians have no hostility towards ordinary Americans. And when the Iranians do chant slogans like death to America, it's not to be taken literally. This is about the American empire. It has nothing to do with the country of the United States,

where ordinary people live and have jobs and so on. This is just like when people would say, yeah, keep going home, they wouldn't, it wouldn't be taken literally. Didn't mean that if there's an American in that country that they'd have with a person with an American passport that they'd have to leave the country, it meant that the empire should leave that country alone. So these are not to be taken literally. Professor Morandi, thanks for joining us, appreciate the perspective,

appreciate you sharing what's happening in Tehran. Thank you very much for having me. It's always a pleasure.

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