over the past four decades, the islamic revolution guard core has made great strides in developing its missile capabilities, defense program to guarantee the country's deterrance power. but can iranian missiles deter the country's arch enemies from serious invasion or can they punish them in case of invasion. in

hello and welcome today, the world's attention is fixed on iran. the leader of the islamic revolution, ayatollah ali khamenei, let the friday prayers in tehran a call for unity among muslims echoed throughout not only. the country, but the region. meanwile, the foreign minister's trip to beirot, despite threats from israel shows a fearless determination in the face of adversity. what does this all mean for iran and the region? join us as we explore this topic and more today's episode of spotlight. to do so, we have with us our guest in the studio, mariam azarche. from the iran desk and also sayid

mohsen abbas who is a political analyst and journalist joining us live from london. thank you very much to both of you for joining me on this edition of the spotlight. so let's begin with our guest in the studio, mariam. in your opinion, how significant was iat khamenei's presence in the public eye, leading the friday. prayers after precisely four years and eight months. i mean, basically, what is the basically, the significance of iran being, iran being able to hit american airbase, um, israeli air base, right? because we have these were taboos in the past, nobody dared to threaten the us, threaten the zionists regardless of how many crimes they committed, but iran, i mean, this was iran's second retaliatory operation, right? iran had a first retaliatory operation after the iraning...

consulat was hit and this time they said they're saying that the strength of this operation was twice that of the last one and different military bases were hit and mosad headquarters were hit and everything so this by itself was very significant and then immediately after the media started talking about oh the leader is scared oh the leader is the they're taking the leader hiding him somewhere and they have done this multiple times in various occasions mean we had even many years ago following the uh basically during the the bassist invasion of iran at another on another occasion imam khamin actually was leading the prayers and there was bombing and i mean they continued right so so he continued um doing the friday sermon and he has already shown that he's not afraid and which is which is ridiculous is like some of the media also like um basically uh the zionist media had threatened him and said oh you know you're gonna join your friends and i mean it's just really... ridiculous because

the whole ideology behind resistance is that you do your best as long as you live and you inspire so many people to basically walk the same path and when you become a marcher you that's the ultimate goal to basically sacrifice everything for the sake of what's right so then when everybody was saying that imam khamini is gonna is hiding and he's not going to come out he actually it's not like every friday mean he just as you said four years the last prayer he let's four years ago, usually it's his representatives in different cities, and it wasn't only significant that he came out, i mean, like, of course, it was expected of him, like you wouldn't be surprised if he did such a thing, because it really takes a lot to stand up to the entire western hijamonic front, we understand that it's not just a zienist regime, we understand that what basically the whole resistance front is facing now, what they're resisting is actually the american military, it's the french. military, it's all

of their basically all of these weapons that these western powers can afford and all the money they can afford and all the you know american tax dollars and everything so so this is it takes lot right, but emma khamenei came out, he took out his four sons, i mean his family was there, so nobody can say, oh, you know what, he's 85 years old, um, you know, somebody, one of his sons is going to succeed him or something, or he didn't bring out his own children, he brought out his own family, and also his followers brought out their entire family, i mean, you were out there, i was out there, there were lot of people pushing strollers, you would think if these people are afraid, they would at least leave the baby with somebody else, right? but they were coming out with their babies, the the young people, old people, everybody had come out and it was such major crowd, and not only in tehran, i mean we had people coming to tehran from different cities, but also in every city where people attended friday prayers and watch on screens and like listen

to the speeches, speech of amamini, and when you would ask those people like, why are you here, like i literally asked him like, aren't you scared, like i mean the zionist regime has threatened so much and... in fact i saw on one of these media channels, one of these farcy speaking zinest media channels, because you know we have those what the one of the biggest uh media uh against one of the biggest warfare against iran is has always been the media warfare, so one of these zinest channels farcy speaking was actually saying, oh great, they're all coming out, i say we should hit the mosala, i should, they were saying that and we should just hit the mosala and then like kill so as many as follow his followers as we possibly can. of course, with millions across the world would be pretty hard to kill them all in one shot, but you know they were openly advertising it right, so these people are coming out and you're asking them like, aren't you scared or like of what? i'm like, well, what if design is hit? i mean, they have shown that they will hit hospitals and um, basically uh,

