Striking Iran: Analysis from the Global Public Square

Fareed Zakaria GPS

CNN

News

4.2 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fareed Zakaria reports that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini has been killed amid U.S.-Israel attacks under “Operation Epic Fury,” with Trump urging Iranians to overthrow their government and promising continued bombing despite recently ongoing nuclear talks that Oman said had made breakthroughs. Zakaria argues the war lacks clear legal and strategic grounding, that airpower rarely achieves regime change, and that unilateral action undermines rules-based order, while Iran’s weakness and regional backlash—especially after strikes on Gulf states hosting U.S. assets—may not translate into Trump’s stated aims. Guests discuss the decapitation strikes, the likely next targets including Iran’s naval forces and IRGC mid-tier leadership, and the risk of leadership-targeting becoming more common. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There once was a woman who lived in a shoe.
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0:19.0	Now, she lives in a spacious four-bedroom cowboy boots.
0:23.3	Better your Experian credit score to help get mortgage ready. Experian. Better your score. Better your
0:29.3	story. This is GPS, the global public square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and
0:37.2	around the world.
0:38.5	I'm Farid Zakaria, coming to you live from New York.
0:42.7	Today on the program, the Supreme Leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini, is dead.
0:50.3	President Trump urges the Iranian people to overthrow its government.
0:55.0	The big question is, will that happen?
0:59.0	And it's been less than 36 hours since the attacks started, but they are far from over.
1:05.0	Trump says the heavy bombing will continue throughout the week.
1:10.0	What is left to accomplish?
1:12.6	Also, all of this comes as the American talks with Iran over its nuclear program were ongoing.
1:20.6	The Omani Foreign Minister, a key player in the talks, said on Friday,
1:26.6	breakthroughs had been reached. So why this? Why now? I have a series
1:32.4	of top experts in the fields to help answer those questions and many more. But first, here's my
	...

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