Black Agenda Radio, Mar 20, 2026 —
Margaret Kimberley: You’re listening to Black Agenda Radio. I’m Margaret Kimberly. Our guest is Bahman Azad, President of the U.S. Peace Council. He joins us from New Jersey to discuss the US Israeli attack on Iran, which began on February 28 since that date, the US and Israel have assassinated Iranian leaders, bombed schools, homes and other civilian targets which constitute war crimes. But Iran is a military power which has struck Israel and US assets in the region. Bahman Azad provides analysis of these events. Thank you so much for coming back.
Bahman Azad: Thank you for inviting me again. Margaret, I appreciate it.
MK: So we spoke in February when it was pretty clear an attack was imminent but had not yet begun, but the US began by killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and members of his family and others, and by bombing a school in the city of Minab and torpedoing an Iranian vessel which was returning from naval exercises in India, the US bragged about an immediate victory, but that is clearly not the case. Tell us about conditions in Iran and the state of this conflict.
BA: Well, since they remember the 12-day war when they started, they started with a wave or assassination of leadership, attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei, then also and managed to assassinate quite a number of top leaders of the Revolutionary Guards Corps since that time. Immediately after that, I think they took an emergency decision and meeting, and under leadership Ayatollah Khamenei, they created what they called a command mosaic, which means a multi-layer leadership setup that up to three, four layers of substitutions have been kind of determined, and they have been, you know, acting according to that plan ever since. And it seems that the attempts of the Israeli and US governments to eliminate the top leadership or deprive Iran, obviously, leadership has not worked because of this new system of leadership that has been set up in Iran. Well, the idea of the war was not really a kind of a defeat or anything. Militarily, they wanted to totally destroy Iran, and they still do. And that’s what the objective is, for various reasons, including Iran is the main challenge to Israel as a monopoly of power in the region. That’s one. But Iran is also a critical country in the in the movement of the global south toward a multipolar world, and it’s a kind of a pillar of that movement, and in that sense, hitting Iran is a key to hitting China and Russia in that global struggle. So they are bent on destroying Iran right now. But as you have seen during this, this few days, or more than a week, that Iran has resisted, not only just resisted, but also has managed to create a lot of critical situation for these people, both for the US and for Israel, and also some of the allies of the US in the region, whose bases, whose territory is being used as launching pad for attack against Iran. So Iran has been causing a lot of damage to these forces, and it seems that it has surprised, in fact, all this political and military and social analysts in the media that how it has not only survived the attacks, but has countered in a very effective way, and now, with this attack on Iran’s gas refinery yesterday, and the attack Iran’s response to this move, illegal move against Qatar’s gas refinery, the largest gas refinery in the world. Operation The war is moving towards a broader level that includes also the economic battle. In that sense, I’m sure the US and the West are going to be the loser, regardless of what kind of discrepancy there is between the military powers of imperialists and Zionists and Iran. So Iran, to me, is going to be the ultimate winner if it manages to survive this this barrage of criminal attack,
MK: You mentioned the economic impact of this conflict, Iran has closed off the Straits of Hormuz, the path to oil deliveries all over the world. Well, closed the Straits of Hormuz to allowing ships to pass through if they pay in Chinese currency. See, but tell us about the importance of the Straits of Hormuz and the impact of Iran’s action. There is the impact on the region and on the world financial system.
BA: Well, of course, you know Qatar and some of these Emirates in the region are financial banking services for the Western imperialism. And you know, they’re one by one closing the banks in that region, these multinational financial institutions. So that’s one the second. You know, it’s generally known that about 20, 25% of all gas and oil supply of the world is passing through the Straits of Hormoz and it’s a very narrow waterway which is has a narrow depth, also in the sense in certain areas. And in fact, the ships, in many ways, the traffic, has to go between very close to the Iranian borderline waters, and that makes it very dangerous for a lot of ships to pass through, Iran has said, and of course, they have allowed the friendly governments to have their shipments pass through. But this, this addition of the payment Yuan, is just a new addition to the previous decision that it’s open to friendly governments only and not to the enemy, and now they have added that additional thing to it too. But the point is, there are not many alternatives to straight or foremost. But the thing is, if the Yemenis could also close the pathway on their side to the shipment of oil and gas, then there’s going to be a big, big crisis, on the hand of the Western powers, because the supplies will be drastically caught, and the prices will soar. And right now, the oil prices since yesterday have soared to $110 and they are talking about 50% in the price of gas, natural gas, so. But this is still not a total war, economic war. It has not fully started, but it seems it’s moving in that direction. I read the news that today, somewhere not confirmed that Trump administration has been threatening and saying calling for Iran to agree to a ceasefire or it will be completely destroyed. So in a sense, during the threats now they are including the begging for ceasefire also. So, we have to see what happens.