kindergardens and schools, they have no red lines when it comes to killing civilians, absolutely no red lines, and they were saying, so we become a marcher, so we basically..." sacrifice our life for the sake of our leader, i mean that was something, that was crazy, it was amazing, so it was definitely, as you said, very significant, and um, it really, it really showed major lesson, because uh, what, what you know and i know, we all know, i mean, it's uh, the us itself, the us is the biggest military budget in the world, any technology that money can buy they have, right, and iran really compared to the us, it has very limited military budget, and i mean, uh, as advance. as iran's military is still cannot be compared with the us military, so the backbone of resistance has always been the support of the people, had it been with the best military in the world, the us should have succeeded a long time ago, the zionist, i mean, but but what you saw is that the

zionists were basically fighting at the resistance front, and had it not been for the american support, they had been diminished by now, but the resistance has people as it's back. bone, if you do not have those people, we cannot fight, without the uh, without weapons that, can we say topic man, because now you're talking about the people and that's a a different topic, you did point to media warfare, and i would like emphasize more on the fact that we have seen as journalists and basically observing the developments in around that, um, ayatollah khamenei is quite aware of... uh what the media landscape is and what media warfare means in this day and age, which is very significant uh for uh a person in his position to be so aware of these new technicalities if you will, and also being

aware of how key he can even use his own presence um in order to fight in this meet of warfare, so let's bring in another journal. like us uh into this discussion said abbas, tell us in your opinion and as an observer from outside iran, what was the necessity of ayatullah khamani appearing in public an open space, as he did in the friday prayers despite all of the threats that iran has been receiving from netanyahu himself in particular and the israelis in general, and and also uh the fact that the iranian foreign minister traveled at the same time to beirot clearly coordinated, i think it was necessary to show what's always been there within the islamic resistance and that's fearlessness

and total commitment and a commitment from the top down, because we've seen that the israelis have deliberately and desperately embarked a a strategy. of killing the leaders, commanders and the voices, the representatives, so come and to stand openly in the face of the public and in a very public uh... arena and to announce it in advance, that was extraordinarily brave, but that's the role of leaders, that's the and that's the nature of - khamini, you'll recall that in the sacred defense in the eight-year war imposed by the west through saddam, i was not one of those kind of religious leaders who who was saying in the background or simply motivating people, he was on the front, he joined combatents. in horamshare and all sorts of other arenas and was very much a prominent battler, i think that's what

makes i for me so unique in that he combines that that traditional spiritual beauty of what we call an arif, deep esoteric thinker and practitioner of islam with the political acuman and the the understanding of the world of politics, but to act within that world in a very moral and very... very sound prophetic framework, which is again very unique to him and to the wilarity system of iran. we also have to recognize that he uh was sending message to the israelis who've been of course through nenyahu uh as usual doing the bluff and bluster uh actually addressed the islamic republic of iran's citizens trying to separate the leadership from the people. so this is was another rebuttal to the propaganda and the zionist hasbara which... trying to sort of play on the minds of people, this is what the israelis are resorting to, because they are not convinced

that they can militarily defeat islamic republic of iran, they have to resort to soft power, manipulation, propaganda, stereotyping and undermineing their desperate bid is to try to divide people, to demoralize them, to spread fear, and of course they're up against something that they clearly still haven't got the full understanding of, they should understand the psychology. in the mentality, in the spiritual faith element that goes with resistance and goes with martidom, and that is that that they embrace it, as the sister said earlier on, it's embraced by the irgc, it's embraced by hazbullah, it's embraced by the ansarullah, it's embraced by the pmus in iraq, there's a consistency of absolute commitment uh to this cause, and laying down lives, well that that's just that's just they know that blood will lead to the to to the to the victory that's foretold. and of course the other thing is doing this kind of stand on the back of not just words and not just

imagery, he has an entire arsenal of ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether is the old shahab ones, shahab threes, the imad, these are all missiles that can reach tel aviv any point, and now they proved in this strike that israel can't defend itself, their systems failed completely 90%. percent of the missiles went through in the hypersonic blisk missiles which travel five times faster than the speed of sound and can actually evade and they can maneuver at the last minute, they're not like ballistic missiles, these are unique missiles and in fact israel and america don't have these hypersonic missiles, only china, russia and iran have them, which actually gives iran a deterrant power, but of course this mad regime of israel uh doesn't understand logic, rationality. and uh simple common sense, they will always try to push the boundaries, and there's a reason, because

