On the last stop of Zeteo’s ‘Bold and Unfiltered’ one-year anniversary tour, Mehdi hosted a panel discussion on Iran with Reza Aslan, Iranian-American author and academic, and Tommy Vietor, former Obama National Security Council spokesman and the co-host of ‘Pod Save America.’
They also took questions from the diverse audience of 500 people at the Los Angeles Theatre Center during a lively evening that gave subscribers an opportunity to meet Mehdi and the Zeteo team and included desserts from the renowned Knafeh Queens.
Following Tucker Carlson’s viral interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, who failed to answer simple questions about Iran, Mehdi wonders why some right-wing figures have suddenly become voices of reason when it comes to war with Iran.
Aslan agrees, and points out the similarities between the Iraq War and the current situation with Iran: “We went into the Iraq War not just under false pretenses, but with absolute ignorance about Iraq, its culture, its politics, its people. And it’s very clear that we’re falling into the same trap again.” And he adds, “There is a series of lies that are being told about the need to go to war with Iran that are just as urgent.”
As tensions continue escalating, Donald Trump set a two-week deadline to determine whether the US will strike Iran’s nuclear sites. As a potential US attack looms over Iran, Trump urged the nation to return to the negotiating table.
Vietor slams the move, arguing, “This idea that now it’s on Iran to come back to the table… How are the Iranians supposed to trust anyone involved here?”
He notes that where we are now is a result of Donald Trump’s decision to back out of the nuclear deal in 2018: “There’s a direct line from that decision to today because Donald Trump could have stayed in the deal, renegotiated it, made it tougher… and then called it the Trump nuclear deal. And he would have had a huge victory, but instead, he was a petulant little baby and he pulled out.”
Moving forward, Vietor believes that a war with Iran could create further turmoil among Democrats, and tells Mehdi, “The Democratic party has lost the mantle of being the anti-war party.”
Aslan adds, “These are the kinds of wars that you get into by accident. I know that we are all sitting around waiting to find out what Trump is going to decide… I think this is exactly the kind of war that you just kind of stumble into and that’s what I’m mostly afraid of.”
Paid subscribers can watch the full conversation above to also hear some great questions from the audience, and insights about what regime change could look like in Iran, where Democrats stand on a potential war, and how this conflict affects Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza.
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