Update on Iran War | What the Ceasefire Doesn’t Resolve

Right now, the most important topic when it comes to economy is the war with Iran, and there's a lot of misinformation and confusion in the media about the war with Iran and what's really happening. Today we sit down with Lisa Daftari, who has been studying that region for over a couple of decades. She's going to tell us what's really going on on the ground and elements that might not have been covered in the media here. I'm Siamak, and this is Market Insider. Lisa, it's great to have you on. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. We want to talk to you about Iran. When it comes to the stock market, the economy, everything is looking at the news of Iran. We're wondering, despite all these efforts, this war that's going on, the regime's leaders have been taken out. How are they still standing and non-negotiating? Yeah, it's a great question. I think a lot of people saw what happened in overnight. President Trump has his teams go in, they remove Maduro, and all of a sudden we equate that with regime change. You don't have that kind of structure with the regime inside Iran. What you have is 47 years of them fortifying themselves both horizontally and vertically, meaning it wasn't just the leadership at the top. You have 100,000 to 250,000 operatives in terms of that they imported from places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, Palestinians, all sorts of Iraqis that they imported to do their dirty work, meaning kill thousands and thousands of protesters and such. The MO of this regime has been every time that it is under fire or in trouble or under sanctions, survival equals victory for them. Meaning if they can endure, if they can play the long game, then they can stay around for more and more time. And that is what they want. They are not suicidal in the sense that they are willing to die as martyrs for this regime. They want to live, they want to stay in power, they want to enrich themselves and their families. And so you're seeing so many stories of their family members living abroad, whether it's in America or in Europe, in the laps of luxury, going to designer stores and driving sports cars and all kinds of things, because that is their end goal. They use this ideology to be an infallible voice. That means no one can disagree with them. If you disagree with them, you're thrown in jail, you're executed. But they don't believe in the ideology, meaning they are not devout Muslims who are willing to die for the cause in order to stay in power. With regards to how they have stayed in power for the last 47 years, we have to look at a few things. The fact that they have fortified themselves not only internally with the structures that I just mentioned, but also externally. From day one, they said death to Israel, death to America, and they began to export their brand of Shiite Islam. Now, the world went crazy over ISIS, the Islamic State, in comparison to ISIS, the Islamic State. This regime is the true Islamic State, meaning they used every resource they had, every dollar they had, to fortify themselves and then to export their brand of Shiite Islam around the world. They created proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis. They're the number one exporter of terrorism, suicide bombers, all around the world. So they have touched multiple continents in almost five decades with doing their suicide bombing and exporting this brand or this ideology around the world. Now, you've been studying this space for many, many years. Were you surprised by these missile cities under the ground that the regime has been building? I'm not surprised. Why? Because I watched October 7th. I watched as, for years, they have, again, maintained themselves through proxies, through terrorism, through, again, just enduring and just staying above level. In terms of these cities, we saw the tunnels that were built by Hamas in Gaza. We saw the October 7th that was funded by, executed by, trained by this regime and was basically a prelude as to what would happen inside Iran when the people rose up in January and 30,000 to 50,000 Iranians were killed in wholesale fashion with military-grade weapons when all they were doing is fighting for freedom. This is a regime that will use, again, every resource they have to stay in power. So why wouldn't they fortify themselves, move their enriched uranium? You know, in June, I think it was more of a warning for them as to what may come. So as of June, we saw the 12-day war in June where Israel began to strike their nuclear facilities and military facilities, and you saw Donald Trump join in a very limited campaign that only went after their military and, again, nuclear facilities. But I think it was both a wake-up call to the United States and to Iran's regime as to what could potentially happen. For the United States, it was that this is not an easy task. We know that they have bunkers and they are hiding underground and, you know, it's not going to be easy with the fortification that they have with this enriched uranium. Uranium will become a very big issue in this campaign going forward because how do we get the enriched uranium out? And for the time being, if they have or are in possession of enriched uranium and we give them some sort of breathing space, if President Trump decides that regime change will be within this regime, which is an oxymoron, then what's going to happen the next day? Centrifuges will begin spinning again. They will try to amass more ballistic missiles. They will try to fund more proxies and, again, they will start to kill innocent