The Electronic Intifada Podcast 14 April 2024
Ali Abunimah, Jon Elmer, Asa Winstanley, Tamara Nassar and I were pleased to welcome Dr. Mohammad Marandi, professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran and noted political and strategic analyst to a special edition of the livestream on Sunday.
He spoke about the Iranian action, what message Tehran hoped to send and the broader political and strategic implications as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza.
Jump to Dr. Mohammad Marandi’s segment here.
Iran’s action came in response to Israel’s brazen attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus earlier this month, a flagrant violation of international law that killed a dozen people including two senior Iranian generals.
Israel has acknowledged that Saturday night’s Iranian strike hit a major airbase in the south, but Tel Aviv is claiming damage was minor and is trying to downplay the overall impact of the Iranian action.
The United States mobilized its own forces and those of client states across the region to try to shoot down the Iranian missiles and drones. Israel insists that the vast majority were intercepted, however videos disseminated by media show numerous missile hits on the ground.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the force that carried out the operation aimed at Israeli military targets, assessed that the attack was more successful than expected.
“Our information on all of the hits is not complete yet but on that part of the hits that we have accurate, documented and field-related reports show that this operation has been carried out with a success that exceeded the expectation,” Major General Hossein Salami told Iran’s IRNA news agency.
“At this point, Iran has no intention to continue defensive operations, but if necessary, it will not hesitate to protect its legitimate interests against any new aggression,” Tehran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted on Sunday.
Israel was reported to be weighing its response, under pressure from the White House not to retaliate, as Washington fears an even wider regional confrontation in which its own assets and clients would be extremely vulnerable to Iranian military action.These are just some of the many topics we cover on The Electronic Intifada livestream. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
With Ali Abunimah, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Jon Elmer, Tamara Nassar and Asa Winstanley
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