A Pezeshkian-Trump meeting? Infighting in Tehran and silence in Washington

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. Today is Monday, 31 Shahrivar 1404, September 22, 2025. Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23, the sessions of the UN General Assembly open with a speech by Mr. Trump, the President of the United States. Every year in late September, leaders and foreign ministers of the member states attend these sessions, which last a week to ten days. Mr. Pezeshkian also comes to America tomorrow, Tuesday, and will speak on Wednesday morning, which will be Iran time

0:53 late afternoon or evening. Mr. Netanyahu will speak on Friday, and after that he will of course come to Washington and meet Mr. Trump on Monday. In Tehran there are many rumors, or rather interviews, articles and comments, especially from the press of the so-called Reformist camp, politicians associated with that camp, the moderates, and so on. They say that on this trip Mr. Pezeshkian should sit down directly with Trump, talk with him, and resolve the issues between Iran and America.

1:47 Various arguments are being made about this, including that the country cannot sustain the current situation: the dollar at 106,000 tomans, the collapse of the capital market and the stock exchange, and the economic recession. First-quarter figures show that Iran's economy had negative growth and is in fact in recession. Many other issues are being raised as well. On top of that there is the snapback mechanism. Last week, South Korea, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, put to a vote a resolution on the lifting of

2:46 UN sanctions, and it was announced that it failed to pass. As a result, the snapback mechanism will probably be triggered from September 28, and on the 7th of October more than six UN sanctions resolutions against Iran will officially come back into force. This atmosphere shows a dark future for Iran's economy in every respect, and it has led many people to speak up and say this has to end. As we know, to stop the snapback mechanism the Europeans had explicitly

3:43 said beforehand that the Islamic Republic must do three things: let the IAEA come and inspect everywhere, show exactly where the 408 kilos of 60% enriched uranium are, and return to the negotiating table with America. America, in turn, has three conditions for negotiations. First, the negotiations must now be direct. Second, the Islamic Republic must agree to shut down enrichment completely, and must have accepted this in advance. Third, IAEA inspectors, along with American inspectors, must be able to go in and verify any agreement that is reached.

4:43 So far the Islamic Republic has not given a positive answer to Europe's three conditions, one of which is negotiating with America, which itself carries at least three conditions of its own. It has only made general statements. As for the agreement Mr. Araghchi signed with Grossi in Cairo, the Europeans said it is vague and cannot be relied on. In any case, the Islamic Republic has not accepted to go down this path. I have also tried to follow this in Washington, to see whether what some people in Tehran are saying, or at least wishing for, has any basis here. So far I have seen no sign of any commitment or arrangement in the press, in political circles, or elsewhere. After all, before a meeting between the President of the United States and

5:39 the head of government and President of Iran, there would have to be some commitment, some back-and-forth, or at least some news of it would have leaked, and there is no such news in Washington. It seems that Mr. Khamenei and the factions tied to him still want to carry on exactly as before, and in this way they are dragging our country into sanctions, more troubles, the return of the snapback mechanism, and more restrictions and hardship. Interestingly, more than 70 Majlis deputies signed a letter calling for Iran to go after building an atomic bomb.

6:34 One has to ask these gentlemen, or anyone who defends this idea: suppose we built one. No, six. No, not six, sixty. Then what? What are you actually going to do with this bomb? Can you use it, for example, against Israel, which is said to have 400 atomic bombs? Or against America, which has 4,000 nuclear weapons? Or Europe? Or even the Arabs? Just recently the Saudis signed a defense agreement with Pakistan under which an attack on them is treated as an attack on Pakistan, and Pakistan is said to have even twice as many atomic bombs as Israel. And if you think this weapon is a deterrent and nobody will attack Iran,

7:29 the proof otherwise is that the Islamic Republic itself attacked Israel, which has the atomic bomb, and Ukraine attacks Russia, and there are other cases. The theory of nuclear deterrence is itself a false and nonsensical theory. All in all, based on a wrong analysis from day one and a wrong strategy over 25 years, Khamenei and his cronies have led the country down a path whose result is the troubles we see in our country. Now, Zahedan's Bloody Friday. In 1401 [2022], after Ebrahim Kouchakzai, the police commander of Chabahar, raped a 15-year-old Baluch girl, a wave of anger erupted, and when a protest march in

8:32 Zahedan reached the front of a police station, at least 100 people were killed by gunfire from inside the station. After three years, the final ruling in the case was announced today. The sentences are truly heartbreaking. On the grounds that the shooting from inside the station was collective, no specific individual is held responsible, and those who were there were each sentenced to 10 years in prison, half of which, they say, has probably already been served, so they will be released. As for the victims, more than 100 of our compatriots, they said: yes, these people were innocent and are considered martyrs. Ebrahim Kouchakzai, who committed the

9:27 horrific crime of raping a teenager, had earlier been sentenced to 15 months of discretionary imprisonment and dismissal from government and public service. Anywhere else in the world this crime carries years in prison, and in some states and countries even life imprisonment. In any case, Zahedan's Bloody Friday, which is a bleeding wound not only in Baluchestan but in all of Iran, ended like the other cases: by making a mockery of justice, the perpetrators and shooters were effectively exonerated and the case was set aside. Today marks the start of the War Week. Usually they would hold a parade of the armed forces, and the officials and senior political and military authorities

10:29 in particular would stand on the reviewing stand while equipment and personnel paraded in front of them. It was announced that it was cancelled for security reasons. In fact, they were afraid of having the commanders and the country's leaders together on a stand, worried that Israel would come and strike it. It is interesting that the fear of commanders being killed, in the very week when they should at least have flexed some muscle at Israel, fully shows the desperate state of Khamenei and his cronies. And in such circumstances, all this posturing and boasting is truly regrettable. Mohsen Mansouri, Raisi's executive deputy, said in a television interview that in

11:27 the COVID episode, which happened under Mr. Rouhani's government, 700,000 people died. He was, after all, an executive official, and he is announcing this figure. The official government figures said around 140,000 people died of COVID, but at the time reports from medical sources indicated that COVID deaths were at least 300,000 more than the official figure the government gave. But the number Mr. Mohsen Mansouri gave is perhaps more than twice what was previously thought. In any case, whether 140,000, 460,000 or 700,000, the main culprit, with their blood on his hands, is Khamenei, who sat there and said, "I ban the import of American and

12:26 British vaccines." In effect, for the first several months of COVID the country was left defenseless and without vaccines against this deadly disease, and the result was the lives of many thousands, hundreds of thousands, of our compatriots. Another page must be added to Khamenei's crimes and his disgraceful record over the COVID affair. And now, for the first time in the history of our country's wrestling, both the freestyle and Greco-Roman teams became champions at the World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, and decisively so. In Greco-Roman, in 10 weight classes, Iran's champions won 8 medals, 4 of them gold

13:21 and championship titles. In freestyle, in [10] weight classes, they won seven medals, three of them gold. So, with complete authority and well ahead of their rivals, Iran became world champion in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. Congratulations on this victory to the champions of the land of Iran, who fought so commandingly, and to all the people of Iran. Hoping for the victory of Iran and Iranians.