Iranians all over again. So I'm not surprised because the handbook of this regime has been the same for five decades. They haven't changed. It's just that the American administrations that we have had have reacted differently to the same enemy. So for different administrations, we ping-ponged, Republicans and Democrats, we ping-ponged incorrectly between two myopic choices, bomb Iran or accept the bomb. And neither one was the right choice because when you want to bomb Iran or carpet bomb Iran, how about the Iranian people? They're our biggest ally in this fight. We want to just target the regime. And when you accept the bomb, where we saw the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal under President Obama, what did that do? Just give them money and time to play out the clock. They turned off the surveillance cameras that the IAEA put in place. They lied about it. The centrifuges were spinning. They continued on with their nuclear program in other capacities where they were able to. So Donald Trump comes up with the third option, something that I have been talking about since 2005, where I was invited to Congress. I made a documentary that was called Marzipor Gohar, which means the glorious frontiers. And it was about the concept of the third option. What's the third option? Use the people of Iran as an ally. We don't have to let Iran get the bomb, but work together with the Iranian people. That can be the grassroots uprising on the ground to get us to where we need to be. There will be no victory for the United States, for Israel or for the Iranian people if this regime stays in place or any remnants of this regime stay in place. Now, before we get into the people of Iran, there is another side of this where there has always been multiple fractions in Iran, the hardliners and the people that are more open to reform, the reformists. Right now, there are some conflicts among the leadership in Iran, whatever is left of them. Can you tell us what's that about? Yeah, that's actually part of the psyop that Israel and the United States were hoping to create, meaning when they start to kill factions of the leadership or even in the June 12 day war, we saw this, right? So if someone was taken out in their bedroom and there was information that the Mossad had that was able to get that person in such a targeted way, everyone starts looking around. Who's the leaker? Who's the spy? Who among us is working against us? Likewise, when they start killing factions within the Basij, what the hope is, the Iranian people don't have weapons. They don't have military level organization or capabilities on the ground. The hope is that when you're killing members of the IRGC, you're killing members of the Basij, you're basically setting a kind of a warning to those thousands of operatives and saying, put down your weapons, join the people, defect, you have a choice. And President Trump said it within the first hours of this war, you have a choice, put down your weapons. And once we have that at scale, the Iranian people are looking at a very different opportunity to revolt against the regime. Now they may have people who are trained, people who have weapons and those who are willing to join them if they are willing to, again, give up their position within the regime. Within the regime itself, there was always a question, even before these military campaigns from Israel or the United States, for years there was a question of when Khamenei dies, which the man lived forever, I don't know how long he would have lived if he died of natural causes, but the question always was, when Khamenei dies, who's going to take over? And that that succession plan was never clear. There was already infighting and rifts within the regime as to who was going to take over. So now I think there is no way to return back to the status quo, obviously, not only because these people were killed, not only because they lost many of their main leadership, but because there is no trust, not among themselves and not with the people of Iran. This is not a legitimate regime in their eyes. Why do you think they are not accepting the proposal from President Trump right now? This is a regime that has always used force and threats as a way forward. In order to compromise, what are they going to be compromising right now? I think they believe that they actually have to go all the way, meaning every single missile has to be fired, every single proxy has to be engaged in this war, and they will not give up any of the points that Donald Trump has put out in any compromise. So what would that be? Zero ballistic missiles, zero nuclear capabilities, enrichment has to be, the uranium has to be forfeited, and the proxies have to be dismantled completely. And right now, when you look at them, a wounded regime whose navy has been decapitated, their communications systems have been completely obliterated, missiles have been very much degraded, nuclear program very much degraded. How can they go forward? But they believe that they can, and they will try to till the very last breath. What about countries like China that are supporting them? How much China has played as a support role to this regime? So China has been involved with the Iran regime for years now. Starting a decade ago in 2016, we saw Xi Jinping made a visit to Iran. He was thinking about ways in which he could work or collaborate together with the regime. And in 21, five years ago, 2021, they came up with a 25-year plan. And that 25-year plan would give the regime infrastructure, investments, investments in their oil, investments in energy, investment in