Iran Reacts to Trump’s Victory, With Ray Takeyh (Transition 2025, Episode 8)

The President’s Inbox

Council on Foreign Relations

Politics, News:politics, News

4.5 • 698 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ray Takeyh, the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at CFR, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how Trump’s victory is being viewed in Iran and whether a return to “maximum pressure” will force Tehran to agree to limit its nuclear program. This episode is the eighth in a special TPI series on the U.S. 2025 presidential transition and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Mentioned on the Episode Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh, “Tehran May Tempt Trump With Talks,” Wall Street Journal Mike Pompeo, “After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy,” Speech at the Heritage Foundation Ray Takeyh, The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty Ray Takeyh, “The Untold Story of Jimmy Carter’s Hawkish Stand on Iran,” Wall Street Journal For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/tpi/iran-reacts-trumps-victory-ray-takeyh-transition-2025-episode-8

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the President's Inbox. I'm Jim Lindsay, the Mary and David Boyes Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
0:12.2	This is the eighth episode in a special presidential transition series on the President's Inbox.
0:18.3	From now until inauguration day, I will be sitting down with experts
0:21.9	to unpack who will staff the Donald Trump administration in how it will likely approach
0:26.7	the many foreign policy challenges it faces. This week's topic is Iran's reaction to Trump's victory.
0:46.8	With me to discuss how Trump's return to the White House is seen in Tehran and the likely future course of U.S.-Iran relations is Ray Takay.
0:51.3	Ray is the Haseeb-J Sabah Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council.
0:56.0	His research focuses on Iran and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.
1:02.3	His most recent book is The Last Shah, America, Iran, in the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty.
1:08.4	Ray co-wrote a piece last month for the Wall Street Journal titled Why Iran May Dash for the Bomb,
1:12.6	and a piece just last week for the journal titled The Untold Story of Jimmy Carter's Hockish Stand on Iran. Ray, thank you, joining me on the president's
1:18.3	inbox. Yeah, thanks for having me. Well, let's start with the, I guess, the big question.
1:22.5	What has the reaction been in Tehran to Donald Trump's return to the White House?
1:27.6	There's mixed reaction, but largely in terms of the official government,
1:35.2	there is an inclination toward taking up the United States offer of dialogue.
1:42.3	The offer was made before when President Trump came into office in 2016,
1:49.6	but at that time, the Iranian government had a precondition, and that precondition was the United
1:56.8	States had to return to the Iran nuclear deal, the joint comprehensive plan of action,
2:03.1	which involved lifting sanctions, and then a dialogue would begin. The current administration
2:09.6	doesn't seem to have that preconditioned. In a sense, they're willing to have a dialogue over
2:16.2	issues of concern, probably because the JCPOA is not that big of an issue,
2:22.9	the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran Nuclear Deal, because it has largely expired by now,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Council on Foreign Relations, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Council on Foreign Relations and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.