they know, give it another 10 years, if they don't fight iran and the axis now, they've evaluated that 10 years from now, iran will have nuclear capability of an absolutely astounding nature, they will have even better ballistic missiles and more weaponry, they'll have even better coordinated axis and a growing power in the region, they're almost in in desper last last ditch saloon. time for them, they think, well we have to do it now, otherwise give them any more time, and we're we're we're history. the truth is said, look, israel will not survive simply because of the puny nature of of the regime, the only thing that props it up is the americans, and now the really the ball is in the court of the americans, after what i said, if the americans decide that they want to come into this regional uh struggle, and they've got, all sorts of warships and the fifth fleet and... the sixth fleet out in the mediterranean as well and they've got all this arsenal lying around, if they dare, i

think the challenge in the gauntlet has been thrown, so even if israel responds to iran's salvo, and it was a retaliatory salvo and perfectly legal, perfectly with within the laws of self-defense within any legal international framework, but if the israelis do another assault then iran has promised them a 10 times more powerful response and they will do it probably with even more weapons that these these israelis haven't worked out yet, so we're on the tip of a a regional war, which i don't think the the anglo-western empire can win, but they stand to lose their entire. hold on the middle east on west asia if they go for it, because the us bases are very vulnerable, their puppet regimes in saudi arabia and qatar and kuwait, they're also very vulnerable, and iran has shown to all of these guys that within seven minutes they can wipe out tel aviv if they wanted, that's what the time it takes for these missiles to get them, they haven't got, they haven't got any defense, so if israel doesn't have defense system that can protect

it, how will any of the us bases in all these other neighboring countries uh face? such such an onslot and for that reason these gulf countries have all scuttled their way quickly towards saying they're not going to allow america to do anything or they're not going to allow missiles to be fired from their bases from their lands so they're distancing themselves already because they've seen what iran's capacity is so i think the balance has changed that doesn't mean that it's a foregone conclusion what would happen but certainly we're not dealing with the the america of old which could go around bullying uh without any response they will get a... response and uh it remains to be seen how much russia and china then support iran if there's a head on regional war, that's the other factor the americans haven't really fully evaluated yet, and it's interesting that you're pointing to uh certain parts of the leader speech, he has said this time and again that the era of hit and run is over, you hit, you get hit back, those are ex his

exact words and also uh during uh the ceremon on um friday he also reed rated that iran will continue these attacks if it sees them fit, it will be definitely a measured response. so maria, i'm bringing you back into this discussion and of course pointing to something that uh mohsan abbas mentioned, which is uh, what uh the israelis tried to do, they started this whole uh mind game, if you will, trying to play uh iranian people against the government, and this is something israelis have proven to be good at, so... we did see lots of posts on instagram or other social media outlets uh trying to sew this kind of division among iranians that uh separating in a way uh the public from the government and the islamic republic uh how did the presence of people in the friday prayers defy all of that? i mean the way we

see is there there are different kinds of media. we're used to look at media like tv social media. on all of that, but there's also a different kind of media, when you live a certain way of life that imam khamenei does, when you guide people over the years through number of hurdles just like imam khamani has done, and when you're always with people among them, with everything that happens, you yourself are media, and that media, it has shown to be much stronger than everything else, i mean we saw with said hassan, when he was martered, so many were mourning and there were also christian, and they're also, i mean, they were from like across the board people were morning why, but even though you know hizbullah has been labeled as a terrorist organization by certain western hegemonic powers, so basically there is the media, there's the you know all the international, all the mainstream media, all the major social media platforms that are all basically controlled by uh the cia or by influenced by various

powers, but then we have the media as an a person who has who who bas lives by what he preachers and that's what amam khamene has shown and what we see also is not they're not only playing this war against iranians, they're also doing the same thing to arab nations, so while they tell iranians that, oh look, your country is sacrificing your security for the sake of arabs who are not iranians, it's not a your business, you shouldn't care, they should only spend this money you know inside the country for giving you better lives, at the same time they're telling something else to the to the arab region, the're saying 'iran is interfering in your internal affairs, um, basically they are trying to put the different nations against each other, and that's what amoni actually, one of the things he did during the uh friday sermon that he talked about how all of us are in the same boat, he talked about how we have the shared enemy that the us, and basically this, he talked about these imperialists

being the shared enemies of all the countries in the region, i'm sorry to cut you off there, because i wanted you emphasis'. more on the presence of the people and the support, the public support that uh the leader enjoys, because that is basically what was against the the media uh propaganda that we were seeing circulating in social media, you now all those posts and uh different um pictures and the messages that we were seeing clearly uh fueled by the zionist regime and media that they can control, so let's bring back... mr. mohsan abbos and we're almost running out of time, so uh, mr. abbas, something quite interesting that happened in this friday prayers is that the leader decided to to address the muslim umma in arabic, that was quite significant. in what ways do you think that could have an impact?