technology, in exchange for what? Cheap, cheap, cheap oil, crude oil. And for years, we saw this relationship where they were paying them millions and millions of dollars for millions of barrels of oil each day. So China has been benefiting. You have to understand something about China. They are equal opportunity opportunists. They diversify their portfolio. It's not just the Iran regime that's in their portfolio. They also want to work with countries in Africa, countries in the Middle East, the West, as much as they can. So they go in and they rescue different governments. And they have created this kind of engagement of bedfellows that have been isolated from the West. Now, in terms of China's involvement in the current war, they have helped the regime to the point where their hand is invisible. So we see missiles that are better. We see even when their crude would be delivered, they had them in these shadow fleets that would not be attacked. That would basically survive the sanctions and find loopholes in ways. And even in banking, they weren't paying with the dollar. They found ways to work around that as well, basically trying to isolate the West or the United States and keep them away from their partnership. So it has worked for them. So you're working with them quietly without saying much, but they're doing a lot of deals behind the scenes. Deals behind the scene. And with the current war, again, helping them with different, obviously, the missiles are better. We see that they're falling into Israel with much more precision. So you think these missiles are coming from China? Absolutely. Or at least the technology, they are getting at least some sort of guidance from China. But in the meantime, we have to remember, China has a deal with Iran about 400 billion dollars. They also have deals with Saudi. They also have deals with the UAE. Those portfolios are also very important to them and are worth more to them than the deals that they have with Iran's regime. So China doesn't want to disrupt anything. They have their own issues. They have their own issues in the seas. They're looking at Taiwan, looking at all kinds of future opportunities for themselves. They're not going to get cornered into a war because of Iran's regime. But at the same time, does it benefit them? Absolutely. The two have been working very closely together and has benefited both of them tremendously. You mentioned they're getting significant amounts of oil from Iran. And what does that kind of deal look like? Is it public? And how much is the benefit to China? We've known about this. So it's more than a million barrels a day. I mean, it's quite lucrative for Iran's regime. It has been. And of course, for China to get such cheap oil has been tremendous. I know Donald Trump turned around and said to China, you open up the Strait of Hormuz. It's benefiting you as well, which is an interesting point to make that there are many countries that have been benefiting from this but not involving themselves in this war, China being another one of them, Russia as well. So with regards to China, I think they just hope to find the next vulnerable player and make a good deal with them rather than to really find themselves an ally of the regime. Right now, they're interest aligned. They're not allies. And how much discount do you think they're getting on the oil? Is it public? It's tremendous. I have seen some numbers. I don't know if they are actually true. I know that the deals were made public. The 25 year deal was made public. Someone said it was to the tune of 400 billion dollars. We don't know. We don't know if China has that to pay or if the regime has a way to collect on that with all the sanctions. They say that they have found ways around it so that they don't have to use that they don't. They can work around the sanctions very well. And I think, you know, the fact that they are not involving themselves tells me it's a good deal, but it's not a deal that is worth China's fingerprints being in this issue right now. Now, let's go to the people of Iran. How are they looking at this war inside Iran? Yeah. You know, if anyone comes on your screen and tells you that they speak for 90 plus million people in Iran, they're frauds. So I can't tell you that I speak for all 90 plus million people inside Iran, but I can tell you that I've been doing this for a very long time and I can talk about the evolution of the average Iranian even over the last 20 years or so. If we look at the Green Revolution, for example, that was over a fraudulent election. People came out onto the streets. The Iranian people for the first time started using social media and a huge grassroots movement at scale. They introduced themselves to the world. All of a sudden, people realized that the Iranian people are cool and good looking and modern, and they want all the benefits of the West because of social media. They've understood this. They learn about it. They see it all day. They're educated and they don't want this regime. But the Iranian protesters themselves, they went from reform to let's dabble with regime change. Let's dabble with we don't want this regime. And it felt good to them. And then all of a sudden the movement collapsed, whether it was because President Obama wanted to pursue diplomacy or whether it was because Michael Jackson died and the news cycle was over. It wasn't their time. And then you move towards all the different protests that we've seen in the last 15, 20 years. And each time the Iranian people have become more bold and more sure and convicted that they want regime change. Up until where you saw large, large