despite questioning economic sanctions from the west, the islamic republic has succeeded in developing his aerospace capabilities. iran has put a third homegrown satellite into orbit. and that's a big deal, because sanctions have failed to stop iran's advancement technologically, especially in the aerospace sector, not to mention many other sectors like the military. why has iran been so successful in these advancements? why has the us maximum pressure campaign failed to stop iran, despite decades of sanctions? just some of the questions we'll be asking in this edition of the spotlight. our guests for of this program are. julia gassam joins us,

she's a journalist and political analyst. also joining us is shabia rizmy, political commentator. welcome to you both uh julia first start with you. so we are looking at what's called the new and i'm looking at the description, an imaging gone into orbit, successfully, placed into a 450 km orbit of the earth, with the iranian cassette satellite. carrier which means messenger and this comes a year and a half after the nur 2 went to orbit that altitude was 500 kilometers and then uh you also had the new one back in april 20 which was the first military reconnessen satellite launched by iran. tell us why this is a significant? well the speed of the progress uh from newer one to new 3 uh which is the most final and most successful uh edition of the the spy satellite um is uh definitely if in itself um

the us uh played down the new one lot and that was just only three years ago uh and right now it's a fully capable um imaging satellite that's able to uh really have a full range of uh capturing all of the us's spy activities and and bases in the re illegally put bases in the region um which is what has uh which is really putting the us its toes um it's effectively knock down the mosaid and the us's um um monopoly on intelligence and on um espionage and and imaging basically in the region now uh iran is emerging as a western asian of power that's having a home grown capability over intelligence and over satellite imagery um and you know iran was already really beating off the us as bases. in iraq and around the

region before the satellite, what can uh this of be capable, what can uh the threats to the us occupation in the region, mulsad presence in the region reach now, that uh that the is successful, this is really worrying uh the us occupation and in israel uh for sure, so much that the us once again it's launching its uh of military nuclear capability um pretext uh giving as its opposition to uh the the newer three, but of course that's just the pretext to that to to basically hide the level of anxiety that uh the us occupation and its allies have and and losing its monopoly on intelligence gathering and technology in the region. yeah this that's a very good point. mean if we want to take a look at this uh shabir in terms of uh what the accomplishment really entals? um this technology of

satellite carriers is only available to 12 countries, in fact there are uh even though there are countries that produce satellites but because of this uh technology of the launcher itself um they uh don't have the full cycle of technology um tell us uh of course what your thoughts are on that but when our guest there from beirout says the u.s. monopoly i think the us wants to monopolize industries like the aerospace but probably their uh uh real interest is the military industry so that these countries in west asia uh as referred to by us uh become reliant on the us when it comes to things like military equipment is is that a correct uh perspective on it or way of looking at it salam alaikum thank you for having me and yes i believe that's a correct uh kind of perspective of having it mean if you look at how the united states has handled pretty much any single technology uh it can it looks to

the technology or the field, it looks to dominate it and it looks to push other people out of the way and have complete control over it, now what iran has done, as you mentioned with you 11 other countries you're on being now the 12th is it can stand its own two feet and say yes we can do this that presents a very unique threat uh to the united states as you know the united states has always been trying to put its claws into the region um and now that it has you know a significant resistance not only in the form of you know resistance on the ground but now quite literally resistance in the sky. iran has effectively leveled the playing field here um and this is a concrete step that iran is taking. into kind of ensuring that the region itself is not reliant on uh the united states or the west uh in its entirety because iran is always willing to you know look out for its neighbors uh be key a real key regional player uh and unlike the united states which

looks to kind of monopolize and exert control over it uh as you as we see here with iran joining for example bricks and the shanghai cooperation council iran is really looking for you know... uh trade and trust based on mutual, mutual growth, mutual trust, mutual respect between two nations, and so what this presents as a challenge to the united states is that iran can now partner up with these different uh, these different nations, these different states that are looking to you know increase their capacity for for production, not rely so much on the united states and also established a key economic relationship that isn't predatory, that isn't linked to the imf, that isn't linked to the world bank, but based off mutual trust and cooperation with iran and its allied states. yeah, and and since you're in - beirot there uh julie, in terms of uh the way that uh the us has prevented uh or tried to prevent uh the uh for example transfer of iranian oil to uh to

