let's start in tehran with professor mohammad marandi. can you talk about the response on ground to hearing this "new york times report" which the trump administration has not denied another now news outlets have confirmed, that they were in the midst of a strike right before the attack happened, with the planes in the air, they called it off? >> well, people are viewing the whole story with a significant amount of skepticism. the wholeason is that affair, this whole saga began with the u.s. leaving the nuclear deal. and then subsequently, trump imposing economic warfare against iranians -- something he said specifically him of these were brutal sanctions. the escalation began on the american side. then the tankers that were struck also were suspicious to the iranians because the tankers that were struck a month ago off the coast of the united arab emirates were attacked almost timidly after bolton said the israelis gave them information about an imminent iranian attack, which made them suspicious. just recently, right off the iranian coa

ok let's get going let's bring in our guests today they are mohammad marandi he's head of american studies at the university of tehran he joins us from the iranian capital hillary mann leverett is c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy group strategy and formerly u.s. state department official she joins us from washington and keeping us company in london sahil shah he's a policy fellow at the european leadership network where he leads the iran project which works to protect the iranian nuclear agreement welcome to you all mohammad marandi in tirana welcome back to inside story as far as the trumpet ministration is concerned is there as of today a plan b. when it comes to what do we do next i think that's probably the most important problem that the team in washington has created for trump there is no exit strategy this maximum pressure policy that the united states has imposed on iran is really a dead end the iranians are saying that we after 10 years of negotiations agreed to a nuclear deal we've given significant concessions we've been flexible. and now the united states has exited the

ok let's get going let's bring in our guests today they are mohammad marandi he's head of american studies at the university of tehran he joins us from the iranian capital hillary mann leverett is c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy group strategy and formerly u.s. state department official she joins us from washington and keeping us company in london sahil shahr he's a policy fellow at the european leadership network where he leads the iran project which works to protect the iranian nuclear agreement welcome to you all mohammad marandi in tirana welcome back to inside story as far as the trumpet ministration is concerned is there as of today a plan b. when it comes to what do we do next. i think that's probably the most important problem that the team in washington has created for trump there is no exit strategy this maximum pressure policy that the united states has imposed on iran is really a dead end the iranians are saying that we after 10 years of negotiations agreed to a nuclear deal we've given significant concessions we've been flexible and now the united states has exited th

ok let's get going let's bring in our guests today they are mohammad marandi he's head of american studies at the university of tehran he joins us from the iranian capital hillary mann leverett is c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy group strategy and formerly u.s. state department official she joins us from washington and keeping us company in london sahil shah he's a policy fellow at the european leadership network where he leads the iran project which works to protect the iranian nuclear agreement welcome to you all mohammad marandi in tirana welcome back to inside story as far as the trumpet ministration is concerned is there as of today a plan b. when it comes to what do we do next i think that's probably the most important problem that the team in washington has created for trump there is no exit strategy this maximum pressure policy that the united states has imposed on iran is really a dead end the iranians are saying that we after 10 years of negotiations agreed to a nuclear deal we've given significant concessions we've been flexible. and now the united states has exited the

they to nation media claiming iran has been attacking ships in the persian gulf is professor mohammad marandi from the university of tehran he joins me from the iranian capital mohammad welcome to going underground so before we get there any events in the persian gulf or anywhere else we just heard david horowitz that and he's calling iran's mommas nazis. he's calling your country fascist medieval barbaric jew hating western ating woman aiding gating that's what your country is yet sounds mainstream that's what we usually hear in the western media so it's not very extraordinary i never understood what the mullahs mean but my boss at the university but the head of my department is a woman and we have jews in this country and we have kosher restaurants we have churches in this country and we see celebrations during christmas especially the armenian christmas in tehran and other major cities where we have christians and. anyone who travels you run would see and know that the anti iranian up again the coming out of the western media is largely nonsense well you have some way to go on cue right i

