Eye For Iran

The 'Iranians for Trump' movement has emerged ahead of the US presidential election. Iran International's Negar Mojtahedi sat down with one of its founders Sarah Raviani who explains why she, a Gen Z with immigrant roots, is voting for Trump.

Tom Sharpe, a retired Royal Navy Commander, who served alongside US forces in the Red Sea for 20 years, said the Americans are losing to the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group. He describes it as a dire situation with economic, geopolitical and environmental impacts on the world. Sharpe warns on the 'Eye for Iran' podcast that Iran is winning, and the US and West are losing this battle if policymakers don't change tactics.

A recent report questions the accuracy of Tehran's long-vaunted missile program.  On this episode of Eye for Iran,  we speak with Farzin Nadimi, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute, specializing in the security and defense affairs of Iran and the greater region, and Jay Solomon, an investigative reporter with the Free Press. They tell us about how some of Iran's missiles are percise and deadly and how Iran is a lot closer to the nuclear bomb than most experts thought. Find out how Iran's missile program is connected to its nuclear ambitions, and why that matters.

Russia and Iran are embroiled in regional conflicts that seem to have no end in sight. Ukraine's Aug 6 incursion into Russia took the war back to the country that started it, while the apparent Israeli assassination of Hamas’ leader in Tehran on July 31 has left Iran spitting venom at its foes, with uncertainty on its next move.   

Joining this week’s episode of Eye for Iran is Greg Brew, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group, who brings together the web of connections between Iran, Russia and their allies in the Middle East while war wages on two continents.

A French journalist and analyst came  face-to-face with Iran’s Supreme Leader in 2017, an encounter that was years in the making as she was groomed into becoming a propagandist for the Islamic Republic. Speaking about her experiences, Catherine Perez-Shakdam revealed new details about the decade she visited Iran and managed to infiltrate Iran's ruling class, meeting the country's most powerful men. In Episode 12 of 'Eye for Iran' Shakdam tells us how she managed to form relationships and build trust, her personal encounter with two former presidents and why she believes the West is in danger of the Islamic Republic's influence.

While Iran and Israel remain on the knife edge of all-out war, the two adversaries appear to be playing ‘chicken’, according an international relations expert speaking on this week’s episode of Eye for Iran.The tension between the two countries comes in the backdrop of the highest threat to regional stability.Tehran, long suspected by Israel to have ambition of obtaining nuclear arms, is planning to test nuclear bomb detonators, according to exclusive reporting by Iran International.University of Waterloo Political Scientist Professor Bessma Momani tells Eye for Iran podcast that this is part of a psychological warfare by Iran to show Israel that there's a price to pay for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month. But in this tit-for-tat, mistakes can happen, said Momani, that could edge us closer to regional war.

The Middle East is on the edge - bracing for a potential war as Iran decides how it retaliates to the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran. Speaking to Israeli lawmaker Amit Halevi, Negar Mojtahedi examines how Israel respond to a potential attack from Iran, and how are neighbouring Arab countries reacting, beyond the official statements?

A British-Australian academic who was falsely imprisoned in Iran under espionage charges said the systematic incompetence of Iran’s security apparatus and the Iranian public’s sympathies to their own government’s enemies were the possible reasons why the leader of Hamas was assassinated in northern Tehran on July 31. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who came into contact with high-level IRGC and state officials while jailed in the notorious Evin prison, explains why she believes there was likely an insider behind the suspected Israeli hit, as Iran reels in the wake of Ismail Haniyeh's assassination. Speaking to host Negar Mojtahedi, Moore-Gilbert also shares what she learned about her captors and what that means about the state of mind of high-ranking government officials in this week's episode of 'Eye for Iran.'

During his address to Congress this week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a military alliance in the Middle East to counter Iran. The Eye for Iran podcast talks to one of his former advisors, Alex Selsky about this plan and what Netanyahu’s speech meant for the US and Iran. Also on this week’s episode, we’ll be asking Iranian-American advocate Sarah Raviani about President Joe Biden’s legacy on Iran as he made the historic decision to drop out of the US presidential elections.

A former Donald Trump top advisor revealed in this week's episode of 'Eye for Iran' that a second Trump presidency may have a 'zeal for a deal,' leading to negotiations with the Iranian government and fewer confrontations. John Bolton, a former U.S. national security adviser and long-time proponent of regime change in Iran, told host Negar Mojtahedi that Trump would be likely to compromise with Tehran rather than seek the overthrow of the cleric-ruled system.