MK: It’s difficult to know whether to take these us threats seriously or not. It seems that while the US is, I think it’s accurate to say the world’s strongest military power, it has its limits, and they have the US has been supplying Ukraine with a lot of military hardware, a lot of missiles, and the US. Well, this is this conflict is also exposing the scam of the defense contractors who get billions of dollars but produce far less than one would have thought. So. It seems that these threats could be real, but also could be just bombast. It’s difficult to tell, isn’t it?
BA: Yeah, but the thing is, Iranians, it seems, from the beginning, since their responses started, they are prepared to be bombed out destroyed, but they are not ready to submit and surrender, so they are willing to go all the way. That’s that’s their it seems that that’s a policy right approach. Now the Trump can administration, or the imperialist and say, Zionists can really bomb the hell out of Iran. And they have started to do to hit the historical, historic sites that are covered under the under the United Nations, as historic sites. They are bombing even those areas. So they want to flatten Iran in their sense. But what was their objective? Of course, countries have been flattened and rebuilt, like Vietnam and others, that’s that’s not an issue. The question is, have they managed to achieve their objective? Or are they going to be able to do that? And the fact is that they won’t, because they expected, in a quick way, to bring down the Iranian government or partition the country. Have an uprising inside the country, have a kind of a velvet revolution, or something. None of it has happened. And if Iran survives this thing, and it will, in my view, despite all the destruction that may come at the hands of the United States and Israel, Iran, will politically, ideologically, socially, survive this. And if they survive, this means that US has been defeated in its objective, Israel has been defeated. And in my view, if that happens, the result will be the total shift of balance of. Forces in the region in favor of Iran, and a global balance of forces in favor of the multi polar world. No question about it. I have no doubt about that, and I think this is already a defeat for the United States, regardless of what they do militarily,
MK: While Trump is threatening to destroy Iran, and you know, we all know his I don’t know what adjective to use to describe his language, unhinged language, but there are also reports that the US has reached out to Iran for talks through third party nations, but those talks have been rejected. Tell us why?
BA: Yes. But how can you talk when you have already two rounds of talks, almost reaching an agreement, which does not mean with the content of it. I agree it was under duress for Iran, but at the same time, Iran went as far as it could to avoid a war two rounds, and right in the middle of negotiations, you have a bombardment. I mean, can you trust that this is not a third one will not be different. Will be different. This is the nature of imperialism. US has you know the problem? The problem is we, as Iranians, or Iranian people generally, or countries of the south, know the nature of imperialism very well. Know it very well. But the US has always been since World War Two, has been wrapping its imperialist plans and plots and intrigues in a kind of a sweet wrapping, in a shiny wrapping, hiding it on the name, under the name of democracy, human rights, this and that, and kind of shoved it off the throat of down the throat of people. And many people in the West have bought that. But now Trump is doing it without any veneer. I mean, they have become so desperate that they can’t even afford to put a pretty rafting on what they’re doing. They’re doing it open. And I think all of the world has recognized what US imperialism is all about, what Zionism is all about, and they’re not going to recover that anymore. There’s no way they can get back to their original position that they had before these rounds of attacks, and I think they’re going to be the losers internationally and regionally, completely on this
MK: You mentioned the US history of aggression, which have been met by silence or acquiescence from countries that might use their power to stop the US in some way, international law has been made meaningless if the US and Israel can carry out a genocide in Gaza, that the whole world can see the ICC was dragged kicking and screaming to indict Netanyahu, but the countries that are supposed to ban a an indicted war criminal do nothing of the sort. He travels assuming he’s still alive. That’s another question. But sanctions warfare, none of these things have been they go on endlessly. The US has not been stopped, and that unwillingness to stop the US has led to this point, which, as you say, There’s not even a veneer of a humanitarian effort, nothing just naked aggression. So the absence of but the ineffectiveness of international law has led to this, hasn’t it?
