Transcript
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the G7 for example their combined economic capabilities are much smaller
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than the combined economic capabilities of bricks and that Gap is simply going
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to increase in the years ahead and one would think that the United States and Europeans if they had rational leaders
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rather than these emotional angry politicians that they would be searching for
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solutions that would help the west and its Global standing they would try to
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seek a solution with countries like Iran to lessen tensions and to improve uh
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relations with countries across the global South but what they're doing instead is that they're simultaneously
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antagonizing different countries across the globe it's no longer just about Iran it's Iran Russia China and you know and
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the host of other uh smaller countries and the West has spread itself very thin
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so it's a foolish policy it's a failing policy and now they've created so many
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antagonists that it they're simply collapsing under the weight of their own foolish
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policies hello everyone today I'm joined by Professor Sayad Muhammad Mandi he's
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an academic at the University of tan and political analyst Professor Mandi and I
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are going going to discuss the recent news with respect to the bricks block there's a lot going on economic
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development aspirations for the global majority and what Iran's full membership
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in the bricks plus means for its economy Professor Mandi welcome I'm so thrilled to have you thank you very much for
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inviting me so the bricks plus has been making
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headlines this year everyone is waiting in anticipation of the annual Summit that is scheduled for October of this
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year it will take place in Russia in Kazan um and there's a high probability that a new alternative Financial system
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will be announced so with the number of crippling sanctions placed on developing countries and the uh recent seizure
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let's just call it that way of Russian Sovereign assets brics membership is now uh the goal of 50 plus Nations around
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the world and I think that is so impressive so what in your opinion eres
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to unite so many countries around the world uh despite their differences and
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in many cases despite conflicts that they've had uh
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before well you're going to have to thank the Americans and their allies for that
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they've antagonized so many different countries that uh there's become a uh
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it's created a global consensus literally or at least across the global
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South that something has to be done the United States has as you pointed out recently
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confiscated Uh Russian assets the United States and its allies but in the past
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they've confiscated Iranian assets uh Venezuelan assets and the assets of of
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other countries as well and by sanctioning uh a host of different
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countries in Latin America as well well as in uh Africa and Asia and now the
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Russians and increasingly China the United States is creating an incentive
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uh more than ever before for alternative trade mechanisms
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alternative uh means for carrying out business and alternative financial
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institutions and of course an alternative to the US dollar and
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uh the Americans and the Europeans they still don't seem to recognize that they
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are bringing about the downfall of their uh hegemony over financial institutions
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through these extremist acts and um even countries like India have a strong
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incentive to circumvent uh US Financial us controlled financial institutions
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because they want to do trade with countries like like Iran and Russia among others and uh no one wants
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to be told by the Americans and Europeans who they can trade with and who they can't trade with the days when
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the United States could dictate terms to almost all countries is over the United
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States has overextended its hand for a host of different reasons or due to a
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host of different reasons the uh endless Wars
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uh especially the wars after 911 uh the
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the policies that have been implemented whether it's quantitive easing or the
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the spend the the spending that the United States has um been carrying out
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for these wars or just the fact that they're printing money and imposing
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sanctions on one country after another all of these have combined to create a sense of urgency for
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countries to create this alternative mechanisms or these alternative mechanisms and uh China in particular
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being the global Factory being a key to the
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global economy sees that the United States is increasingly uh threatening China and
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imposing tariffs on China and imposing sanctions on China and showing greater hostility towards China so it too has a
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strong incentive to bring about these changes so you have countries like Iran
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and Russia which have uh huge resources in oil and gas and and natural and in
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all sorts of uh capabilities U and and huge populations
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and then you have China which as I said is the uh it's it's growing rapidly it's
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becoming even more advanced than the United States when we comes to high-tech
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Industries so all of these countries combined with their different capabilities their
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resources uh their highly uh motivated Workforce they highly educated
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Workforce uh and uh and the capabilities uh economic prowess of
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countries like China all of these combined make it I think inevitable that
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the US dollar is going to decline and Western Banks and financial institutions
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are going to decline as well and I think it's going to have catastrophic consequences for the United States if
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demand for the US dollar decreases and as it decreases and the dollar declines
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I think there will even reach a point where there is a sudden collapse because people will begin to uh rapidly turn
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away from the dollar so this is something that they've done to themselves it's not something that the
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Iranians have done it's not something that the Russians have done it's not something that the Brazilians or the Indians or the Chinese have done it's
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something that the Americans and their allies have done to so many different countries that now these countries have come together and said we need a
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solution and uh with the recent expiration of the Petro dollar agreement
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uh what do you uh make of that what is the ultimate goal for Saudi Arabia to uh
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effectively balance trade using a variety a basket of currencies uh what
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do you think that means in terms of just the global economy and the impact that it will have on the uh decline in demand
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for the dollar this is already happening yeah Russian oil and gas Iranian oil and gas
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as well as um Venezuelan o o is being
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sold in uh other currencies and for the most part they're not using the US
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dollar but since Saudi Arabia is such a large oil producer this is very
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significant and uh the reason why the sodes are doing this is not necessarily
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because they want to oppose the United States I don't think anyone really
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thinks that way the leadership in Saudi Arabia is is closely bound to the United
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United States all of the princes uh and the Crown Prince uh they
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frequent the West they constantly travel to the West their children study in the west they go to the West for
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vacation uh they have a lot of their Assets in Western Banks and in Western
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uh countries but I think they see how fast the United States is declining and
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they recognize that the United States is incapable of protecting uh the Saudi
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regime let alone other regimes in the Persian Gulf region when a few years ago
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uh Saudi uh oil installations were a Kodi oil instulation was
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devastated by drones uh the Americans could do nothing about it and when the
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Saudis were losing the war against Yemen especially during the last months of the
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War uh the Americans were incapable of stopping Yemen and now theic Americans
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are incapable of stopping the uh embargo or The Siege on the Israeli regime in
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the Red Sea uh the yemeni Armed Forces or ansar they uh said that they're going to
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impose a blockade and the Americans have been trying to break that siege for many
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months now but they failed so the Sodis and other countries see this weakness in
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the west they see that the the W West cannot support the these family dictatorships and and other regimes
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across the world and so they are beginning to look to improve relations
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with other countries and uh the Sodis will are thinking about trading in the
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Yuan because they want to have better relations with China they are also coordinating their oil exports or the
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amount of oil they're exporting with the Russians because they want good relations with Russia so I think this is
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a sign of us decline rather than uh any
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uh initiative that's being taken in Riyad Saudi
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Arabia in terms of bricks opportunities if you had to Define maybe the top two
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or top three uh goals for Iran as a full member of bricks what would those goals
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be well I'll give you uh an example last which uh I think is in is interesting
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uh first of all I think uh it's key that these countries want to expand trade and
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business with one another they want to not just circumvent the US dollar and
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Western financial institutions but they want to make it easier to do trade to find a better mechanism uh than uh a
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single currency regardless of the behavior of the United States and its sanctioning of countries and its uh
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seizing uh and its seizing of assets of different countries uh but they want to
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have a better system for doing business and trade but also I think bricks like
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the Shanghai cooperation organization which Iran has also joined during the re
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Administration bricks is an important format for world leaders to speak with
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one another to get a better understanding of one another's policy
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and priorities and I think that is a part of this uh changing world because
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in the past the focus of much of the world was the west Western leaders would be regularly traveling back and forth
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with with the w and going to Western countries and uh trying to coordinate
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their relationship or try to expand business with Western Powers but now
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countries are exploring uh New Opportunities and potentials that have been ignored before ac across the global
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South there is a huge amount of potential that has been unexplored by
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other countries in the global South and again president rayi one of his priorities was to expand ties and
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relations with countries across the global South so he traveled to Africa he traveled to Latin America he traveled to
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Indonesia to the last trip that he went to was to Pakistan and Sri Lanka and he
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went to Central Asia China Russia and the regional countries neighboring countries as well so his objective was
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to expand uh economic and political ties with countries across the world and to
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explore these capabilities that were largely ignored before but just in the
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the process of Iran joining bricks uh the Iranian president had a phone
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conversation with the Indian Prime Minister and uh they discussed uh Iran's
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membership of bricks and it was as a result of this conversation that uh India uh not just
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supported Iran's bid to join the organization but they pushed for Iran's
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bid to join the to join the organization and that I think shows how these
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organizations themselves bring these different world leaders together they they start new
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conversations that really did not exist in the past or that they were more more
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uh token conversations they were more symbolic in the past than they were
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today most of the major discussions that would take place would be in Washington and maybe at a lower to lesser degree in
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in European capitals but now discuss serious discussions are being uh are
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being carried out between tan and capitals across the global South and the
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West is largely left out of the decision-making process in in many cases
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and Bricks is one such example so not only are they building up these new uh
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infrastructure uh this new infrastructure and these new capabilities but it is also uh a format
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where these leaders come together they better understand what another they better explore the untapped uh potential
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that uh exists across the global South and also it it create changes
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perceptions uh much of our understanding about the global South come
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traditionally comes from the west and of course the West usually gives a very negative uh depiction Western media
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Western governments give a very negative uh view or present a negative view or
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Narrative of countries in the global South many people have as especially in the west but elsewhere in the world have
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have always had a very negative view of Iran because of Western media Western propaganda but when and and the same is
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true with Russia and other countries across the global South especially those countries that have political problems
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with the west countries that want to be independent countries that want to their Sovereign to be sovereignty to be
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respected they are antagonized the point is that even now under these extreme
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circumstances where the world sees uh the Israeli regime for what it really is
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we see how Western media and Western governments try to depict the Palestinian victims as evil and the
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Israeli regime and these extremists and these races as the protagonist so you
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can imagine how they treat or The Narrative of countries like Iran work so
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when these countries come together when these leaders come together when um their media
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uh comes together on the sidelines of these conferences you you you start to
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see how perceptions about countries across the global South change and how they become
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more realistic and how countries across the global South see one another in a
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different light and that itself helps to create even better relations ships and
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better coordination in future so the the simple the the simple fact that these
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leaders come together and uh you have so many reporters and Elites uh in the same
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city and and interacting with one another I think uh has huge consequences
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that we don't necessarily see or we can't see on a piece of paper this these
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changing perceptions are not something that we can gauge
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easily um my understanding is that the late foreign minister Hussein Amir abdan
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um who tragically died in the helicopter crash uh with President RI he is
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credited with making truly substantial progress towards Iran's um foreign
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policy in terms of the economic development and uh that was focused in
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uh strengthening Regional ties as well as kind of going further than that and
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um trying to build ties across uh a variety of of of countries and and um
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Partnerships that would benefit Iran's Economic Development moving forward um
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and you just described president R's um vision for Iran to become a key uh
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economic player because it does have vast natural resources that will absolutely play to its strength in the
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future but now that Iran is preparing for presidential elections um should we
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expect continuity with respect to foreign policy um economic policies
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trade policies um and um might there be some new directions I know it is very
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difficult to say of course at this point but um should we expect new directions with respect to uh trade development to
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Economic Development that the new uh president and his uh Team might bring um
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after the elections well it's difficult to say at
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this stage because there are three uh candidates that seem to
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have a a much larger support base across the country
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and we'll have to see which one of them finally get elected we'll have uh five debates in the next few days uh where
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all six candidates participate in and each will be I think four hours and
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these three candidates will I think uh have the best chance for Success uh they
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they differ in in certain respects obviously anyone who enters uh the president's office the and
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becomes the president will have his own style his own priorities uh but I think there is a
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strong element of continuity in Iranian foreign policy especially now especially
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now I think the last three years have uh strengthened uh the view in Iran that
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this policy of uh enhancing relations with the global South uh has great
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benefits in the past we've had the previous administration there Focus was
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to a large degree on the nuclear deal and they pinned their hopes on the
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United States and the Europeans abiding by their commitments and the Americans didn't do that they they violated the
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deal under Obama and they tore up the deal ultimately under Trump and that put the Iranian economy in a very difficult
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Place president REI uh had a different worldview he said we will continue to
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pursue negotiations with Western countries and try to find a solution but
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we will make sure that if we have a deal it will be better protected so that if
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Western countries violate the deal deal or tear up the deal that they will feel
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the consequences unlike what happened last time around but more importantly he
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said that we cannot wait for the West we have to build relations with countries across the world and I should add that
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uh the north south transport Corridor something that President REI has been uh
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pursuing it's a corridor that would run from Russia and Belarus to Iran to the
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Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean uh which would make Iran key to trade not
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only with with Russia and the rest of the world but Central Asia the caucuses and bellarus and the rest of the world
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and also Iran is President R was pursuing a prominent role for Iran in
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the belon road initiative so Iran will be a key uh component of of the belon
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road uh the corridors being belon uh as a result of this initiative so Iran is
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becoming a a crossroads for trade and business and that will make Iran
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increasingly important also less Reliant uh on the west and less susceptible to
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Russia Western pressure and sanctions so these this new reality the fact that
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Iran has had found so many new partners and then they're not just Russia and China as I said India uh is is key
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Iran's relationship with Latin America the president's trip to Indonesia and
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African countries bore a lot of economic fruits this is something that I think uh
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the the candidates are all looking at in a positive light and so far in their
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discussions on television in their uh TV programs because the B the debates
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haven't started but they have all of them are coming on TV regularly and giving their I and giving telling the
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public their ideas and speaking about their plans for the future um what we are seeing is there's
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a great deal of respect for what president R has done so I think that there will be a strong element of
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continuity in foreign policy but of course each of these uh people will have
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their own individual style and their own priorities so there will be uh change
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without a doubt no two people are the same but I think that President REI has made the case for this policy and of
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course another priority of President RI was improving ties with neighboring countries he improved ties with
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Tajikistan which facilitated Iran's entry enter the entry in the Shanghai
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cooperation organization he improved highes with Tajikistan uh which under the previous
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administration had gone sour and tajik has huge gas resources and that can that
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will help make Iran a hub for natural gas considering the fact that Iran has so much natural gas itself Iran is
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second in the world after Russia in natural gas so uh and also as we all
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know the Rapa between Iran and Saudi Arabia and improv ties with Egypt so his
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priority was to strengthen ties with neighboring countries as well as uh
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countries across the global South so um Iran's relations with Central Asia uh
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are key to the Future Iran's relations improved relations with Indian subcontinent all of these are going to
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be factors which help will help the next president to develop the economy much
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Swift much more swiftly so I think what president REI has done up to the up to
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when he was tragically when he tragically died is that he's created the
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en an environment for Iran R to break away or to make western
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sanctions increasingly less effective and I think bricks as we go forward will
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probably uh make those sanctions even uh
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less significant than um before than now you mentioned sanctions several
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times and I would really like to maybe take a couple of minutes to focus on the impact that sanctions had Decades of
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sanctions had on just average people in Iran and um how crippling sanctions can
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be and how unfair they can be Iran everybody knows that Iran has been heavily sanctioned by Western countries
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um the US placed sanctions on Iran if I'm not mistaken in of course 1979 that was the key uh the key year uh in this
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relationship and um in 2015 Iran reached a nuclear deal and my understanding is
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that you were part of that as an advisor um the deal played a crucial role in
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removing a number of sanctions so maybe could you uh share just the highlights
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of the deal in the context of the removal of sanctions and um what sort of
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uh transpired what how how did that help once those sanctions were removed um for
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an average person in Iran uh how could they see the Improvement or maybe the um
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the enhanced trade that took place uh immediately following the deal of course we know that um sanctions were reimposed
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in 2018 and um hopefully we can kind of just touch upon that in just a minute too but I really want to understand and
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I'm sure our viewers don't really know much about this because like you mentioned um Western media doesn't
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really tell us a lot about Iran and when it when they do it
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unfortunately um they don't really speak to um how the population of Iran
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suffered as a result of these sanctions just average PE uh average people like you and I so maybe could you uh
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highlight the um kind of key aspects of the the deal itself and how it impacted
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the removal of sanctions sanctions are a
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silent form of warfare they target Ordinary People
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and when it comes to Iran the United States under Obama imposed maximum pressure sanctions which Obama I think
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called them crippling sanctions so his objective was to Iranians
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because it wasn't targeting any particular person a leader a
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parliamentarian a uh president he it was targeting the whole
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country and Trump of course when he reinstated the maximum pressure sanctions he called them brutal
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sanctions so he wanted to brutalize Iranians the impact is has been signif
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very significant of course from the very beginning of the Revolution when Iran uh began to pursue an independent foreign
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policy and um no longer accepted American domination in hegemony it the
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United States sanctioned the country and over the years those sanctions increased and the United States was always hostile
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towards Iran the United States supported Saddam Hussein in invading Iran and so did it
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us allies us allies and the provided Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons to
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use against Iran the United States gave them the military intelligence to use those chemical weapons and they
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collectively gave Saddam Hussein the political cover to get away with it and many many thousands of Iranians died
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many many many thousands of Iraqis who opposed sdam Hussein died because of these chemical weapons which were mostly
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given to the Iraqi regime by to Saddam Hussein by the Germans uh of all countries and there's
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never been an apology there's never been an acknowledgment of these crimes
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against humanity that the West has carried out against the Iranian people and the Iraqi people i' I personally
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survived two of two of those chemical attacks uh both mustard gas and also ner
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agent in two different years of the war but and of course many others didn't and
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some people suffered for many many years some are still dying as we speak because
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some of these chemical weapons gradually destroy the lung of the victim or the
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lungs of the victim so for example uh just a few years ago the brother of a colleague of
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mine at University a person who's in my department uh he died of chemical
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weapons so imagine how many years he suffered and how many years his family suffered as a result but the S and and
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back then Iran was sanctioned in that Iran wasn't allowed to import gas masks
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so they were blocking Iran from purchasing the gas masks and uh and uh
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and uh chemicals and machines that could
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uh stop the the the gas from killing people and from
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spreading uh those were those were sanctions but the only form of sanctions
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that were imposed were not just the sanctions to Aid Saddam Hussein they were to block the economy to shut down
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the economy factories would slow down uh less Goods would be produced prices
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would go up people would lose their jobs uh people would become impoverished
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families would break up people would suffer Pro presumably some would commit
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suicide some would become go move and become thieves because they have to
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survive so sanctions are the objective is to break down Society to to have
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people die to have social uh The Social Network and and Civil Society fall apart
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that is the whole objective it is it it is a silent form of war and so the
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Iranians in two the United States under Obama they imposed these barbaric
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sanctions and the Iranians uh they stood firm they the the Iranians refused to
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Bow and then uh Obama when he saw that he's not going to get anywhere and Iran
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was going to continue to move forward and especially with regards to his peaceful nuclear program Obama sent a
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message to Iran saying look we'll acknowledge your right to uh a peaceful nuclear program in
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accordance which is in accordance with international law and uh so let's negotiate and then the negotiations
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began and in 2015 as you pointed out I was involved I was a media advisor for
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the former uh foreign minister Dr zif a
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deal was um signed but immediately the Americans began to violate the
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deal and uh Iranian Banks were supposed to be able to function normally with
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banks across the world it never happened the Americans were determined to cheat
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Iran so the the Americans and Europeans uh ex were demanding that Iran fulfill
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its obligations and Iran did fulfill all of its OB obligations as the international atomic energy agency
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repeatedly admitted even though it's dominated by the west but the United States violated the deal from from the
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very beginning and then of and then of course later on Trump tore up the deal
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and imposed those MA reimposed those maximum pressure sanctions which continue to be imposed today but what
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has happened is that despite the uh the the suffering that it is created for
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example sometimes you get a shortage of medicine my my father for example who has a a severe who's had a severe heart
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condition for almost four decades uh sometimes uh
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he cannot find his medicine and he has to and and sometimes the medicine uh that you know
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there if there's a shortage of a particular type of medicine if you can find medicine that's expired he'll use
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it uh that happens but of course uh as time has gone by and especially under
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the racy Administration the impact of these sanctions has begun to decrease there's
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no doubt about that we have had economic growth uh significant economic growth for the last couple of years over 4% and
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then over 6% last year and um and but we still have these problems and these
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shortages and so the intention is is to kill people is to make people suffer so
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that Iranians become so desperate that they would rise up against the government it's like this the same
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policy is being pursued in Venezuela in Cuba in Syria and elsewhere they Target
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Ordinary People to get what they want it's it's very much like what it's like the mafia they behave like the Mafia the
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United States and it allies when it comes to anyone who opposes their policy
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so but what what pres re he did was that he said look we're going
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to if the Americans and Europeans are willing to restart the deal we will we
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will implement the deal but the deal has to be better protected so there were new
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negotiations a couple of years ago I was involved in those negotiations too uh as
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again as a media advisor and uh the negotiations almost succeeded uh the
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attacks was developed the Europeans agreed with Iran's position but the Americans refrained from implementing
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the deal and accepting the deal this deal would have been much better than the 2015 deal because it would have been
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protected if the Americans had violated their commitments or anyone else had violated their commitments they would
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have to pay a price they would be it it would be costly for them to do so but
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the Americans at the last stage they refrained from uh taking that final step
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but as I was saying earlier what Iran did is that Mr REI said look we will negotiate but we're not going to wait
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for the West anymore we're going to do what we can to make these sanctions
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ineffective and he by through foreign policy through these trips abroad through expanding relations with
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regional countries through joining these different organizations and all the things that I explained before he has
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been able to bring about change and I think that uh within the next two two
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three years uh we're going to see significant uh change in growth patterns
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in Iran and the and and the growth of business and industry in Iran and uh I
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think that uh us sanctions will gradually become almost ineffective they
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they still have an impact today as we speak but it is uh rapidly declining as
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I said the Americans have made a major mistake by um overusing the weapon of
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sanctions um I know one of the ways that Iran managed to curb the impact of
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sanctions was to deal with the foreign exchange related to the dollar could you
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tell us a bit more about that change and how it improved the economy and helped
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sort of manage the volatil the volatility of relations uh with other countries and the impact of uh Western
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lead sanctions on Iranian economy well I'll have to be careful because since I'm not an economist I
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what my explanations may not be correct all the time or they not may they may
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not be complete but or comprehensive but what Iran has been doing over the last
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few years is that it has been increasingly creating mechanisms for trade with countries where they don't
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use the US dollar and uh sometimes it's through
38:13
using the the the currency of the two countries sometimes it's through using
38:19
uh the currency of a third party and uh
38:24
sometimes it's through um not barter but uh for example Iran
38:33
exports uh electricity to neighboring countries and then it purchases Goods uh
38:40
in return so there are different mechanisms that have been developed uh
38:46
and the tariffs during President R's trips to different countries they brought down tariff so Iranian exports
38:53
are increasing and their Imports are increasing and that also makes uh
38:58
Western sanctions less effective one thing that I should I should also point out is that uh just to clarify is that
39:07
the West never targeted like the military they targeted
39:14
Society they didn't Target the peaceful nuclear program or they didn't Target
39:22
politicians they target targeted the whole of the country and that's not just
39:27
the the what they did to Iran they did the same to Cuba before Iran they've
39:32
done the same to Venezuela they've done it to Syria and and to countries uh
39:38
elsewhere and they're doing it increasingly to China and of course the case of Russia is is well known because
39:44
it's it's an ongoing situation and the crisis is is is expanding so the
39:51
intention is to make people suffer so but what what that does is that it it
39:56
that even further in enhances or increases the
40:02
determination of governments to find Solutions and when the Americans began to sanction
40:09
Russia not only did that increase the incentive of countries and bricks and the global South to move away or to uh
40:17
circumvent the US dollar and Western financial institutions but also what the
40:23
Russians did was that they immediately came to Iran and they asked Iran how Iran has been
40:29
circumventing the sanctions so far what Iran does to decrease the impact of sanctions so the Iranians for the first
40:36
year they were teaching the Russians how to sell their oil they were teaching the Russians how to do business how to
40:41
purchase the goods that they need how to export what they need to export because Iran had has had many years of
40:48
experience so it became much easier for the Russians than for the Iranians because for the Iranians it took years
40:54
to get where they are today whereas the Russians were able to sort of fast forward uh the situation to their to
41:02
their benefit um but also what it does is that it creates a hostility towards
41:09
the West in other words not only are countries moving away from the west but
41:15
it's creating hatred for for the west across the globe these policies that are
41:21
impacting so many different countries and that destroys Western soft power and of course the the biggest example is of
41:28
is Gaza now uh Israel the Israeli regime is obviously uh not an asset for the
41:35
West it it is its very existence is detrimental to Western interests it's a
41:41
burden for the West because by supporting this genocide the the West
41:46
has destroyed its credibility across the globe it's destroyed its image across the world never in the future will they
41:53
be able to say at least for the decades to come will they be able to say anything about human rights and human dignity or women's rights or children's
41:59
rights or anyone's rights because people will have will remember that the first
42:04
online genocide the first genocide that was carried out in front of the whole
42:09
globe live literally was being supported and enabled by the West so these
42:17
policies whether it's the genocide in Gaza or sanctions brutal sanctions
42:22
against Cubans and uh Venezuelans or nicaraguans or Iranians and afan afans
42:32
or or anyone else they uh they hurt the West they hurt Western image so what the
42:38
West has done over the last few decades is that by waging Perpetual War they
42:44
weaken themselves by Waging War against Russia effectively through by-proxy in
42:50
Ukraine they've weakened themselves through the sanctions they they've also weakened themselves because now it's not
42:57
just Iran it's Iran Russia uh and and and other countries and this is hurting
43:04
uh the West it's increased uh the price of energy and so Europe is is really
43:10
reeling it's it's in Rapid decline because of their own policy so they've hurt themselves uh militarily
43:18
politically economically and also they they've demolished their own soft power
43:23
so these policies of uh these antagonistic policies they have success
43:29
they do succeed in hurting societies and hurting people in different parts of the
43:35
world but ultimately uh they are creating an environment where the global South is
43:41
uniting against them where people across the world are showing animosity towards
43:46
them and uh where they are becoming they're effectively becoming marginalized and now the the the G7 for
43:55
example they're combined economic capabilities are much smaller than the
44:00
combined economic capabilities of bricks and that Gap is simply going to increase
44:07
in the years ahead and one would think that the United States and the Europeans if they had rational leaders rather than
44:13
these emotional angry politicians that they would be searching for
44:19
solutions that would help the west and its Global standing they will try to
44:24
seek a solution with countries like Iran to lessen tensions and to improve uh
44:31
relations with countries across the global South but what they're doing instead is that they are simultaneously
44:39
antagonizing different countries across the globe it's no longer just about Iran it's Iran Russia China and you know and
44:46
the host of other uh smaller countries and the West is spread itself very thin
44:53
so it's a foolish policy it's a failing policy and and now they've created so
44:58
many antagonists that it they're simply collapsing under the weight of their own
45:03
foolish policies we've certainly seen um the impact of these foreign policy sort of
45:10
it's been shooting yourselfself in the foot effectively with the inaccessible um raw materials in Europe
45:19
their economy has deteriorated and it's been contracting for several Waters now
45:25
I think it's been over a year and uh Germany has been deindustrializing as
45:30
the result of that because not only do they have very strict government regulations but also they now don't have
45:36
access to um cost effective uh natural resources that they need for their
45:41
manufacturing which is the basis of their economy so just as you mentioned it's been very counterproductive
45:47
especially for Europe to uh refuse to have a dialogue and to figure out a way
45:53
to coexist right I think that that has to be one of the key uh key goals for
46:00
any foreign policies to find ways to coexist ra rather than default to um uh
46:07
the type of uh policies that they've been carrying out and and and and seem to be uh just uh set on using moving
46:15
forward despite all these signs uh flashing red uh signs saying please stop
46:22
the economy is hurting and average people are probably not really seeing the benefit of what you're doing either
46:29
so um Professor my last question is with so many countries we have 50 plus
46:35
countries wanting to join the brics block because they have the uh promise
46:40
they see that the bricks Alliance is able to improve their economies is able
46:45
to uh strengthen their local currencies which will greatly benefit them 10 20
46:51
years from now where do you see the bricks block within the next 2 to 5
46:56
years and where do you see Iran as as part of the bricks Block in that time
47:04
frame you know when the nuclear talks between Iran and the P plus4 were taking
47:13
place in Vienna the war in Ukraine broke
47:20
out and um the Americans and the Europeans were dragging their feet
47:27
at the negotiating table and I was telling Western Elites and journalists and and some diplomats that uh would
47:36
that that I was engaging with that uh you are heading towards uh a
47:44
winter EUR Europe is moving towards very hard times and the winter Europe's
47:51
winter is approaching as a result of these policies and the smart thing for you to
47:57
do is to do a deal with Iran and stop dragging your feet and these people almost universally
48:04
almost every single one of them these journalists for mainstream Western media Outlets these Elites these uh diplomats
48:12
were saying no we are going to defeat the Russians within weeks and I'm sure
48:17
you remember that Biden said we're going to turn the rubble into
48:22
Rubble but all these were all miscalculations I was saying to them that you know you were unable to
48:28
undermine even Syria you were unable to undermine Venezuela let alone a big country like
48:35
Iran how are you going to undermine Russia which is so huge and with all these natural
48:43
resources but in their arrogance uh they fail to look at the
48:49
situation in a reasonable manner I said that if you do a deal with Iran you can purchase Iranian oil you can invest in
48:55
Iran's oil and gas industry you can improve your situation uh but again in their
49:03
arrogance they thought that they could fight against Iran they can fight against Russia they can fight against
49:08
China even as the war in Ukraine began again I'm sure you recall the Americans
49:14
were asking the Chinese to support their position but simultaneously they were
49:19
provoking China uh through Taiwan even during the early days of the war this is
49:26
how the West functions they they don't they no longer have politicians who
49:32
understand uh diplomacy the West has lost the art of
49:37
diplomacy regardless of what we think about the west 30 40 years ago even back then they were not benign but at least
49:45
they were more sane these leaders so uh and I think this this is part of
49:52
the answer and that is that as long as the the West continues to go down the
49:58
current road the trend
50:04
towards uh the you know towards strengthening in bricks among other in
50:13
international bodies that have no Western influence uh will will Quicken and
50:19
Bricks will grow faster and imagine the potential that
50:25
bricks has even political bodies like the United the
50:30
United Nations which are Western dominated and Western control for the
50:36
most part they will gradually be sidelined because bricks will become so powerful that it will create its own
50:44
institutions it's not just going to be Financial you can imagine you can
50:49
envisage a situation where they develop cultural institutions where they develop political institutions and and so on
50:58
so I think that the the more the Americans and the EUR the Europeans push
51:04
the swifter this process will become and I think that because of the way in which
51:10
the West is pushing key countries this is uh going to be done
51:18
much more easily because China in many ways is the most important Global uh in
51:25
economy more important than the United States in in it you know through different in for
51:33
different reasons you or at least in different ways two of the most important countries
51:39
when it comes to natural resources meaning Iran and Russia are in this
51:45
Camp as I said Russia is number one when it comes to Natural Gas Iran is number
51:52
two in the world and both of these countries are uh control a huge amount
51:57
of oil resources and and other natural resources and Iraq which is close to Iran also is a huge energy producer so
52:05
many countries that are being that are tilting towards this camp or have joined this Camp have a lot to offer which
52:14
helps diminish the capabilities of the West to hurt these countries
52:20
individually and collectively so I think between two and 5 years from now Western
52:25
sanctions will probably be almost totally ineffective and I think that if
52:32
the United States does not change course quickly you can find you can you can
52:39
envisage a situation where the US dollar collapses because if the demand for the
52:44
US dollar declines then inflation in the United States will go up and it will reach a
52:52
point where there will be people
52:58
rushing to get rid of their dollars and then imagine what that could do for the US economy and it would
53:05
collapse usmany across the world this I think is a very realistic
53:11
scenario but I think the Western leaders because of their arrogance because of uh
53:17
exceptionalism their notion of American exceptionalism Western a sense of exceptionalism and eurocentricism uh
53:26
they cannot they still continue to live in a bubble they cannot Escape their arrogance and because of that arrogant
53:34
uh posturing their decisions are not based on reason and they're not rational
53:41
and therefore they will continue uh to
53:46
fail and uh bring about great misery for other countries but also for their own
53:54
people Professor thank you so much for such an interesting conversation I learned a lot about the uh economy in
54:02
Iran and the role of Iran in breaks moving forward this was really really
54:07
interesting to me and uh your thoughts and perspective were truly valuable in
54:12
trying to understand why the bricks is becoming a key actor for the global
54:17
majority and the role that it will play for the people of Iran I would like to remind our viewers to follow Professor
54:24
Mandi on X former Twitter I will link his profile in the description below Professor thank you so much for your
54:30
time thank you very much and uh I wish you a very good day and I hope that all
54:36
of us uh and very good days ahead and I hope that all of us in future witness uh
54:42
better times and more peace and less violence absolutely I hope so too
54:48
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