scale protests after the death of 22 year old Masa Amini, who, if you recall, was killed because she was showing a bit of her hair under her hijab and was beaten to death. All of a sudden you saw people, men, women, all ages. That's where we saw the expansion of the protests, meaning the socioeconomic brackets expanded. We saw it in all provinces across Iran, all generations across Iran, where there was this idea of we will get our country back. And that stayed, that stayed. And it basically created the foundation of what we're seeing right now. The majority of people inside Iran, I don't want to give us a number, but if I were to give a number, I would say about 80 percent of people inside Iran are disenchanted with this regime and want regime change. Now, those who are the 15, 20 percent that don't want regime change, what is it? They're either apolitical or they maintain some sort of benefit from this regime. And traditionally, we would say that is the more religious or poor socioeconomic brackets. But I have to add this. Over the last few years from Masa Amini until now, we are also seeing protests in more religious and clerical cities that we did not see before. So in places like Mashhad, Qom, we never saw protests because those constituencies were mostly with the government and not for regime change. Across the board, you're seeing a lot of people who are going to sacrifice for regime change. That's why you saw 30,000 to 50,000 people killed in the name of what? Just freedom. We have so many people on the streets here in the United States that go out, whether it's here in Europe, we're seeing it a lot, that say the Iranian people don't want war. The Iranian people don't want missiles on their head. You have to understand what the Iranian people have gone through for 47 years to be willing to not only endure, but to ask for, to beg Donald Trump to begin this military campaign, to be saved, to be freed. A lot of people compare it to a cancer patient who needs chemo. This tumor needs to be removed. And the Iranian people are willing to go through this war in order to get to the other side. I'm hearing this more and more from the Iranian people who I'm able to speak to. As you all know, we're having 38 days now of internet blackout. It's the highest or the longest period of time that any country has had internet blackout in such a campaign. And the Iranian people find their ways very, very uniquely, have become so savvy to get their messages out, become citizen journalists, and to communicate with the rest of the world. And that is what I'm hearing from my sources on the ground over and over again. Please don't let them stop this war. And do they want to go out and fight? The Iranian people are brave, but they're not stupid. To go out and fight right now would mean to lose their lives. What they have been told right now from whether it's Reza Pahlavi, or from anybody who understands what's going on right now. Which is the prince in Iran. He's the former Shah's son, prince. The son of the former king of Iran, the Shah of Iran, who lives in exile. He lives in the outskirts of Washington, D.C. He is the one whose name we hear more often than anyone else's. No one else's name is being called. He has maintained or been the guardian of regime change, or the guardian of bringing back Iranian civilization. He's worked on a proposal to transition Iran into democratic, secular society with free elections. And his platform is to let the Iranian people decide their fate going forward. Now, in the protests that we have seen over the last few years, and in particular in December and January, we heard his name being called out in the slogans, his picture being held up, graffiti on the sides of buildings with his name on it. And the people truly believing that the only chance they have at some sort of organization or transitional period is through him. So he is also, he communicates with the people, he sends out videos. And one of the main messages he has had to the Iranian people is to stay inside until the time is right. And what does that mean? If they come out right now, they will be slaughtered. They are staying inside. A lot of the families that have their children or elderly have moved to the countryside or to the Caspian to get out of harm's way. The others know that they don't have bomb shelters, they don't have sirens, they have no way of knowing when the next bomb is going to hit or where it's going to hit. As much as these bombs are targeted, again, to military and nuclear sites, there obviously is a chance of fallout, and they are told to stay inside. They go to subterranean parking lots where they can hide underground if they have a chance to do that. But right now is not the time, and they know that. They don't have the weapons, they don't have the organization, but they certainly have the will, and they're just waiting for the time. What about the Strait of Hormuz? If the U.S. wants to open it up, is it possible for them to open it? It is, and militarily that may be the next move to take the Strait of Hormuz or one of the islands as leverage over the regime. The regime knew that that would be the choke point to basically disable or basically throw into chaos the global oil supply, at least temporarily, and they've used that leverage. So for the United States to militarily take that over, especially with assets moving in that direction, I would see that as a smart move in this next chapter. I think the theater is going to move very much into the Strait of Hormuz. That is what Donald Trump has emphasized over and over again, open up the Strait with other colorful