lebanon. what's wrong with iran transferring its aerospace technology to lebanon or its missile technology? i think maybe the us then is very concerned about that because uh obviously. one of the things that stands out in this region is the israeli regime, and i think that's probably one of the driving factors that the us has uh when it comes to preventing iran from advancing. is that is that right? yeah, by preventing iran from advancing, you're preventing the whole region from advancing. um, you know, aside from the fact that we have limited capabilities uh in lebanon, limited military capacity on itself, as a as a small country, um, the... you now our country lebanon has been structurally dependent on the west um economically and on the us militarily and this is done specifically to ensure that there is no um independence uh that's that really uh reached a a military level but also so that um we're

always receiving the end of old stock piles um you know terrible grade equipment uh to keep uh the country militarily subservience but also uh within the bounds and control of the of the west um so that uh whatever we have is also ensures that there is that constant dependency. now what iran does in bringing over um military technology and oil goods it breaks uh that dependency and it um ensures that there is actually um some self-sufficiency and some level of sovereignty um with iranian allies in the... region um that can effectively challenge the comprador dependent status that uh countries like levibanon have been in uh four decades president has thanked there was space uh for

doing what it did this major achievements uh i'd like to get your thoughts however on how he has said once again this is shown that threats and sanctions have no effect on the determination of our dear young scientists for the progress and excellence of the islamic republic of iran. iran's leader his time again said that the west's main worry in particular the wests and what they're targeting is these um minds uh minds of the youth in particular uh and scientists for example and how uh they are the ones that are progressing and advancing uh iran with it and that's what they're what their target. we can talk about the scientist in another question, but uh, just how uh, what you think, and whether you agree with what is leader has said, in terms of these young minds being targeted, and of course, in this case some point in the aerospace industry, yeah, of course, no, i agree completely, i mean, i

think it's very important to kind of assess exactly, what he means by targeting, right, because the west has several different tactics, it deploys in order to sure that progress is stifled, one of course is the very obvious, threat of actually murdering right, as we've seen time and time again in the past, you know, whether it's the cia or musad fladout. assassinating nuclear scientists, the west isn't afraid to not only conduct such horrific uh acts of cowardice, i would say, but also it flants it, um, it says very openly that yes we were responsible or yes that we we um we killed x, y, z scientists in order to stop progres in order, for example, fear monger the us public uh into saying these these scientists were developing weapons of mass destruction, they were developing nuclear weapons and then i think there's also the process of um using sanctions to target them as well, right? if you lock them out of having a good uh

financial life, if you draw them into the west itself by promising them, oh you'll get you know x, y, z uh, you know, degree, will be able to give you nice paying job, that's a process that we refer to as brain drain, where you are taking the best that the that that a country has to offer, pulling them out the country, stif the the country's progress and then integrating them into the west, and in the west as we're talking about, just few... moments ago, the west is laser focused on creating weapons of murder, uh, they pour billions and billions and billions of dollars as we see into their war machines uh, and into into wars such as the ukraine war, for example, where we have luming government shutdown happening right now, but the government has essentially said that will pouring money into weapons, weapons of war for ukraine, and so again, all this to say that those threats are very real, the united states is constantly looking to sink its teeth. into the scientists into these young minds and try to either pull them out of the country if they can and have them work for

the united states for example or just flat out kill them if they can't. yeah uh the fact that iranian nuclear scientists have been targeted jullie i'm sure is not new news for you. we know how musad has operated in that regards and we know how they have assassinated number of iranian uh scientists in the nuclear uh field in particular. now we know that iran is not after nuclear weapons. ivan even uh not only... israel's intel agencies, but also the us have uh confirmed that iran is not after weaponization of his nuclear program, but yet uh israel has targeted uh iranian scientists, what are they afraid of? why do they want, why do they want to get rid of iranian scientists? well, this was uh, even uh back in homani's time he wrote about this, he wrote about how israel is uh afraid, the science are afraid, west is afraid of uh an intellectual society um intellectual society that works for sovereignty um and intellectual society that

