As tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran continue to escalate, Shane Smith travels to Tehran for a rare interview with Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
In this wide-ranging conversation, the Iranian government responds directly to accusations about its nuclear program, President Trump’s claims that Iran is “begging” for a deal, the Strait of Hormuz crisis, sanctions, regional escalation, and the growing fear of a wider war in the Middle East.
Shane Smith: “Earlier this week Iran sent a proposal through Pakistan aimed at the ending hostilities with the United States. Can you talk through some of the broad strokes of that proposal and does it have meaningful concessions?”
Esmail Baghaei: “Meaningful concessions on the part of Iran or on the part of the U.S.? When we talk about concession, we have to be a little bit careful. We do not want any concession from the United States. We simply want our rights. We want our rights to be restored.”
Baghaei argues that Iran has been unfairly targeted by the U.S. and Israel for decades, blames the U.S. and Israel for escalating the conflict, and warns that continued military pressure could destabilize the entire region.
Baghaei: “We have been under crippling sanctions for the past five decades…There is no nuclear threat from Iran to any actor in the region or globally. So what we demand is the end to the U.S. hostilities—in the sense that their sanctions must be lifted. Our blocked assets must be freed and available to be used by Iran. At the same time, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, they need to take measures to end the maritime blockade.”
Shane pushes back throughout the interview, asking why Iran continues pursuing nuclear energy despite mounting international pressure, whether peace is realistically possible, and what the Iranian government believes Americans fundamentally misunderstand about Iran.
Shane: “I was invited here by the IAEA to see the reactors. We saw the first reactor here in Iran which ironically was given by America…Why not just say, ‘We’re sitting on the biggest gas boom in the world. We’re not going to use atomic energy. We’ll use fossil fuels and get into wind, solar—something else.’?”
MFA: “Iran is a big country. As you know, we have a very sophisticated industrial base. In early 1970, the American research institutions on energy proposed to the shah of Iran that Iran will need to build at least 8 nuclear reactors in order to secure necessary energy for its progress; for its industrial needs…We need that source of energy for our basic necessities, development, and welfare.”
Topics include:
Iran’s response to Trump and U.S. military pressure
Israel’s role in the conflict
The Strait of Hormuz and global energy fears
Nuclear weapons accusations
Sanctions and frozen Iranian assets
Regional escalation and Gulf states
The collapse of diplomacy after the JCPOA
Why Iran says it does not want war
Shane: “What do you think is the future? What happens in the next couple of weeks? We’re facing a global energy crisis and the longer it goes on, the worst it gets for everybody—including Iran.”
MFA: “What happens next, no one can really predict. We wish for the best to come, but we have learned to be prepared for every scenario. What is going on in our region is not really something that we wish, but it has unfortunately been imposed on our region.”
“No one can really control the boundaries of war. War is like a fire. If you do not extinguish it, it will simply expand.”
Recorded in Tehran.