cross talking around i'm joined by my guest mohammad marandi input on he is a professor at the university of tehran in beirut we have come in a was me he is a professor and political analyst and in florida we cross to robert rebel he is a professor of political science at florida atlantic university all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate mohamed let me go to you 1st and to ron give me your side or how iran sees this whole thing playing out because iran's point of view is virtually silent in western media so western audiences don't know the other side of this story or as i would put it a artificially generated impending conflict go ahead mohamed. the most important thing in this story is that the united states is waging economic warfare against iranian women and children the united states is exercising what our foreign minister said economic economic terrorism and that they are trying to make the iranian people suffer and to force the iranian people to suffer so much that the government will submit to the united sta

leave our conversation there thank you so much to all our guests today on inside story they were mohammad marandi hillary mann leverett and sahil shah and thank you too for your company you can see the show again anytime on the website al-jazeera dot com and for more discussion to check out the facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also talk to us on twitter i'm at peace still be one of the programs handle is at a.j. inside story from the pieces and the team here and doha thanks for watching will do it all again at the same time tomorrow. voters beaten in polling stations stolen 12 european politicians on trial for their role in a referendum on catalan independence their political opponents in the prosecutor's seat for a case that traces crucial questions about democracy and self-determination. but is the outcome already decided by a hostile spanish state the catalonia trials justice or vengeance on a 0. 8 years after the fall of gadhafi more is still raging in libya but it's not just a domestic showdown outside powers are involved to school the axis of evi

across talking around i'm joined by my guest mohammad marandi and put on he is a professor at the university of tehran and beirut we have become ill was me he is a professor and political analyst and in florida we cross to robert rebel he is a professor of political science at florida atlantic university.

i'm joined on the line now by professor mohammad marandi from the university of tehran let's look at the contradictions of that announcement we heard today professor washington says it's waiting for iran to come to the negotiating table but then also hints that sanctioning the country's top diplomat next week how do you assess that. the people here are more or less saying that the trumpet ministration is really. extraordinarily humiliated and upset that the iranians have been able to . shoot down a $200000000.00 drone are some double f. $35.00 with iranian made surface to air missile cost maybe a few tens of thousands of dollars. this humiliation i think is something that is still up sending them even during the last few days and the real reason why the united states didn't attack iran is that i think the united states is was surprised that not only was the run capable of carrying out such an operation and defending its airspace but also the fact that the iranians had no reservations they were not scared of the united states they were not intimidated by the united states i think that

to the incident america says the vote see next to the tanker is iranian home when i speak to mohammad marandi who's head of the american studies department at the university of tehran thank you so much for being with us when giving iran's version of what happened in the gulf of oman last week the defense minister said that another boat an american boat he suggested was already at the scene before the iranian navy came to the rescue of the same as from the tank what evidence says iran have that this was an american vote. well the iranians have a strong presence in the persian gulf as well as in the gulf of oman and the strait of hormuz as well and the attack took place very close to the iranian. into iranian waters so obviously the iranians have a great deal of information about what goes on and this is one of the interesting things about the whole affair that the attacks took place so close to the iranian to iranian waters which is itself suspicious but more importantly the the america the americans claimed that these were mines but the owner of the ship says that they were not mines they wer

at the expense of those who advocate dialogue mike hanna al-jazeera washington let's speak to mohammad marandi who is the head of the american studies department at the university of tehran he joins us now via skype from the iranian capital mamma then we start by asking you how all of this is being viewed in iran is this and even further escalation despite president transported orders to stand down. well the view in teheran is that all of this is so utterly hypocritical because the united states hasn't been engaging in war with iran for a long time now the americans have been imposing economic warfare on iranian women and children for quite a while they even tried to prevent iranians from importing medicine which is bad to the loss of life and we know that the united states is constantly threatening iran with military action all options are on the table and this is not the 1st time an american drone came into iranian territory and was shot down but if you listen to the western corporate media or western state owned media you'd assume that the american narrative is true despite the fact that th