ongoing situation in Iran. I know there has been a lot of speculation amongst all of you in the media regarding the president's decision making and whether or not the United States will be directly involved. In light of that news, I have a message directly from the president, and I quote, based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.

That's a quote directly from the president for all of you today.

That was White House Press Secretary KK Caroline Levitt speaking earlier today?

And indeed, the world is waiting for President Donald Trump's decision

on whether the U.S. will join Israel in military action to wipe out Tehran's nuclear facilities.

As he weighs his option, Trump's is being squeezed by different pressures from forces at home and abroad.

The president huddled with advisors in the situation room twice already this week and was set to do so again today.

He approved attack plans presented to him, but was waiting to see if Iran would be willing to

negotiate and hasn't made a final decision. Basically, if the U.S. gets involved, then every regional

and global actor will, all to varying degrees of engagement.

Israel seems dead set on doing something inflammatory at any rate.

Within the coming days, here's Israel's ambassador to the U.S. from an interview earlier today.

I pulled off a number of surprises.

When the dust settles, you're going to see some surprises on Thursday, night, and Friday

that will make the beeper operation almost seem simple.

Basically, yeah, so seems like they're going to try and do in the Ayatollah Thursday night,

tonight or Friday. That's my prediction on the manner of the operation. But hello and welcome

to colonial outcast, the anti-imperialist podcast that still believes in crazy stuff like international

law and national sovereignty. And to be clear, we don't think those things exist. We just think that they should. Today, we're going to continue with our Iran reporting and analysis with Dr. Asal Rod, a scholar of Middle East history. She completed a PhD in history from the University of California, Irvine in 2018, and is the author of State of Resistance, Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran.

I know you're very busy right now. Thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

So before, you know, I was thinking about involuntarily subjecting my audience to a three-minute

...