How close are Iran and Israel to full-scale war?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After Israel’s strikes on Iranian cities, Iran launches a wave of retaliatory attacks. With mass evacuations under way in Tehran, the government struggles to control the growing panic. What does this mean for Iran’s future, and how is the leadership reshaping the narrative?
In this episode:
- Narges Bajoghli (nargesbajoghli), professor of Middle East Studies
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan and Haleema Shah, with Sonia Bhagat, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Tamara Khandaker, Mariana Navarrete, Remas Alhawari and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. It was edited by Kylene Kiang and Noor Wazwaz.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Iran launches a major retaliatory attack on Israel. |
| 0:16.0 | Multiple buildings have been destroyed as Israel's advanced air defenses were unable to block all missiles. |
| 0:24.8 | Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it's using new methods in this latest wave. |
| 0:30.4 | Iran's leadership has shown it can strike back. |
| 0:33.3 | And after the most intense escalation in years, Iran hasn't just fired missiles. |
| 0:38.3 | It's reshaping the narrative. |
| 0:42.0 | I'm Manuel Rapalo, and this is the take. |
| 0:49.5 | I'm Nargis Bejoli. I'm a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and I am an anthropologist |
| 0:58.0 | and a researcher of Iran revolutions and warfare. |
| 1:03.0 | Nargis, welcome to The Take. Let's start with the events of these past few days. |
| 1:10.0 | How would you characterize where we are right now in this |
| 1:12.8 | conflict? Sure. So Iran was in the midst of going into the sixth round of nuclear talks with |
| 1:21.6 | the United States that was supposed to be held in Oman over the past weekend. And a few days prior to those talks, Israel launched attacks inside of Iran, |
| 1:33.0 | killing a number of the commanders of the military forces within Iran, |
| 1:38.6 | as well as a number of nuclear scientists, attacking nuclear facilities, |
| 1:43.4 | as well as attacking certain military bases and military installations, |
| 1:49.0 | and also attacking civilian infrastructure and civilian residential buildings. |
| 1:55.0 | Some are calling it Iran's Pearl Harbor moment. |
| 1:58.0 | In many ways Iran was sort of caught off guard in this attack because they were in the |
| 2:05.1 | midst of those nuclear negotiations with the United States. |
| 2:07.8 | So it took Iran some time to sort of understand what was going on and then be able to respond. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Al Jazeera, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Al Jazeera and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.