I just told our next guest, I think what is happening in Iran is far more important in the grand scheme of the security of the United States and the security of the world.
Frankly, because what's.
Happening in Iran the weakening of the regime that has oppressed the people of Iran for almost fifty years now, the uprising of the people who have taken to the streets by the thousands and thousands and thousands, and unlike the suburban women in their minivans who are going to protest what happened in Minneapolis, there's a real chance that if you go onto the streets in Iran, you're gonna be killed by the regime. If not during the protest that I'm positive they're going to send the guarden to
find these people later. This is not a thing to be taken and entered into lightly. And joining me now to talk about it is. He's the Iran program research analyst for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Jenatin Sayah, welcome to the show.
Hi, great to be with you. Thank you for covering it well.
I want to give you We were just kind of talking off the air about some of your background you are intimately involved. You've got arrested in Iran in two thousand and nine. First of all, you look like you're like eighteen years old, so you must have been nine when you got arrested.
But can we start with that, like, what's your background?
Sure, I was born and raised in Tehran's Jewish community. I was politically active during the two thousand and nine protests. I was a teenager then. I'm in my early thirties now. But you know, I do appreciate the compliment there. But what we see right now is fundamentally different paradigm than when it was back in the day. So you're talking about a population that is so alienated by this Islamist theocracy that they're risking their lives, as you mentioned, by
the thousands. And it's not just the rural thing. You see them in major cities going out and I think but really sets this way of apart a fact, aside from the fact that the regime's military capacity has been destroyed by American Israel, ideologically speaking, they're fundamentally bankrupt. And this is in the Iranians people's perspective. The chance that they have for absolute freedom, which would be a game changer for the world. It would be more significant than the collapse of East Berlin.
Well, it's partially because for us, like why do we care? Right?
This is one of the things that when we look back retrospectively at Iran and Afghanistan, like what did that do for the United States of America.
I would argue that.
As Iran is the largest funder of fundamental Islamic terror in the world, they are funding more stuff around the world, not just in Iran, not just in Israel, not for the Houtis, and they are funding Islamic terror around the world if you can cut off the actual head of the snake, as they say, that, for me feels like it could be world changing.
Am I overstating it?
Not at all of anything, You're understating the significance of it. So, as you pointed out, of course we know every terrorist in the Middle East has have received either funding or training from the Islamic Republic. We mostly talk about the Shia Milita, which is like Iraqis and Hisbula that have been attacking the Americans and Israelis, but also Al Qaieda and Taliban. So a lot of US servicemen, almost all of them who have been either attacked or killed in
Iraq and Afghanistan. That was through Iranian Iranian money. Now, going beyond the region, you're talking about Iranian drones and missiles that have been arming Russia against Ukrainian civil civilian infrastructure. In on mainland America, you have the Islamic Republics really terror apparatus, funding different networks, trying to assassinate President Trump numerous times. You have them trying to kill Americans on
US soil. You have them leveraging and exploiting any progressive civic cause here in America to advance their own agenda. They try to influence elections. So anywhere in the world, whether you look at East Africa with whatever has happening in Sudan and Somalia, there is Iranian footprints there. It's in Europe, it's in America. It would really be a game changer if this regime were to collapse, given how secular and democratic Iran's opposition is.
So let me ask about the democracy aspect of this. Because we've seen the son of the former shaw of Iran, he is Prince pap Lavi. He is now making statements urging the people of Iran to rise up, and we're seeing some video of people saying we want the Shaw back. But the Shaw certainly was not a democratic leader, that's absolutely I mean, he was a monarch. He ruled with an iron fist himself. So there was issues with the Shaw's leadership. Is the Shaw a viable answer to prevent
a vacuum of leadership? Or should the Iranian people or are the Iranian people really agitating for democracy and it's being hijacked by the Shaw's movement. That's where I'm like, where does the Shaw or or the prince fit into this.
So you're talking about a population in Iran that is about sixty percent under the age of thirty, So mostly Iranians that are protesting right now have been born under the Islamik Republic's rule. And there is absolutely no comparison between the repression that the regime does against what the Shaw did. The accusations against the former monarch, the path Levi, was that he was perhaps too aggressive with certain Islamist factions, who were those Islamis factions the ones that are in
charge right now. So ultimately it was an iron fist against those that were against democratic values. Lashaw was not putting in prison women's rights activists who wanted to have the freedom to choose whatever they want to wear. It was specifically going after communist rebels, terrorists and of course
Islamists in that case. Now, what we see right now, of course, with the new wave, is that the Iranian population, as I mentioned, is so alienated by its by its current leadership, that would look forward for any capacity, any leader that would enable it to move towards the next phase. And Prince path Lav right now is the only figure that we have that would one mobilize the masses and who believes in democratic values of allowing women's rights activists
and what not to flourish. But more importantly, it's important, it's key for us to be engaging that opposition because that is the only thing that could fill in a vacuum until we have elections societyran for Iranians to decide whether they want to move forward the constitutional monarchy or republic or what form of governance.
Does this feel different than the last round of protests in twenty nineteen, and if so, how it does.
One angle, as I mentioned is the fact that this movement is not leader less. In the past, it was a bit more scattered. What unified Iranians was simply the end to the regime, But now what unifies Iranians is not just regime change, but also what comes after it. So if you look at every protest wave anywhere, like any protest movement within the last three weeks now, and you look at any city, there's always flags of the
pre revolution, the Sun and the Lion. You see a chance of longling the king, and you hear a chance of this is the final battle path, leav will return. So that is really a game changer. That's the main difference. The other difference compared to the previous waves is the fact that the regime's image has been shattered because of
the Twelve Day War. So prior to that, Iranians were really deeply afit of this regime because they genuinely believed in its capacity, capability, and capacity to counter American and Israeli influence. But now we saw that their nuclear program and their ballistic missile stockpies were decimated and they couldn't response. So you're talking about a fearless population that has a leader in mind. That's what sets this wave apart.
I saw a large billboard that had been painted over and it said.
We are no longer afraid.
So to your point, I mean, what realistically do the Iranian people have to fight with. They are a disarmed population, correct.
They are.
That's why external support is really crucial right now. The momentum is going on despite the heavy, heavy crackdowns internet shutdowns. It has been shot down for about a week now. In addition to that, they shut down electricity as well as landlines, so they're really blocking full of information to and from Iran. But also they're disconnecting Yuranians from each other. And yeah, as you mentioned, you know, I Runian civil society is not extremists. They're not going to blow themselves
up like other Islamus in the Middle East. So you know, we talked about an educated, educated, and young population going to fight this brutal regime that's opening fire on them. Not with just automatic weapons, mind you, they're using all these proxies that we talked about to suppress protests at home. So you have Irockum militias, you have Libanese as well to go fight them. And that's why increasingly from the
ground people are demanding and you know, international support. They're asking President Trump to come and, as they say, quote unquote, to do the final knockout of this regime that would, as we said, be a game changer for the world.
I really really appreciate your time. Janatin Sayah from the Foundation for the Defensive Democracies Around program, thank you so much. I appreciate you making time for us today.
Thank you for having me in the insightful question.
All right, thank you, sir, and we'll continue having a conversation about that stuff. I'm wondering if any of you and you can text me at five six six nine oh, is anybody else following along.
On X like I am, because that is where you are.
The revolution is being televised on X, but it's very, very difficult to get out information. Text me five sixty six and nine O check it out. Let me know what you think about it.