Continued Israeli attacks on infrastructure and factories, increasing the possibility of dialogue...

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, 10 Farvardin 1405, March 30, 2026. First, I apologize: I have a bad cold and may cough, and I hope it won't bother you. The news surrounding the war continues as intensely as before, and it is still one of the most important stories in the world. According to the New York Post, Mr. Trump mentioned Qalibaf's name in a conversation with one of its reporters. In other words, when Trump said that we have an important person inside Iran we are talking to, many people speculated that it was Mr.

1:00 Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Majlis. The New York Post says Trump told them this, but Qalibaf has denied it in Iran. He responded very harshly, saying that Trump presents his fantasies as facts. In any case, Mr. Trump first gave a 48-hour deadline, then said negotiations were underway and extended it by 5 days, and then extended it by another 10 days. He has postponed strikes on Iran's infrastructure until 17 Farvardin. But today Mr. Trump again issued threats, saying that if the negotiations get nowhere,

1:55 America will target Iran's infrastructure, such as power plants, refineries, desalination plants and so on. The White House spokesperson repeated much the same thing. Meanwhile, America keeps delaying, and at the same time large numbers of troops, including paratroopers, Marines and others, have been dispatched to the region and are on their way. This is exactly what the rulers of Tehran are saying: that America may be lying, that these deadlines are just to give its forces time to arrive, and that ultimately it wants to carry out a military operation. The operation being talked about is the occupation of the three islands

2:55 in the Persian Gulf, namely Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb and Greater Tunb, as well as Larak and Kharg islands. Even Qeshm is mentioned as a place where they might land troops and take control. The Islamic Republic, for its part, has said that if they do this, American soldiers will come within its reach, and that a ground war is actually much more favorable for it. It has also said it will intensify attacks on infrastructure across the region. But while Iran and America play this so-called tit-for-tat game, threatening each other or talking about

3:51 negotiations and other things, Israel is going about its own business. In the meantime, it struck power facilities in Tehran and Karaj today. Power was cut for a while; it was restored in Tehran, but in Karaj the outage lasted longer. It also struck the petrochemical plant in Tabriz. Strikes on factories, urban centers, and places that Israel says belong to people of the regime are continuing with great intensity. What we are hearing is that the Israelis say that because missile and drone facilities and parts are made, for example, in the country's factories, they will go after all of them and hit them.

4:49 This is one of those arguments where, with thousands of industrial enterprises in Iran, some of them, including the country's advanced factories, may have taken orders to make, I don't know, a screw or a washer for some military equipment, or even more complex parts. In this way, Israel is seeking to destroy a large part of our industry. Even if we accept this reasoning, it is not clear, for example, what justification there is for hitting the Tabriz petrochemical plant, even within this plan. Iran, for its part, has fired missiles at Israel, and the Haifa refinery caught fire again. In addition, a missile hit an industrial facility and caused a gas leak with a risk of poisoning, and various alerts were issued in

5:48 Israel. Israeli financial officials say the war is costing Israel $1 billion a week. With Israel's GDP of about $500 billion, that is two-tenths of a percent of its GDP every week, which is not sustainable or bearable for a country like Israel. Today Iran also attacked Kuwait's desalination plant and oil facilities again. Iran has denied it and says Israel carried out the attack, but the Arab countries do not accept this. Countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia have condemned it and say

6:45 that the Islamic Republic is constantly attacking Kuwait. In any case, the war continues. So far the Islamic Republic has succeeded in closing the Strait of Hormuz, and as a result North Sea oil rose as high as $116 a barrel. It came down a little today, but it was at $114 a barrel. This has pushed up gasoline prices at the pump, in America for example, by at least three-odd percent, and diesel prices have risen even more. Truckers are complaining, because this has driven up freight rates.

7:40 On top of that there is natural gas and dozens of other goods that, it turns out, came from this Persian Gulf region. As a result, stock markets have come under pressure, and prices have gone up in markets around the world, in supermarkets, and for people's everyday consumer goods. In any case, 10 million barrels of oil have been taken off the world market because of the war by America and Israel against Iran and what is happening in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. Iran has also threatened that if the attacks continue,

8:34 it has the capability to threaten Bab el-Mandeb as well. Shipping comes from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, or the other way around, and ultimately passes through Bab el-Mandeb, where the Red Sea connects to the Gulf of Aden and from there to the Indian Ocean. It is one of the most strategic points in the world. Perhaps more than 20 percent of the world's container trade passes through it, so a threat there could also put a great deal of pressure on global trade. Now, on Saturday and Sunday, that is yesterday and the day before, the Iran Freedom Congress held its first

9:33 conference in London, with more than 200 to 300 people attending. A broad spectrum was present at the meeting: representatives of Iran's ethnic groups, representatives of the group known as "the 17" inside Iran, a representative of the Teachers' Trade Association, jurists, students, as well as republican and constitutionalist tendencies. Because of commitments I had in Washington, I was unable to go to London and take part. But as far as I have followed it, the meeting was successful. The speeches, roundtables and group discussions, both in the conference hall and on the sidelines, focused mainly on recognizing

10:33 a pluralistic Iran, a pluralist approach for Iran, and recognizing this pluralism. The point was that this pluralism is needed both in the transition away from this regime and in tomorrow's Iran, and that it must be recognized in order to build democracy. In various talks from the beginning to the end of the conference, different speakers condemned this devastating war against Iran, our homeland, and called for it to end. Apparently it was also agreed at the conference that this work should continue and grow into structures that can sustain these gatherings and give structure to

11:32 the pluralism of Iranian society, so that we can also advance the struggle for democracy inside Iran. According to people who were at the meeting, when attendees were leaving the hall at the end, a number of supporters of absolute monarchy were outside. As usual with these groups, things escalated to some threats and insults. Fortunately, with the police present and security maintained, it passed without any clashes. But this is one of those ugly practices that some people outside Iran, where there are free and democratic spaces, have taken up for some time now: anyone who supports anything other than absolute

12:25 monarchy, they subject to accusations, insults and sometimes threats. Hoping for the victory of Iran and the Iranian people.