This is not a conflict between Iran and Israel. Rather Israel is waging war on Iran, said Seyed Emamian, Assistant Professor at Tehran Polytechnic University and co-founder of the Governance & Policy thinktank in Tehran.
Prof Emamian was a guest on The Gist, explaining his country’s point of view at a time when Israel has struck multiple targets in Iran apart from eliminating key military officers and members of the scientific establishment.
“Iran has violated international law, it has attacked Iranian sovereignty,” he said, describing the Jewish state as “a colonial genocidal country run by internationally renowned criminal Netanyahu.”
“We expect India with a civilisational background, with a lot of interaction for centuries with Iran, to be more on the right side of history, not with a colonial state like Israel.”
Israel lives by war he argued, pointing out that Iranians are not familiar with war given that the conflict with Iraq was 37 years ago and public memory has moved on.
“Israel is looking for demilitarisation of every country in the region to safeguard its military hegemony. So every country that is going to be powerful, independent and have an independent voice, they are going to violate its sovereignty.”
He accused Israel of seeking territorial expansion to the disadvantage of neighbouring Arab states. They are looking at Jordan, he said, also at Syria, even Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
He described the US role as one of “supportive silence” of Israel’s actions. Yet there is a kind of “paradoxical pressure” on President Trump.
“Trump’s inner circle … call them anti-war, isolationist … were always against any kind of direct intervention or conflict. Steve Bannon, JD Vance.”
Ultimately, Trump appears to have decided to play along with Israel and see what he can get, or even perhaps emerge as a hero of some kind, Prof Emamian said.
Iran is committed to diplomacy, he said but so long as Israel continues to attack, there will be no talks.
Tune in for more in this conversation with Prof Seyed Emamian, co-founder of the Governance & Policy thinktank in Tehran.