can build the capability for economic sovereignty too um as we as it's you know known as proven from years and years worth of international investigations into iran's nuclear program that it's a program of building uh alternative energy, it's a peaceful nuclear program um where iran develop like a um a variety a diverse um array of um energy capabilities um that could be the foundation for uh you know its future sovereign scientific development and programs again like um the development that leads to uh political as well as economic sorry is uh angers the us in the west more than uh a military challenge. um and that is why uh scientists are are the target, that's why uh

youth are the target through soft power, um, that's why in the latest siap, it focused lot, like all of the the siops from the west do, they focus on um undermining iran's cultural and social values, especially uh targeting, targeting women, um, because iran's social uh, iran's social values as a country are the foundation for its development um and for encouraging development as a uh major um scientific player today. also uh iran's missile program has been uh obviously a subject that is not sitting well with the us and israel in turn uh shabir we know that that has been a thorn uh on the side of the us for quite some time and still is uh trying to understand how it is that the us, which was involved in the iran-iraq war in terms of providing weapons

along with other western countries uh where uh missiles and bombs were raining down on iran can expect uh this country not to have its own missile program, they blame iran for weaponizing its missile program to carry nuclear war heads. we just had the other day, the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu uh place a nuclear threats on international stage by the name of the unga at the podium to the entire world saying there should be nuclear threat against iran, shouldn't iran be equipped then with missiles? non-nuclear missiles? yeah, um, i think first, first, first and foremost, everything the west says about you know, a country not being able, a country shouldn't arm itself, uh, a country shouldn't have these defensive capabilities is pure hypocrisy, because the moment that you know, a country would let it guard down, um, the west is going to take whatever or create whatever boogy man it can, in order to

to invade it, right? for example, the example i think of almost immediately is uh qaddafi's libya where khaddafi kind of put down his arms and then immediately we saw a nato-back invasion uh that overthrew gaddafi and now libya is a slave state that's suffering from uh infrastructure collapse um and so i think it the the threat of nuclear war against iran um from netanyahu uh is one cowardice it's two it's fear mongering right um we all know that israel is in a very desperate situation right now it's it's entering its almost 40th straight week of internal protests uh the netanyahu government is not popular at all, in fact on the global states no matter which government uh it is that's running uh the occupation um the occupation itself is losing any credibility any credibility at and it already had very little credibility to start off with and all this to say i think iran should 100% um have the defensive

capabilities it it think needs in order to protect itself because the moment i believe that you know a country lets this guard down especially against the west, the west will always, always, always look into penetrating other countries into sewing chaos, into ensuring that the western influence is the dominant influence in the region, and we see this now more than ever as the west is willing to actually engage in not only war against russia, but slowly creeping towards war against china, it's completely willing to fight a multifront war, and if countries think for one second that the west would hesitate to take advantage. a situation where it's guards where it's guard is down um they would be in for some for root awakening because the west would 100% exploit any situation it can in order to take over and control any other region uh it possibly can. well ivan has not uh actually swayed from its missile program or limited in any shape or form, actually has advanced it to the point

where it is now from what i'm reading over here um to have the largest uh miss full uh stock pile uh in west asia and it's the only country to have one that has range of 2,00 kilometers, which obviously reaches israel. really, my question to you is, there was a case where you had the marder general generalmani that was assassinated by the us and iran retaliated and it retaliated by using f 10 uh family of sold fuel missiles to the uh us base uh base uh to show not only its strength but to uh give a us a little um rattling of the cage um there could be other instances where iran needs to be equipped and therefore it needs these types of weapons for its defensive posture aside from israel threatening iran time and again you also have the us that has that famous saying options