BA: Yes, it has, but we have to recognize that the violation of international law is the only way United States can even attempt, in any desperate way, to maintain its hegemony. And the only way they can do it is to trample upon all the international law, human rights, everything else that we know. But the point is, the balance of forces in the world, globally has not shifted enough for people to be able to respond to us militarily yet. And I think that is why we are dealing with a kind of a transitional phase in which the US is using, losing its grips on the World Affairs, but the alternative forces have not gained enough strength to replace and fill out the fill in the vacuum, and that is, that is the stage we are in now. But I would not take it as an inability of these forces, but only the reality of the present situation at the time. But with this phase that the US has started. I think it is expediting the process of this transition, unwillingly in the name of protecting their own hegemony. Actually, they are facilitating their own demise in this process, and they are doing it, and I think it is a smart and part of some of the I’m not talking about US allies. And. And lackeys that are really going along with whatever the US is doing, but forces that are opposing United States in on this global confrontation are showing some patience, because they are seeing us sinking and drowning, and they don’t want to allow us to drag them down with with itself, down into the abyss. So they are staying aloof a little bit, waiting for us to destroy self-destruct a little bit more before they can get involved. That’s my feeling. I have no evidence on that, but looking at the background history of how these forces have operated in the past, and what I think Ayatollah Khamenei responded, called it at one point time strategic patience. Maybe some people have kind of lost that now, by now, with everything that US is doing. But I think that the forces, especially international forces, like China and Russia and other that are their actions is not just answering their own interests, but the interest of the global south together completely. Probably they have to bring in a lot more into their calculations than just is responding to one case or another case. Probably they’re looking at it at more, much more strategic and long-term process, and they see the light at the end of the tunnel and don’t want to kind of crumble the tunnel itself in the process before we get to that light. And that’s my feeling, how they are responding to the situation. I may be wrong, but that is my feeling.
MK: Well, that is quite logical. It’s that does make sense. I’m still concerned, because the US can, even as these this balance of power is changing. The US is still very powerful and can do a lot of damage.
BA: Yes, definitely. I think one thing, I think they have been a conscious decision since the if you look at this confrontation us, is as the upper hand militarily and the rest of the world has economically, politically, diplomatically, morally, everything else is on the other side. So, we don’t want the battle to be taken into the military side unilaterally by the United States, because we’re going to have a lot of damages there if we allow it to happen. So, they are trying to avoid, to give the us the opportunity to use its most destructive weapon against the world. That’s what they’re trying to do.
MK: I have a question about these assassinations called decapitation strikes. The supreme leader was killed in that first day just a few days ago. Ali Larijani, who was secretary of the supreme National Security Council, was killed just a few days ago, and it was an Israeli strike, and in typical fashion, they killed many other people as well. How, and I’m sure this is a concern in Iran about how to protect their their people, how they are being targeted with such precision. Is there fear of infiltration of some inside help, a traitor of some kind? What are the what’s the thinking in Iran about how this is happening and how to possibly stop it?
BA: Well, you’re right. The concern is there, all of us are worried about this situation, no question about it, but there are some some misunderstandings involved here. Also, there’s no way. There are moles, there are agents, there are infiltrations, and everything else is going on. And they have been battling this since the beginning of the war with the 12-day war, and they have closed some of these holes that they have had security wise. But the question is, Israel and the US are trying to present this as if they have the full control of the security situation inside the country, and also they have the higher upper hand in terms of the intelligence gathering and everything else and precision of the assassination attempts and everything like that, which may carry some truth in it, that they have the technology, they have the communication systems, they have the agents inside and They have it in all countries, if you remember, they were even bugging the Office of the Chancellor of Germany long time ago, if you remember, it was talking about. So all these things are happening, and they do have the technology to do it. But one thing they hide, and especially with this happened with regard to Lori Johnny, is that it is revealed that if the US, if the Israelis and the US, think that there are 50 places that possibly in one of them, a person like Larry Johnny, is in 50 place, possible places with different levels of probabilities. They don’t go out. After the place that has the highest probability. They hit all the 50 targets at once, right in the hope then in one of them they catch him. And they did it like that, this time with Larry Johnny as well. They they bombed or blew up six, seven different places at once in the hope that he would be in one of them. So it doesn’t tell you that much about precision of the operations, although they want to convey that view. But the thing is, this is now a criminal way of doing things. Even more criminal the way of doing is because six other places, innocent people are killed for no reason for them to be able to reduce the error margin for themselves. It’s like carpet bombing a city to get rid of a military base. You know,
MK: Yes, yes, and it’s but that is also thank you for that, for adding that context. But then I was also thinking that also increases their ability to strike fear. I think terrorism is part of part of their agenda.
