From the threat of attacking infrastructure to negotiating with carpet weavers

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. It is Monday, 3 Farvardin 1405, March 23, 2026. Friday, 29 Esfand, was the moment of the new year, and I wasn't with you; I apologize. I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Nowruz and a happy new year, 1405. I hope it will be a year full of health, happiness and success for all the people of Iran, and a year of freedom and joy for the people. But the war remains at the center of all events and

0:58 news, not only in Iran but in the region, and in a way it is among the top headlines around the whole world. The air campaign by Israel especially, and by America, against various targets in our country, Iran, continues. On the other side, the Islamic Republic is still keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and has put, and keeps putting, pressure on the oil market. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also created other problems, such as the pressure on the gas market; gas prices around the world have gone up, in addition to oil prices. Likewise, a shortage of

1:52 helium and a rise in the price of helium, which has high-level technological uses, and even a shortage of aluminum, and of chemical fertilizers, which are products of the region's petrochemical plants, as well as the imports that come to the countries of the region through the Strait of Hormuz. In short, these are issues that have in practice affected not only the energy market but many sectors of the world economy. For this reason, opening the Strait of Hormuz has become one of Mr. Trump's priorities, and there is talk that the 5,000 US Marines who are heading to the region and will arrive by the end of the week

2:48 are supposed to be used to occupy Iran's islands in the Persian Gulf, so that from there they may be able to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. The Islamic Republic, however, has warned that if this happens, it will again escalate its attacks on the Arab countries of the region, and that if America occupies these islands, it will put them under fire. But what made everyone hold their breath was that on Friday Mr. Trump announced that he was giving the Islamic Republic 48 hours to open the Strait of Hormuz, and otherwise he would attack Iran's infrastructure. Of course, this would be contrary to

3:48 the international laws of war and, under certain circumstances, would count as a crime against humanity. Striking Iran's energy infrastructure, which is mostly in the south, is one matter: gas comes from South Pars to the refineries in Asaluyeh, and from there goes to industry, power plants, homes, hospitals, shops and so on. Likewise refineries such as the Persian Gulf Star refinery and the Abadan refinery, or the power plants across the country. All of this together could plunge millions of people in Iran into hardship, trouble, poverty, destitution and unemployment, and inflict irreparable

4:44 damage on the country and its economy. The Islamic Republic, of course, also threatened that if this happens, it will not only again attack the infrastructure of the Arab countries, but will also attack those countries' desalination plants, from which they get their water by desalinating Persian Gulf water and which are all along the coastline, plus oil and refinery facilities and so on. This further heightened the sensitivity of the situation. But last night, Sunday night, when Mr. Trump's 48-hour deadline was actually ending, and in many circles in Washington it was being said that an attack on the Islamic Republic's infrastructure facilities might take place

5:43 from the middle of the night, Mr. Trump in any case extended the deadline by five days, and so the question of striking Iran's infrastructure was postponed until the end of the week. But what added to the uproar was that he said in an interview that over the weekend a channel of dialogue had opened with Iranian officials, and that America would soon talk with an important person, who, incidentally, when a reporter asked, he said was not Mojtaba Khamenei. These remarks by Mr. Trump, although he has said many such things, and over these few weeks of war he has said ten different

6:41 things, from people inside the regime to unconditional surrender, from deadlines like this to the possibility of talks, and so on and so forth. But following this remark by Mr. Trump, which, to be honest, can't be trusted much, the press, especially the Israeli press, claimed that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Majlis, is the person Mr. Trump was referring to. In any case, Israeli publications, citing several sources, say that Ghalibaf, through Pakistan's mediation, will go at the end of this week, accompanied by a few people, to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan,

7:38 and that Mr. Kushner and Witkoff, and even JD Vance, Mr. Trump's vice president, will also go to Islamabad for negotiations. Although the reports of Israeli publications can't be trusted either, and some other outlets, such as some Saudi media, have also reported this news citing them. In any case, Mr. Ghalibaf, who is an IRGC general, a corrupt IRGC commander, and in fact one of the Al Capones of the Islamic Republic's system, and, we must say, a brazen and shameless thief, is someone whose name had already been heard in Washington circles. Ghalibaf, at any rate, is one of those who were in

8:37 the IRGC. For a period he was commander of the IRGC Air Force, which of course didn't amount to anything. For a period he was commander of the country's Law Enforcement Force, and it was during that time that 18 Tir [the July 1999 student uprising] happened, and he became known as "General Pincer," because he himself described how, in suppressing the students, they attacked in a so-called pincer movement. Later, when he became mayor of Tehran, he left the municipality after several years with a mountain of corruption cases, and journalists like Yashar Soltani who had exposed them ended up in prison. In short, of these cases, each one dirtier and more disastrous than the last, he escaped all of them, mainly with the backing of Hossein

9:32 Taeb, then head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization; and not only that, but those who opposed him or exposed him ended up in prison. In any case, Ghalibaf is said, on one hand, to have been a friend of and close to Mojtaba Khamenei from Mashhad, and in fact, to put it more precisely, he has always had a close relationship with the Office of the Leader and Khamenei's apparatus. On the other hand, Ghalibaf is also close to the Vahidi faction, and likewise Zolghadr, Bagher Zolghadr, who is now close to Vahidi, and through him Mohsen Rezaei has also entered Mojtaba Khamenei's system and has again been appointed as military adviser. He is close

10:33 to this faction too, a faction one end of which is in fact these people, and the other end of which, via Hossein Taeb, goes back to Aziz Jafari, the former commander of the IRGC. Given Ghalibaf's closeness to the Office of the Leader and to these IRGC factions, it must be said that he could be someone Mr. Trump would find desirable to make a deal with, provided that he can carry representation within the jungle of power in Iran. Although Mr. Ghalibaf himself, in a tweet, in effect denied Mr.

11:28 Trump's statement and said that they have received no message or communication from the Americans and that there is no talk of negotiations. Of course, neither the denials nor the statements of either side, the Islamic Republic or Mr. Trump, can be trusted. In any case, regarding a ceasefire and peace, Axios has published a six-point plan that it says is America's proposal for peace. When you read these six points, they mostly revolve around the nuclear and missile issues and the Islamic Republic's proxy forces; it is, of course, strict. In return, Al Mayadeen has published a six-point plan on behalf of the Islamic Republic, which is also very

12:29 bizarre. For example, one of its points is that all American bases in the region must be closed and they must leave the region altogether, pay reparations, and put in place new arrangements, a new law, for controlling the Strait of Hormuz. It is said they would charge a $2 million toll from every ship, though that is not in this plan. And most interesting of all among these six points is the last one, which says that journalists, presumably those the Islamic Republic is unhappy with, must be put on trial, and America must hand them over to Iran. In any case, in these two six-point plans that have appeared in the public media, the American side and the Islamic Republic are, in a way, far

13:24 apart, and I don't know, if there are negotiations, whether things like this will be on the table or whether other things will be raised. In any case, talk, negotiations, rumors and the like are in full swing. Unfortunately, the war is also still in full swing. Hoping for the victory of Iran and Iranians.