Niall Ferguson and Dexter Filkins: Who Will Win the Israel-Iran War?

Honestly with Bari Weiss

The Free Press

News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 7.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s the fourth day in the war between Iran and Israel. Many questions hang in the air. Chief among them: Will Israel be able to fulfill its main goal in the war—to end Iran’s nuclear program? Will it put troops on the ground to do so, specifically to blow up Iran’s most important nuclear site? Or will the U.S. get involved? Will Trump provide the bunker-busting bombs necessary to destroy the facility at Fordow? Will the regime fall—and if so, what will come next? How does this struggle fit into the much, much larger geopolitical conflict between the U.S. and China? So today, I have two experts to break it all down: Niall Ferguson and Dexter Filkins. Niall Ferguson is a historian and Free Press columnist who just wrote in our pages, “Israel’s attack restores the credibility of the West.” Dexter Filkins is a longtime foreign correspondent who has reported from Iran. He is a contributor at The New Yorker, has covered this topic for years, and is the author of The Forever War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the free press, this is honestly and I'm Barry Weiss. As I record, it is the fourth day
0:06.6	in the ongoing escalating war between Iran and Israel. Many major questions hang in the air today.
0:15.1	Chief among them, will Israel be able to fulfill its stated goal of the war, which is to end Iran's nuclear program?
0:24.2	How far will it be willing to go to do so? Will it put troops on the ground in order to blow up
0:31.3	Iran's nuclear crown jewel at Fordo? Or will the U.S. get involved? Will Trump provide the bunker busting bombs necessary
0:40.7	to blow up that key facility? Other questions, will the regime fall? Will Israel take out
0:48.9	supreme leader Khomeini? And if so, what will come next? And how does this war fit into the much, much larger geopolitical conflict between America and China?
1:01.7	So today, I have two experts to break it all down, Neil Ferguson and Dexter Filkins.
1:08.6	Neil Ferguson, of course, is a historian and a free press columnist, who just wrote a piece
1:14.5	in our pages called Israel's Attack Restores the Credibility of the West.
1:19.7	Neil is the author of more than 16 books, including The Pity of War, the House of Rothschild,
1:25.6	and Kissinger, 1923 to 1968, The Idealist.
1:30.9	Dexter Filkins is a longtime foreign correspondent who has reported extensively from Iran.
1:36.8	He is a contributor at The New Yorker and has covered this topic for many years.
1:41.2	He is also the author of the book, The Forever War. We recorded this interview
1:46.1	on Monday morning at 11.30 a.m. New York time as a free press subscriber live stream. We're doing
1:52.8	more and more of these given the speed of the news and the importance of this subject. To attend one
1:58.6	live and to be able to ask your own questions of guests like Dexter and
2:02.8	Neil, there's just one way to do it. It's to become a free press subscriber. If you like honestly,
2:08.1	you will love what we are doing in these free press conversations live from our newsroom.
2:13.0	To do that, you go to the free press's website at thefp.com. A quick break, and we'll be right back
2:20.0	with Dexter Filkins and Neil Ferguson. Stay with us. Summer is almost here, and now you can get
	...

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