BA: The key element of it; it is the key element of it. I agree with you.
MK: You know, we talked about Qatar and the strike on the refinery, one of the biggest in the world. And these Persian Gulf states, these western allied monarchies, are also suffering. And of course, Iran has the right of self-defense, so has the right to do this, I believe. But do these monarchies represent their populations. Are they facing domestic opposition? I’m going to admit a lack of knowledge about the kind of opposition they face and how easy it is to express opposition. But is there a possibility of them being undone by their own people.
BA: Yes, these monarchies have never had any popular base, ever regardless. And these are artificial creations for the Western imperialist forces to control the region. No question, if you remember during the Iranian Revolution, as soon as the Iranian revolution started and went, was succeeded, there were uprising in Saudi Arabia, in Iraq. Then one of the reasons Saddam wanted to defeat the Iranian Revolution, because he was facing opposition inside this country. There was a revolution brewing inside the Iraqi society, and in the in the in the region, also there are now we are facing, we are both witnessing uprising in several these monarchies, and they are really worried about that. There’s no question that if they really, they’re in a bind, if they really go too far in support of United States, they’re going to be facing opposition internally, and that is another issue that they are facing, and dilemma they’re facing. But, you know, they don’t have the guts or the will to resist us demands. But I’m sure if it was left up to them, probably many, many of them, in the fear of Iran retaliation, would have stayed out of this situation. But what can they do? Us? Bases are on their territory. I mean, the US does not ask them whether you should use it or not use those bases, and they are stuck there themselves. So there’s a price to pay for servitude.
MK: Yes, there is. They are occupied, and they are vassal states, puppet states, and they are now paying the price for it, right? I briefly mentioned Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, who has not been seen for some days, they keep presenting these strange videos, claiming to prove that he’s alive. And well, they are, all of them are, are fakes to some degree. Is it possible that he was killed by an Iranian strike?
BA: There is rumors about that in Iran too and everywhere. I mean, nobody can confirm or deny. Of course, we do not have the means to do it. But same argument is going on inside the country. And you know, in all circles that he has not been shown that they were talking about the first one that came up the the fake video, they said he has six fingers on it, you know, which was funny. That’s how they found out that it was a fake. They said that his brother was killed, and they said his brother always participates with him in the War Cabinet meeting. There is kind of stronger rumor that his brother was killed. He himself, I don’t know about that.
MK: And as we close, I know tomorrow is the first day of spring, and that’s the beginning of the Nowruz celebration in Iran. Yes, tell us about its significance.
BA: Well, Nowruz is the historical tradition of the Iranian New Year, which is always coincides with the first day of spring. It has always been kind of occasion for the coherence and national unity of the Iranian people has always acted as a force of unity and nationalism and national pride in Iran. And this time, you know, one of the based on the US and Israeli strategy of creating chaos inside the country through these so called provocateurs and agents that they used a few months ago, a few weeks ago, to avoid that one of the decrees of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and also Ayatollah Khamenei, the third leader, has been to keep the Public on the streets.
And ever since, if you remember, there are millions of demonstrations, million people, demonstrations every day in Iran right now and now no rules has become another instrument of showing national unity and support for the government and for the Iranian independence and liberation and revolution. So I am sure we have the most glorious now celebration tomorrow in Iran never happened before. I’m sure about that.
MK: Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me.
BA: I Thank you, Comrade Margaret. It was an honor.
MK: And that was Bahman Azad, President of the U.S. Peace Council, discussing the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran.