April 21, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
28:42
LIVE FROM TEHRAN: Prof. Mohammad Marandi : Why Iran Won’t Meet With Netanyahu’s Puppets
Judge Andrew Napolitano interviews Professor Mohammad Marandi on April 22nd, 2026, regarding Tehran's refusal to meet with U.S. Vice President Vance and advisors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, whom Marandi labels "Netanyahu's puppets" lacking negotiation authority. While Iranian officials like Ayatollah Khamenei held full mandate in Islamabad talks, the ceasefire collapsed after Trump rejected lifting the siege on Iranian ports, violating the agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz. Marandi warns that further attacks on energy infrastructure could trigger retaliatory strikes against Gulf states, causing global oil and helium shortages, ultimately arguing that true peace requires ending economic strangulation rather than listening to the Zionist lobby. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Resilience in Tehran's Streets00:05:03
Undeclared wars are commonplace.
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes, to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026.
Our friend Professor Mohamed Mirandi joins us from his home in Tehran, Iran.
Professor Mirandi, a pleasure.
You look well.
You look safe.
Thank you very much for joining us, my dear friend.
Thank you very much for inviting me, Judge.
It's always a great pleasure.
Sure.
What is life like?
In Tehran during the ceasefire, did a semblance of normalcy return?
Yes, Tehran became much more crowded.
And if you go to shops, restaurants, it looks normal.
I'm not sure if it is normal because I don't know if as many people are buying goods as before.
I would assume not.
But I was told that yesterday and the day before, a large number of people were leaving the city again because they thought that the ceasefire would end and that Trump would start bombing Tehran and other cities again.
But when I went out last night and the night before, it did seem to be still pretty crowded.
So I think the number of people who've left are probably less than during the war.
Does the Iran culture manifest a certain either invincibility or willingness to sacrifice, which is generally unknown in the West?
I mean, for example, when the Iranian missiles fly into Tel Aviv, the residents run into shelters.
When the U.S. bombs Tehran, the residents come out and wave flags.
Yes, there is a certain, not sense of invincibility, but a sense of resilience and resistance that it comes with the culture, the religious culture, Shia Islam in particular.
The grandson of the Prophet, he stood up for the oppressed and stood up against the despot of his time.
And Imam Hussein and his sister, the story of them and the companions of Imam Hussein is something that is very important to Iranians.
And it has a huge impact on.
Iranian society, the sense of justice, the sense of standing up against the oppressor, social justice as well.
These are strong elements that exist in Iranian society.
So you will see that in huge gatherings in Tehran at night during the war, which would happen every night and in other cities, they would fire missiles and there would be explosions, but people would not scream, people would not stampede, they would not run away.
They'd stand their ground and continue chanting.
It's quite extraordinary, and being among them is quite a feeling.
Chris, can you run what we have from Reuters?
This is from Reuters.
And last night in Tehran, I think you probably know where this is.
Is this kind of emotional joy and display of offensive weaponry typical to see on a Tehran street today?
That's in the Tehran.
There, in Tajri Square, across the city, there are huge gatherings that begin roughly at 8 p.m. and end at 12 31 a.m.
War Against Iran Explained00:15:19
People come and go.
So, you know, some attend at the beginning, early hours, some come later.
But this is last night.
Apparently, in a number of squares, they brought missiles for people to see.
And this is the footage.
Last night, also, the supposedly obliterated Iranian Navy stopped two ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
I say supposedly obliterated, I'm using President Trump's phrase.
It's obviously not true.
Who controls the Strait of Hormuz?
And what do you know about these ships that were stopped?
What did they do?
Try and run through without paying a toll?
I don't exactly know the circumstances, but I would guess that it is in retaliation to what the United States did to the Iranian ship.
And they struck an Iranian ship and then boarded it and took it away.
And apparently the sailors and their families were on board when the attack took place.
So I would imagine this is not what the Iranian government has said, but the Iranians have carried out these.
Operations in retaliation to that because they did board, apparently, they boarded these two ships and they took them, I guess, to the Iranian shores.
Was the negotiation in Islamabad last week, which you attended, serious on the part of the United States?
No, it did not appear to be serious.
The Iranian side, they had the authority to make a decision.
Beforehand, Dr. Ghalibov, the head of the delegation and the Speaker of Parliament, he had a very long conversation with Ayatollah Sayed Mushabah Khamenei, and he had full authority to talk.
But the U.S. Vice President Vance made, I think, roughly a dozen phone calls, including to Netanyahu, where Netanyahu later said he reported to me, and as do other senior officials report to me every day, which Is a very odd thing to say.
But it was clear that he did not have a mandate and that he did not have the authority to make a final decision.
And near the end of the day, the US delegation, the three people on the American side, Vance, Witthof, and Kushner, they became more difficult to negotiate with.
And then they were supposed to have further negotiations in the morning.
But Americans suddenly decided to go back.
Did Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner actually speak to the Iranians, or did they just act as minders, advisors, and controllers of the vice president?
I never asked that question, but since I think there are three Iranians and three Americans, and then the Pakistani presence was there too, I would imagine that all of them contributed to the discussion because they were there for many hours during the entire day.
That was the only time that the Iranians, because there is some confusion out there.
Some people keep saying the Iranians were negotiating beforehand or afterwards.
It was only on that day when there are direct negotiations.
Before that and since Then there have only been messages sent back and forth through the mediator or perhaps through other means.
But those six people, I find it difficult to imagine only two speaking during so many hours, but I don't know for certain.
The media in the West would have us believe that the Iran government does not speak with one voice.
Is there any basis for that?
No.
No, Dr. Khalibov has full authority.
The file is in his hands.
He has full coordination with Ayatollah Khamenei.
And by the way, Ayatollah Khamenei and Dr. Khalibov have known each other for decades.
So, no, there's no issue.
There's some, I think, confusion was created in the West by what happened over the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
And that is that when There was a ceasefire agreement.
It was agreed by Iran to increase the number of ships that could go through the Strait of Hormuz, which would include ships that were hostile towards Iran.
After all, Kuwait, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, they all participated in the war on behalf of the Americans, and they helped the Americans and the Israelis regime effectively by allowing the U.S. to use their territory.
So Iran was going to allow more of their ships to pass through.
This was in accordance with the ceasefire deal.
But as you recall, the Israeli regime began that carpet bombing of Lebanon.
And intentionally wrecked the ceasefire, even though they were a part of it, as the prime minister of Pakistan pointed out.
Long story short, after 10 days, the Israeli regime was forced to accept the ceasefire, and the Iranians said that we will now open the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with the agreement that they had, the ceasefire agreement.
And then Trump said, I will not remove the siege, though, on the Persian Gulf and on Iranian ports, which he had installed.
A few days after the ceasefire began.
So the Iranians said, well, if you're going to impose a siege, this is a violation of the ceasefire, and therefore we are not going to open the Strait of Hormuz to these new ships, to more ships.
So the Iranians, within hours, went back to their former position.
It wasn't because Iran made a decision and then went back on that decision.
It was because Trump, instead of saying, okay, now that the Strait of Hormuz is going to be open to more shipping in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, I'm going to continue imposing the siege.
And that led the Iranians to go back to the previous policy.
General Keith Kellogg, who's been fired by President Trump, nevertheless is still out there giving his opinions.
Here's his harsh criticism of Foreign Minister Arachi.
I think this is probably shared by Netanyahu's puppets, as we call them.
That would be Vance Witkoff and Kushner.
But this is General Kellogg.
I'm pretty sure it's on Fox News last night.
Number two, Chris.
And constantly saying we're going to negotiate.
That's right out of their playbook.
You know, when you have somebody like Awachi, who's their foreign minister, who wrote a book on negotiations, this was part of his negotiation strategy.
He called it the market strategy.
It's like being in a bazaar, trying to buy a rug, bartering back and forth.
I would say, done, we're done.
The president gave them ample opportunity.
It was very gracious in an attempt to talk their way through it.
Now let's just finish it out.
And I think we can finish it out.
We can strangle them economically.
We're doing that with the blockade.
Let's compound the problem.
Not only do we have terrain, we've got the blockade as well.
And instead of bombing like their power plants, bomb something that really hurts them, that their fuel industry or something like that, instead of going after things that hurt the people.
So I think we still have cards to play.
The president sure does.
I wouldn't bet against the president of the United States at all on this one.
A criticism of Foreign Minister Arachi, who came with his colleagues fully authorized to make a decision, In the front of American invest negotiators, negotiators in quotes, who had to call Tel Aviv or Washington for permission before they could answer a yes or no question.
Oh, yes, exactly.
And it's interesting.
He was saying, let's bomb the energy sector, which has nothing to do with the people.
I don't know how the energy sector can be separated from the people.
It would, of course, cause huge harm to ordinary Iranians.
And it is aggression.
The whole war is a war of aggression.
Iran did not start the war.
The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war.
Iran was not controlling, had no ambition to control the Strait of Hormuz before the war.
And now the Strait of Hormuz could be open.
If right now Trump was to say that he will end the siege on Iranian ports, the Iranians will open the Strait of Hormuz.
But I think the mistake that he is making in the comments is that he says that the siege will work against Iran.
Well, the siege works both ways.
The global crisis, the energy crisis, is literally growing by the minute.
Shortage of oil, LNG, fertilizers, helium, petrochemicals.
This is getting worse by the minute.
So, by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, they may cause harm to Iranians, but they're causing harm to the entire world.
And the world is going to blame the United States, the Israeli regime, and Trump.
For this harm that's being created.
And what we're seeing right now, Judge, is just the tip of the iceberg.
The high rising prices of food and fuel are just the beginning.
Professor Mirandi, what happens if the Americans stop a ship with 2 million barrels of oil and it's destined for China?
Well, the thing that the Americans don't, the people around Trump don't seem to realize is that the Persian Gulf right now is full of ships that are full of fuel, and a large number of them are super tankers.
And Iran will confiscate those.
Iran will retaliate because Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, these are all American client regimes.
They are all a part of this war against Iran.
Without their cooperation, the United States could not have carried out this war.
It would have been very difficult to strike Iran without using their territory and their airspace.
So Iran will say that, well, you were a part of this war.
They stole our tanker.
We take your tanker or your tankers instead.
This is not a solution.
It is only going to delay any hope for the opening of the Strait of Hormuz so that the global economy can be rescued.
Even if the Strait of Hormuz is open today, the situation is going to get a lot worse before.
It gradually stabilizes.
But the way things are going now, I think that it's gradually we're moving towards an economic depression.
And if the United States does begin the war again, which is quite possible, here they are preparing for war, then I think it will be catastrophic because if Trump carries out his threat to bomb critical infrastructure like electrical power plants, the Iranians are going to do the same to the Israeli regime and to these Arab family regimes in the Persian Gulf.
Because they are part of the war.
And I tweeted yesterday that people in these countries should leave because the ceasefire was about to end and we were waiting for war before Trump, for whatever reason, backed down.
But I said that people should leave these five countries because it's going to get very warm in the Persian Gulf in the next few weeks.
We're heading for summer.
It will be very hot, very humid.
If Iran's critical infrastructure is struck, their critical infrastructure will be stuck.
Struck.
They will not be able to live there.
Here's what you posted, I believe, yesterday.
Everyone should immediately leave the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi, and Kuwait.
Sailors and all ships in the Persian Gulf must also prepare to evacuate their ships.
This is especially urgent for ships near the Strait of Hormuz, which will be destroyed first.
Time is running out.
What did you mean when you said that?
Well, when Trump said again that he is going to, it's going to be a power plant, excuse me, power plant day and bridge day or something like that, and that again he's going to destroy Iran, then that would mean that the Iranians are going to strike back.
And that would mean that the Iranians will strike back at critical infrastructure in the Israeli regime, but also in these countries.
But the difference is that if our power plants are struck, we will suffer, obviously.
But right now, Tehran has snow on the mountains.
The weather here, Iran is not a country where most people live in the desert.
These countries are all deserts, and all they have is oil or gas.
If their power plants are struck, then they will not be able to live there anymore during the hot season.
And if there's an all out war, the ships in the Persian Gulf will be targeted.
We already saw yesterday and today, I think three ships were already struck by Iranians.
So if there is no attack by the United States, that's one thing.
But if there is, if Trump does carry out that attack and he does go for the critical infrastructure of the country, then I think there will be no more oil or gas installations left in the Persian Gulf.
And the Iranians will destroy them all.
And they will all, if Iranian power plants are struck, they will destroy those power plants too.
And so people will have to leave very quickly from these tiny countries.
These countries would collapse.
And I think Trump and hit the White House doesn't appreciate.
The crisis that he is about to create for the entire Arabian Peninsula if he carries out these threats.
Chris informs me that your post, which is up on the screen and from which I read a few minutes ago, has 1.9 million views.
You can see it.
That, of course, is an extraordinary number.
One of our military experts, a regular on the show, just emailed me saying the following At least 34 Iran linked tankers and gas carriers.
Strait of Hormuz Threats00:06:33
Have broken through the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to Bloomberg, citing data from the analytics firm Vortexa.
19 vessels exited the Persian Gulf past the blockade.
15 entered, crossing a cordon stretching from Oman's Ras al Had coast northeast to the Iran Pakistan border.
The U.S. Navy simply does not have enough ships on station to intercept and detain every vessel.
Moving in and out of Iranian ports.
I'm going to guess you agree with that.
Well, let's say that this is all completely accurate.
What it basically means is that the Americans are going to be able to capture a couple of ships, and the Iranians will be able to take a couple of ships in the Persian Gulf very easily because they're all sitting there in front of them.
And then all the other ships will escape.
But no ships are going to escape the Persian Gulf without Iranian permission.
So in this siege, Which the Iranians have imposed a siege and the Americans have imposed a siege, the Americans lose, and the global economic situation is going to become more catastrophic.
But Trump actually had an off ramp.
And so some people say Trump is looking for an off ramp.
I'm not quite sure if that's true because when Netanyahu was forced to accept the ceasefire, the Iranians said, OK, we're going to open up the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump then could have said, OK, I'll end the siege and we can move to the next stage of negotiations.
That would have been his off ramp.
And he could have pretended that it was some sort of success.
But instead, he wanted to play hardball and said, I'm keeping the siege intact.
And then the Iranians had to change their policy and go back to where it was.
One thing I just want to add to what I said earlier, Judge, about that tweet.
The Iranians have been very careful not to kill people, ordinary people in Israel, within the Israeli regime, or in the Persian Gulf.
Iran has lost 3,300, 400 people, as far as I recall.
But if you look at the Israel side, the Israeli regime aside, if you look at the number of people killed in these countries in the Persian Gulf, they're just a handful.
Why?
Because Iran specifically targeted U.S. assets or assets linked to the United States, or when they retaliated against these regimes for the attack on Iranian critical infrastructure, they were very careful not to kill people.
Anyone can check their numbers, they can use DeepSeek or any other AI to ask how many people died in Kuwait, the Emirates.
Very few.
So basically, what I was saying is that look, if this war happens, you should go now.
This is what the United States is imposing upon the region.
Right, right.
No one in Iran wants anyone on the other side of the Persian Gulf to be harmed.
No one in Iran wants the war to continue.
We want this to end, the Strait of Hormuz to be opened, of course, under Iranian authority, and to have normalization.
And this is in the interest of the United States.
The only people who don't have an interest in this is the Israeli regime and the Zionist lobby.
Here is some more nonsense from the President Iran is collapsing financially.
They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately, starving for cash, losing 500 million dollars a day.
Military and police complaining that they're not getting paid.
SOS three exclamation points.
Donald J. Trump.
Well, I think time will tell.
After 39 days of all out war, he failed to gain anything.
After killing thousands of people, he failed on the battlefield.
And if he thinks that he's going to be able to win by shutting the Strait of Hormuz, which is going to destroy the global economy, I think he's badly mistaken, to say the least.
Last question the Iranian delegation do they believe that Trump controls Netanyahu or Netanyahu controls Trump?
I don't know the answer to that question.
I haven't really asked the three men.
I mean, I don't.
Dr. Kalibov knows me and he's very kind to me, but I've rarely spoken to him.
And I haven't spoken to him about these issues at all.
And I know Dr. Boghetti because I was with him during the nuclear negotiations.
And I know Dr. Adokchi somewhat.
I haven't asked these questions from these three people.
But I think the general perception.
Among people in Iran, is that Netanyahu has more control over Trump than Trump has over Netanyahu.
And that it's not necessarily a one way street, but that he has more power, not necessarily by himself, but perhaps by something that they may have on Trump, but definitely through the Zionist lobby in the United States.
When I ask you why Iran.
Won't meet with Netanyahu's puppets, it's not a joke.
They are Netanyahu's puppets.
Vice President Vance, Mr. Witkoff, and Jared Kushner.
Well, you know, Judge, Iran was still willing to meet them despite all that.
The thing was that the Iranians said if you don't remove the siege on the Persian Gulf, you're in violation of the ceasefire.
And if you're going to violate your commitments, then how can we sit and talk about new commitments?
You're not abiding by all the older commitments.
So, first of all, when you come, you will feel that you can continue violating commitments.
That will create an incentive for you not to abide by new commitments.
And it's just going to make the situation worse.
So, the Iranians said, We will talk if you stop violating the ceasefire.
And again, Judge, I said this last time.
Reading Warning Books00:01:42
I really encourage people to read.
That book going to Tehran, even though it was published about a decade ago, the two authors, Flint and Hilary Leverett, they were in the White House.
And back then, they were warning.
I mean, they spoke about a lot of the myths that exist in the United States about Iran, which is, I think, a very good book.
But they were warning the United States basically that if you don't move towards coming to terms with Iran, things are going to get dangerous.
And ultimately, by listening to the Zionists and the Zionist lobby, this is where we are now.
So they were.
Years ahead of everyone else and seeing where things are going.
Well, Chris just posted the cover of the book.
Muhammad Mirandi, my dear friend, you're so intellectually honest and personally courageous.
I've known you for years, but my hat is off to you every time we speak.
Thank you so much, my dear friend.
Such a pleasure.
Be well.
We'll look forward to chatting with you again.
Thank you, Judge.
It's always an honor being with you, and I hope to see you again soon somewhere.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Wow, what a terrific interview and a courageous and, as I said, intellectually honest man.
Coming up, still a full day for you at 11 o'clock Eastern, Joe Kent, that Joe Kent, the one who said to President and Director of National Intelligence, Iran poses no threat to the U.S., and you both know it.
At 1 o'clock, Pepe Escobar, not sure where he is, but we'll find him.
At 2 o'clock, Professor Glenn Bees, and at 3 o'clock, the great Phil Giraldi.