language, open up the Strait, open up the Strait. So we're waiting to see what the regime will do with regards to the threats and what the regime will do with regards to really holding this as leverage. More ships have been going through, but there still is the threat of mines and other attacks while the ships go through. So that's why we're seeing a pause in that. And they're charging a fee, right? A million dollars per ship or something, two million or something. They're doing what they can to use it as leverage. This is, like I said, they will use any tool they have as leverage to be in this game, to endure and to maintain themselves. To them, that is victory at this point. What about the media coverage of this war? There is a lot of people that bundle the people you mentioned in Iran with the government together. It's unfortunate. So for years, when I first started, first it was to separate the Iran regime from the Iranian people. Then it was to explain what the Iranian people are enduring day in and day out, whether it's lack of religious freedom, lack of social freedoms, lack of political freedoms, the number of executions. They're also the number one world executioner. Even now in this war, they have managed to execute. In addition to those protesters, we have seen execution of 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds who were just out protesting for their, again, basic, basic freedom. So with regards to the media, there's two issues of looking at this. Either they're ignorant and don't understand, or they just don't have the knowledge about what Iran is going through, what the people want. They look at this as a war. They are positioning this through the lens of how they see Donald Trump. So if they don't like Donald Trump, they don't like this war. Or seeing this, if they don't like Bibi Netanyahu, well, Bibi Netanyahu forced Trump, because Trump is such a weakling, right? They make up these narratives about how this war is either Bibi's war, it's Trump's war, it's to get us away from the Epstein story. There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there. You also have to add in the layer of narrative warfare by Iran's regime that has been going on for years. They are active in Instagram and TikTok and on Twitter, on X, where they are basically not only driving the narrative with regards to this war, they're driving the narrative by making the people here in the expatriate community, the opposition, fight each other with different nuances regarding the war. So their point is to sow chaos, their agenda, and they do it so well. The media here falls for it time and again. So for years, we knew that Iran's regime, also very similarly to what the Qataris do, they have elite capture. So they pay for professors and people in the media, experts, to speak a certain way, and they are on the regime's payroll. And people find this to be crazy, but there's actual proof in all of this. They have their own lobby. That lobby was invited to the Biden White House 26 times to discuss Iran. So they have major influence in Washington and in the media as well. Now, the job of the media is to really get down to the facts. And if you ask them, or if you criticize any of what I'm talking about, if the real transparent coverage of Iran, they'll tell you, we can't have reporters in Iran. Well, CNN has a reporter in Iran, and they're not doing a good job. They're giving them a big smooch, a big kiss of approval by sitting down and giving legitimacy to this regime that is a terrorist regime that has American blood on its hands, that has never allowed the media, unless it's a flattering media that will work side by side the regime and give them, again, positive coverage. You don't have actual footage or actual coverage coming out of Iran. And others will use the actual state media reports from inside Iran to tell the story. So they'll show people on the streets holding the regime's flag or saying, we don't want this war, or we hate Trump. They're not showing you the majority of protesters that are holding up Bibi's picture and holding up Trump's picture and thanking them, dancing in the streets and passing out sweets here in the expatriate community in Los Angeles, for example, really showing a sigh of relief. I did a story recently about the story of the expatriate is very much parallel to those inside Iran. So for 47 years, whenever anybody would have come from Iran within these 47 years, their story is always the same. I'm here because they are meaning the regime. And I think that that's a story to be told as well. So look, there's a lot of nuance, but there's a lot of voices telling the truth as well. Social media is a double-edged sword, right? You hear all kinds of voices, but I really, I encourage people to find voices that are the true voices of the Iranian people or the expatriate community that are speaking on behalf of freedom loving Iranians who want nothing more than a chance at life and freedom in Iran. Do you think the regime will fall? Absolutely. I think, you know, if I believe in gravity, or if I believe in science, this regime has to fall because there is no going back. They have no legitimacy among the Iranian people. If we want to look at Israel or the United States, for Israel, it's an existential threat. If this regime stays in power, they will go back to wanting to take Israel off the map. And that's a no-go for Israel. For the United States, if our only strategic imperative is that this regime cannot have nuclear weapons, well, the very existence of any remnants of this regime is synonymous with having deadly weapons, with going