all options are on the table so uh iran has obviously a reason to have these missiles correct absolutely. justification and reason, but um, oh, did you want to say? no, no, i thought you, i thought you had to do your sense, go ahead, no, no, no, i'm just going to con on the answer, um, yeah, so it has - justification has reason as the historical precedent, um, any country in iran's position or any country in west asia's position, um, not only has the right and to develop itself, but any other option is uh suicide um for it, especially um, put up against uh, how iran is probably one of the most targeted countries by the us in the world, um, and after the assassination of uhmani, this was uh to send, you know, iran was sending message that um, not only should you really think about

continuing to attack iran in such cowardly ways, but also um all options. are on the table regionally just across the region um just last week uh, you know, just got a couple days ago, not even last week, yemen was celebrating its uh anniversary of its revolution, where it's transformed into a sovereign resistance government and administration from the its comparador uh government in 2014, um, they held a military parade also showcasing very... advanced uh weaponry that nobody would have thought um just a couple just you know just dozen of years ago um that yemen would be in possession of uh such advanced missiles. weapons um and you know the same across is across the board with iran's allies in the region uh iran's strength and uh justification for uh defending itself it goes

to all of its allies and all of its countries in the position of uh being in the crosssays of occupation and uh imperialist assault and we can you know expect that capability to grow across the board. israel already knows it can't challenge lebanon militarily uh and lot of us allies in the region uh that have gone for years head to head with resistance access countries are uh finding that out that uh their capability and their moral is um being diminished day after day um so um iran is clearly uh sizing up in this uh in this equation and um it's all you know due to uh just the the the will of breaking the sanctions that have been put on it since the

revolution in 1979 um and i think uh those sanctions have as khaman he has said many times um facilitated the opportunity to develop a truly sovereign defense program that our region uh should look to as a model. final question uh based on uh follow up on what just julie said there shabir, why does the us continue down a failed uh road of maximum pressure campaign? it can't suppress iran's uh technological advancements and advancements in many other fields. why doesn't it try to engage? nobody says they're going to call each other and wish each other a merry christmas or happy nourus, nobody wants that, but at the same time engagement if they were to have done that they maybe the world wouldn't be where it's at now where iran, saudi arabia, the region itself is united. there's bricks, there's seo that you want as part of, and the lack of engagement has actually and maximum pressure campaign uh shot themselves in the foot uh, why does the us continue down this path? an under a minute

please? yeah, and under a minute, okay, so under a minute, okay, that's a lot that i'm going to try to crush in here, but sorry, essentially the ideological position of the united states is full, hajamany over the world, it it likes it's unipolar world and it's willing to fight for it, it's willing to fight dirty for it, as we've seen with assassinations with maximum pressure campaign. with pulling out of the jcpoa, and now as we're emerging into this new multipolar world that's you know multilateral and and power spheres and the united states is not going to want to engage, it knows that if it goes down this route it will lose all influence in in its in the regions that control currently has control over, and so any pivot to that sort of thinking is going to endanger the defense ministry that reaks and billions of dollars, any pivot to peace from the united states is going to shut down every single. military base um all 700 plus them and and so the the bricks will come falling down uh lasting the say um you can't have peace with the united states in its

current form because it is a government of warmongers should we receive their political commentator from chicago thank you julie cassam journalists and political analyst from beirot a pleasure with that we come to an end for this edition of the news review i'm sorry the spotlight thanks for tuning in it's bye bye for now.

aus dorf protzelten, das liegt im spessad in bayern. in der zeit habe ich erstmal dieses bewusstsein für den islam überhaupt entdeckt. dann habe ich, ich bin habe auch jeden jede nacht zu gott gesprochen gesagt, gott, wenn du da bist, menschen bisschen vom islam erzählen und so und meiner beisterung.

a bomb explosion near a mosca in southwest pakistan leaves dozens of people dead and many wounded. a bricks group of nations plans a financial messaging system to enable member states to conduct trade and local currencies.

and a government shut down looms in the us as congress is yet to offer a clear plan to fund federal agencies.