we are joining now by jamal abdi, president of the national iranian american council.to democracy now! can you respond to these attacks? >> it is hard to find something novel to say about the united states bombing iraq. we have been doing this for 30 years. this comes at a time when the biden administration has potentially the opportunity to pivot off this track that was late for them by the trump administration where they are engaged in this constant tit for tat, tipped and rebecca iranian influence, striking iranian air forces. instead, bombing targets inside of iraq, we're giving more fuel to this conflict. instead of just incentivizing further attacks by iran-linked groups, we see immediate retaliation. this is how these things continue to log the united states down in the region and unless bite and is able to break out of the cycle, this is the norm that will be continuing. juan: what is the iraq popular mobilization forces and what is their connection, if any, to iran? also, what is the status of u.s. troops in iraq these days? how many are there? >> the groups t

i'm a senior research fellow at the national iranian american council just based in washington dc. all right, so let's start marcia with a quick cheat. a quick look at who 7 candidates are, who we're going to be buying for. the title of president here on my laptop, i have all 7 of them, one line for each candidate. let's start here at the top. sure, i wrote samples to me as a lawmakers used to be deputy parliament speaker up until a couple of weeks ago. but he's now a member of parliament. every racy is the front runner. he is the head of the judiciary at the moment, and more center as i used to be, the commander in chief of the i, r g, c, d, long revolutionary car corps. and is not the secretary of the expediency council and more than the reformist he used to be vice president under president called me . and the governors of 2 provinces are doing. i said him, i used to be the governor of the central bank for on until a few weeks ago when he was dismissed for running for president iris. and he is also a lawmaker, a conservative par niner. he is the head of the research center of th

iranian people, all that a day. but all you mean that there was already you don't know if a more now i'm joined by true, the policy treaty is the former president of the nationally radiant american council and is now with the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. true, it's good to have you back on the program president. he enjoys the backing of the supreme leader, but not the iranian people. are we talking about a president here with a legitimacy problem? and does that even matter? hey, certainly does have a legitimacy, legitimacy problem. mindful of how these elections went about, but that is not necessarily something new to the iranian state, nor is it unfortunately, particularly uncommon in the current world that we're living in where we have seen wind torture units and low in many different places and directions. but this will definitely be a problem for him because the islamic republic has long pointed to quite high participation rates in these elections as an indicator of the legitimacy of the system. and clearly this time around that legitimacy was not bestowed upon them by the voters. inter, we know the iranian president does not set foreign policy, but we know that the

nationally radian american council, and is now with the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. true, it's good to have you back on the program president. he enjoys the backing of the supreme leader, but not the iranian people. are we talking about a president here with a legitimacy problem and does that even matter? hey, certainly does have a legit history legitimacy problem mindful of how these elections went about. but that is not necessarily something new to the iranian state, nor is it unfortunately, particularly uncommon in the current world that we're living in where we have seen wind torture units and low in many different places and directions. but this will definitely be a problem for him. because the islamic republic has long pointed to quite high participation rates in these elections as an indicator of the legitimacy of the system. and clearly this time around, that legitimacy was not restored upon them by the voters. inter, we know the iranian president does not set foreign policy, but we know that the president is influential and how it is carried out. i mean, that could include rebuilding trust with washington. but how does a hard line or even begin to do that? well, i think it hard m

nationally radiant american council, and is now with the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. true, it's good to have you back on the program president. he enjoys the backing of the supreme leader, but not the iranian people. are we talking about a president here with a legitimacy problem and does that even matter? hey, certainly does have a legit history legitimacy problem mindful of how these elections went about. but that is not necessarily something new to the iranian state, nor is it unfortunately, particularly uncommon in the current world that we're living in where we have seen wind torture units and low in many different places and directions. but this will definitely be a problem for him. because the islamic republic has long pointed to quite high participation rates in these elections as an indicator of the legitimacy of the system. and clearly, this time around that legitimacy was not bestowed upon them by the voters. inter, we know the iranian president does not set foreign policy, but we know that the president is influential and how it is carried out. i mean, that could include rebuilding trust with washington. but how does a hard line or even begin to do that? well, i think it hard m