back to spinning centrifuges, with going back to amassing missiles. So the foregone conclusion becomes, in order for there to be any victory for the United States, for Israel, and for the Iranian people, there has to be regime change. Now, whether that will happen in a month, six months, or a year, no one has that crystal ball. No one can tell you with certainty how that will happen or when that will happen, but I am certain that it has to happen. What about the idea of arming the people in Iran? What are your thoughts on that? So, for years, that has been the plan, is to arm the people of Iran in order to have a very organic grassroots movement that rises up. And people don't really know this, but the Achilles heel of this regime, what they are most fearful of is not Donald Trump or Bibi Netanyahu, it's actually the Iranian people rising up in the millions against them. Remember how they came into power? It was the footage of, you know, thousands and thousands of people coming out onto the streets. And I would say that in comparison to the people that we're seeing coming out onto the streets, and you want to compare that to the protests in 79, that was child's play. It was very minimal what you saw then. And right now you're seeing it across all provinces, disenchantment across the board, the economy in shambles. How can this society go back to living under this regime? The people will stand up. And if they have weapons, if there is a way forward for them to have weapons, that would be the most ideal way. The Iranian people have already accepted the fact that there will be a price to pay for their freedom. And the majority of Iranians are saying that they're willing to pay that price. It's so hard for us to sit here and tell them to do that. But when they're telling us that that is what they're willing to do, and all they need is the chance and the space, then we have to give it. For years, the message that I would get a lot from the people that I would speak to, particularly under President Biden and President Obama, would be, if you're not going to help us, at least don't side with our enemy. Don't side with this regime. Give us a chance to reclaim our country. And the time is ripe. There will never be this opportune moment for regime change inside Iran. And if it, again, is the will of the United States, of Israel, and of the Persian Gulf Arab states, we didn't even get into that. The fact that the Persian Gulf Arab states, the moderate Arab states in the region, are being fired at and are telling Donald Trump to finish the job is a tremendous pivot from what we have seen. In previous years, we've seen even the Saudis have aligned strategic deals with Iran's regime, even though the two have been at war in terms of their proxies for decades. Obviously, we know that Lebanon wants to get rid of Hezbollah. That would be a tremendous gift to Lebanon. We're seeing the UAE, we're seeing Qatar, all really under fire and not wanting this regime to go forward. So this is a complete reset of the Even if this regime or the remnants of it survive, it's not going to be for long. What we're going to see going forward is a moderate Middle East that is governed by commercial deals and not chaos, that is governed by trade and not terrorism. And the Abraham Accords set that tone in the first Trump administration. We're seeing more and more of that now as Qatar and Kuwait and all of these moderate Arab states pivot and turn towards the West. Why are they hitting these countries? That doesn't make sense at all. Even these countries were lobbying for them not to get in. It makes perfect sense because their strategic goal here is to sow chaos. They thought if they hit these sites, these Arab states would gang up on Israel and the United States to stop the war. But it backfired. And why did it backfire? Because these now Arab states want this war to continue more than ever. They want this regime gone more than ever. It's a clear delineation here as to how these Arab states want to go forward. They all thought that, wow, coming off of October 7th, everyone's going to gang up on Israel. We've created this ring of fire. We've surrounded them with the Houthis, with Hezbollah, with Hamas. And now we're going to get these Arab states to join us in fighting Israel as well or turning towards the United States and saying ceasefire right now. But the opposite happened. They actually are helping in this war, although they don't want to get involved and escalate, because that was the other intention. Donald Trump campaigned as a president on no new wars. He campaigned on no forever wars. The Iran regime thought if they get these other countries involved, Donald Trump will be fearful of this escalation, fearful of this lasting too long. When he started the war, he said four to six weeks. He wants to keep that timeline. Well, the Iran regime thought, well, if we make more chaos here and we blow this out of proportion, then Donald Trump will be forced to retreat and to ceasefire. Again, it backfired tremendously. And I'm so happy to hear, because when people ask me, what's your vision of the future of the Middle East? Abraham Accords. Abraham Accords all the way. I think there has been a coming of age for the Arab states that want to do away with the fact that they have to be burdened by the Palestinian issue. They want to move forward. They want deals. They want tourism. They want technology. And they can get that when they side with the United States and Israel. And what do they want? They want Iran's regime out. What about Houthis? They haven't got much into this conflict. Do you think they would