hello and welcome today, the world's of 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.

foreign ministers trip to beirot despite threats from israel shows fearlearless 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 sad 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 ayatullah 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 zinanis 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 iranian consul it was hit, and this time they said, are saying that the strength of this operation was twice that of the last one and uh different uh military bases were hit and umsad 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 or the leader is the they're taking the leader hiding him somewhere and they have done this multiple times in various occasions i mean we had even many years ago uh following the uh basically during the uh the bassist invasion of iran at

another on another occasion imam khamenei 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 going to join your friends and i mean it's just really ridiculous because the whole ideology behind resistance of 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 of 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 uh prayer he let was four years ago usually it's his representatives. in different cities and it

wasn't only significant that he came out, 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 hijamanic front, we understand that it's not just the zinest regime, we understand that what uh 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 a lot right, but came out, he took out his four sons, 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 watched on screens and like listen to the speeches, a speech of a mhamani, and even you would ask those people, like why are you here, like i literally asked them 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 zionist media channels because you know we have those with 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 you know 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? the're like, of what? and 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 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, as advanced 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 designers 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 its backbone, if you do not have those people, we can't not fight you know without the uh without weapons that can we stay topic because now you're talking about the people and that's 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 iran that khamene 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 he can even use his own presence um in order to fight in this media of warfare, so let's bring in another journalist 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 also uh the... 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 uh deliberately and desperately embarked a uh a strategy of killing the leaders, commanders and and the voices, the representatives, so and to stand openly in the face of the public and in a very public 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 uh khaminai, you will recall that in the sacret defense in the eight year war imposed by the west through saddam, and 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 combatants in horamher and all sorts of other. and was very much a prominent battler, i think that's what makes it e for me so unique, in that he combines that that traditional spiritual beauty of what we call an artif, a deep esoteric thinker and practitioner of islam with the political acuman and the understanding of the world of politics, but to act within that world in in a very moral and very very sound prophetic framework, which is... again very unique to him and to the wilatif system of iran. we also have to

recognize that he uh was sending message to the israelis who've been of course through netan yahu 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 rebuttle to the propaganda and the zionist husbara which is 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 the islamic republic of iran, they have to resort to soft power, manipulation, propaganda, stereotyping and undermine, 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 and the mentality and 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 the to the victory that's for told, and of course the other thing is i is doing... this kind of uh stand on the back of not just words and not just imagery, he has an entire arsenal of ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, you drones, you know, whether is the old shahab ones, shahab threes, the amakar, 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% of the missiles went through in the hypersonic. discs 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 deterrent power uh, but of course this mad regime of israel uh doesn't understand uh 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 desperate last is 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 the puny nature of of the regime, the only thing that props it up is the americans and now 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 you know 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 and the gauntlet has been thrown, so even if israel responds to iran's salvo, and it was a retaliatory salvo, perfectly legal, perfectly with within the laws of self-defense within any legal uh 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 uh these israelis. haven't worked out yet, so we're on the tip of a a regional war, which i don't think the uh, 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, uh, that's what the time it takes for these missiles to get them, they have got the... haven't got any defense, so if israel doesn't have defense system that can protect it, how will any of the us bases uh in all these other neighboring countries uh face such such an onslaug 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 uh 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 uh pointing to uh certain parts 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 reiterated 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 moss mentioned, which is uh, what 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 and uh separating in away 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 you know tv, social media and all of that, but there's also a different... of media when you live a certain way of life that imam khamani does, when you guide people over the years through number of hurdles just like imam khamini has done, and when you're always with people among them, with everything that happens, you yourself are in media, and that media, it has shown to be much stronger than everything else, mean we saw with sayid 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 um, you know, hisballah has been labeled as a terrorist organization by certain western hejamonic power, 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 basically lives by what he preachers and that's why imam khameneini 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, who is 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, they'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 immam khamini 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 you know he talked about these imperialistts being the shared enemies of all the countries in the region i'm sorry to cut you off there because i wanted you emphasize 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 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 mos and we're almost running out of time, so uh, mr. abbus, something quite interesting that happened in this friday prayers is that the leader decided to address the muslim umma in arabic, that was quite significant, and what ways do you think that could have an impact? well, i think first of all is paid to the lie that there is a sunni shia divide, this is a, this is narrative which the israeli haspera and the... "the saudi wahabist fraternacy 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, so i'm being sarcastic, but certainly." west asia, the truth is that um, that has failed, because by the hezbollah and the lebanese resistance uh 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, the hisbollah 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 some only a shia movement, because now the palestinians are predominantly sunni 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 takfiri salafists, 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've 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 that idea of arab and iranian collaboration not being possible, they obviously throw this this um this notion that also 'iran is somehow uh using proxies 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're iraq, yemen, syria, you can see that the reaction was based on defending the oppress, this is a fundamental principle, imam komeni late'. 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 powers to from enacting control, so i think iran has is very much on the ascendency in terms of... 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 leads 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 is, all of it is being exposed and i think that process will continue. thank you very much said, i'm sorry we're running out of time, i would have loved to continue this discussion, said mohsan abbas, journalist and political commentator joining. live from london and right here in the studios with us from the iran desk mariam ozarcher. thank you for joining us on this edition of spotlight. and thanks to all of you viewers for watching

this edition. october 7th, 2023, defining moment in the... history the region a breaking point, the day gaza broke free from its prison, natural response to decades of occupation and oppression, meticulous operation, unmatched sophistication, it surprised israel, then shocked it, then rocked it, it brought to the foreground the plight of the forgotten, pipotal shift in the fight for freedom and

dignity, it was in revenge for innocent blood, it was operation.

first of the headlines: israel launches new air raids on the lebanese capital, targeting the southern outsists of beirot to several violent strikes. the palestinian resistance moment hamas condemns israel's latest strike a gaza mosk that killed over 20 civilians. this place people were taking shelter there.