Jacobin Radio: The US-Israeli Attack on Iran w/ Yassamine Mather
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What are Iranians actually experiencing right now? Suzi speaks with Yassamine Mather, an Iranian socialist who has been in direct contact with relatives, colleagues, and comrades inside Iran throughout the bombing. Yassamine is chair of Hands Off the People of Iran, editor of Critique, and researcher at Oxford's Middle East Centre.
She describes near-hourly strikes, hospitals hit, internet cut, and a propaganda war in which state TV claims nothing happened while satellite channels say nothing is left. She explains why Trump’s promise to 'liberate' Iran has had opposite effects: People who were in January’s anti-regime protests are now joining pro-government demonstrations — not for the regime, but out of rage at foreign attack. She assesses Khamenei's death, the removal of his brake on IRGC adventurism, Netanyahu’s real objective (to destroy Iran as a country, not just its nuclear program), and why this war makes 2003 look well planned. She also addresses dangerous illusions some on the Left hold about Russia or China as potential saviors. She closes with a new initiative: Nur, a project for regional solidarity across Iran, Palestine, and the Arab world, launched with veteran socialist Moshé Machover.
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 0:13.0 | On February 28, the United States and Israel launched what they called Operation Epic Fury. |
| 0:19.6 | It's a coordinated military assault on Iran. |
| 0:22.6 | In the days that followed, the Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini was assassinated, |
| 0:26.6 | and at least a thousand civilians were killed in the opening days. |
| 0:30.6 | On that first Saturday morning, school children were still in class when the bombs fell. |
| 0:36.6 | 165 graves were dug in Minab in Hormuzgan province. |
| 0:43.2 | For girls ages 7 to 12, they were killed when missiles struck their school just as the day |
| 0:48.6 | began. |
| 0:50.0 | Trump's justifications have shifted almost daily. |
| 0:52.9 | The nuclear program, the regime changed, liberating protesters, preemptive self-defense. |
| 0:59.0 | Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz is in play. |
| 1:01.0 | Gas prices have jumped 20% in Europe on day one. |
| 1:05.0 | South Korea's stock market fell 18% in two days. |
| 1:09.0 | A prominent UAE billionaire, a major Gulf establishment figure, |
| 1:13.6 | published an open letter to Trump, |
| 1:15.7 | asking, who gave you the authority to drag our region into a war with Iran? |
| 1:20.8 | What began as Operation Epic Fury is already fracturing the alliance system |
| 1:25.4 | that American power has depended on for decades. |
| 1:28.9 | So to go beneath the surface on this war, I'm joined by Yasim and Mather, Iranian socialist, |
| 1:35.3 | whose analysis is always penetrating and illuminating. |
| 1:38.7 | And we'll get that when our program returns in just a moment. |
... |
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