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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep122: Iran's Strategic Gains from the War in Ukraine — Jonathan Sayeh — Jonathan Sayeh states that Iran is celebrating Russia's advantageous position in Ukraine as a geopolitical win because it enabled Iran to export military weaponry and demonstrate combat cap

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Iran's Strategic Gains from the War in UkraineJonathan SayehJonathan Sayeh states that Iran is celebrating Russia's advantageous position in Ukraine as a geopolitical win because it enabled Iran to export military weaponry and demonstrate combat capabilities internationally. Iran expects Russia to reciprocate this military assistance, potentially through air defense system modernization or advancement of Iran's nuclear program, despite profound mutual mistrust between the strategic partners. Iran benefits globally by selling weapons and leveraging instability to argue the U.S. has become an unreliable superpower.
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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is CBS Eye on the World.

0:08.5

Here's John Batchelor.

0:11.7

This is CBSI on the world.

0:13.9

I'm John Batchel.

0:14.8

My colleague and co-host, Bill Rajo,

0:16.9

Senior Fellow Foundation for Defense of Democracy,

0:20.0

and we welcome his colleague research fellow

0:22.2

Jonathan Saya at the FD, watching Iran for us very carefully. Jonathan, we have a 28-point plan

0:30.8

that now is a 19-point plan that's liable to change several times over these next days.

0:36.4

The prevailing opinion in Moscow is that this is our

0:39.3

demands, our maximalist demands. The prevailing opinion in Europe is that this is a concession

0:45.5

to Russian aggression. There are other various opinions in between. However, I'm most interested

0:52.1

in your expectation of how Iran will see this.

0:56.3

We recall that early in the war, Iran suddenly showed up on the battlefield in terms of its drones,

1:02.9

its suicide drones, that were highly effective, at least in the initial stages,

1:08.4

and transformed the war from an armor column sweeping into Kiev into drone warfare

1:14.1

that we have today. Iran also has contributed missiles, I believe, to the Russian arsenal. So at this

1:20.6

point, I have no reason to believe there are Iranian soldiers on the ground, but those drones were

1:26.1

better than soldiers because the Ukrainians took some time to turn the ground. But those drones were better than soldiers because the Ukrainian, the Ukrainians

1:29.8

took some time to turn them away and still they penetrate their air defenses. Your opinion of Iran's

1:37.6

contribution to the effort in Ukraine, does Tehran see this as a win? And how does it explain it to the Iranian people having spent

1:47.9

their money on killer drones in Ukraine? Good evening to you. Good evening to you. As you pointed out,

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