come in or what do you think they're thinking? Yeah, they fired a few shots into Israel last week. That was the first we saw of them. Look, I've been actually surprised and pleasantly surprised that Iran's proxies, the regime's proxies have not inserted themselves in this war or in the June 12 day war in any significant or meaningful way that would help the regime. That tells me they believe that maybe they can outlast this regime if the regime is already going to collapse. They don't want to go down with them. Or perhaps they are waiting to fire a final surprise, maybe. But the strategy doesn't seem clear to me as to why the proxies have not inserted themselves in a powerful or meaningful way thus far. If you remember, especially Hezbollah is the golden child proxy of Iran's regime. They have over 100,000 missiles that were gifted to them from Iran's 100,000 missiles. Right. And they did not fire many of them into Israel so far. I mean, some, they just recently gotten involved in this arena. But in the June 12 day war, we didn't see them get involved. They didn't come to their rescue. We didn't see China come to their rescue. We didn't see the Houthis come to the rescue again in a meaningful way that would really, you know, change the equation in any way. But this tells me that they see what we see, that this regime is collapsing, that they are on their last straw. Will they play it out to the final stanza? Absolutely. But they are, this is the final stanza. They're going down. Lisa, when people look at the people of Iran, you mentioned they're there, 80% of them don't like the regime. They want to come out, change things. What are they actually facing today? And how are they getting threatened? So the Iranian people live under fear. That is the best way to describe it. So for years, it was, you couldn't be showing your hair as a woman. You couldn't dress the way you wanted to as a woman. You can't speak the way you would like. People who, I've covered stories that have been executed for a mere Facebook post. You can't be seen. Executed for a Facebook post. You can be arrested for having a certain thing on your Instagram account. There are, there was a wrestler, Navid Afkari, who was executed. Journalists, dancers, poets, all musicians, all under threat because of the lives that they live. Boyfriend and girlfriend can't be seen in the car together. They can't be seen out together. They can't be holding hands together. If a woman who is being severely abused in her marriage files for divorce, she potentially can't get a divorce. Or if she does, 100% of the assets of the family, including the children, go to the husband. Custody, everything goes to the husband. It is a society where the Iranian people, who are very much modern facing, who are very much educated, who are very much have become secular and have turned away from Islam of all sorts. They have no chance at life. They have no chance. They're educated. They can't get jobs. They have to work multiple jobs to put food on the table. The economy is in shambles. Women don't have any kind of rights in the court of law. Two women are equivalent to one man as witnesses in Sharia law. A society, again, that is governed by fear. And the Iranian people, they have reached their boiling point. And I think that that is an important thing for people in the West to understand. If we don't do this now, they're going to rise up again and again and again. And they're going to be killed again, again, and again. This is really the only chance that the Iranian people have seen. And that is why they have been so brave to come out onto the streets in this fashion and be killed, 30,000 to 50,000 of them. Imagine a mother who buries one child but tells the other child to go back out onto the streets and protest. That's what we're seeing among the Iranian people, that level of courage. I also want to talk about the generational dialogue that happens. So I hear from a lot of young people living in Iran. Now, remember, there was a baby boom. So two-thirds or more of the population never even lived under the Shah of Iran. That means they are younger than 47 years old. That generation says to their parents at the dinner table conversation, how did you let this country go? How did you squander what you had? And there is this faux nostalgia for the 70s. They listen to 70s music. They look at the parents' pictures of their mothers like I do. I look at my mother wearing the most fashionable outfits very freely, showing her hair, wearing a miniskirt, going to any school she chooses, studying what she wanted to study. So there is this generational dialogue where the children say to their parents, we will get the country back that you lost. And I think it's very interesting to see this kind of nostalgia or romanticizing of the 70s. And that's why we see so much of this reverence for Pahlavi or what we call Pahlavism, which is this love affair with what was and what will be. The Iranian people are very proud people. It is a civilization that is over 2,500 years old. And the Iranian people see the last 47 years as a blip in that timeline. So they look back at the 70s with such reverence and they say, we're going to get rid of this regime and we're going to build upon what was and we're going to get our country back and make it even better. Lisa Daftari, it was great to have you on. Please come and update us again. Thank you so much for having me. Tell us what you, our viewers, think about the situation with Iran. Do you agree with Lisa's point or do you have different opinions? I'm Siamak Korami. This is Market Insider. We'll see you next time.