well, i think i first of all is paid to the lie that there is a sunni shia divide, this is a, this is narrative which the israeli hasbara and the the saudi wahabist fraternity etc. have been pushing very hard, the idea of shia cresent, how iran was going to use uh shiaism to take over uh the... world seems i'm being sarcastic but certainly to take over west asia, the truth is that um that has failed because by the hezbollah and the lebanese resistance is its own full commitment to the palestinians, all the hits the lebanese civilians are taking now is as much for them as it is for gaza, because from day one of the october 7th alexa storm, the lebanese people have been physically directly... involved, hezbollah have been fighting on behalf of the gazans pulling away israeli forces, so that's number one, they've shattered that myth that iran and the axis is

only a shia movement, because now the palestinians are predominantly sunny and they're sort of quite conservative sunnis at that, they've also destroyed that through their support of syria, because syria is not not a majority shia country, yet iran supported syria and and and repelled the attacks that were largely by takfi. salaphists again, the same mercenaries used by america in iraq, the same goes in iraq, iraq is not exclusively a shia zone, it is a 50/50 country almost in terms of denomination, they shattered the myth of a persian versus arab again, because iran is the key, the only government, the only which is actually supporting the uh the the resistance in palestine, again shatters the idea of arab and iranian collaboration not being possible, they obviously throw the... this this um this notion that also iran is somehow uh using prophes and wants to have the dominance of that region, the track record tells us something different, these

these forces who are fighting the the zionists or fighting the saudis or fighting any of the axis of the the anglo-zionist empire in that region have all been fighting because they were oppressed, they were invaded, they were pummeled and and and exploited whether the iraq, yemen, syria, you can see that the reaction was based on defending the oppressed. "this is a fundamental principle imam khomini laid out for the revolution right in the word dots since since day dots, so there isn't some kind of proxy war, this is the islamic republic of iran helping people who've requested it to help in situations, and they're taking on arrogant, hegemonic, plunder orientated ethno supremacist, white supremacist, european supremacist uh powers to from enacting control, so i think iran has is'. very much on the ascendency in terms of its policies in the region and it's bringing the arab and muslim community together, that's their purpose, they've done it through the hope initiative before, and they they've

put out lots of olive leaves, and the arabs are now beginning to think the people are all recognizing these changes and the lies that have been told about iran and the uh, all of it is being exposed, and i think that process will continue. thank you very much said mosanapos, i'm sorry we're running out of time, i would have loved to continue this discussion, journalist and political commentator joining us live from london and right here in the studios with us from the iran desk mariam ozache, thank you for joining us on this edition of spotlight and thanks to all of you viewers for watching this edition. the netherlands, the hague. near the sorflet national park, peace palace. the most important case of the court was

dealing with humanitarian disaster between the eastern part of the jordan river and its mediterranean coast. israel has been at war in the gaza strip since october 2023. killing civilians, the elderly, women and children. the they all presented the world with dramatic moments that had not been shown in any historical genre movie. it was a massive genocide that israel engaged in. if the legal campaign continues, it can spell the end of israel. this is an opening of justice that can turn the world upside down.

we're interrupting our usual program to do a live coverage right now on lebanon bayrut, specifically, the israeli regime has once again launched relentless air strikes against the souther southern suburb of beirot, and joining us right now is our correspondent mariam saleh from beirout. mariam, can you

please update us on what has happened? happened, well it seems the israelis are going further and further when it comes to what targeting and destroying, so we're looking at systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure in addition to residential buildings and whole compound, so yesterday there was news that one of the main gas stations in airport road, which is also another very significant civilian site, that the the gas station. was targeted, we know that it was in flames and people who saw it from areas that are further away from the southern suburbs of bayrut um and it seem to have also caused a lot of damage and fires in that area and as you know the rescue teams are being targeted and struck by the israeli drones and the fighter jets so it's very difficult for the rescue teams to get close to be able to stop fires at least um