The case for Trump's war in Iran
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
It can be hard to decipher the reasons behind the US-Israeli decision to strike Iran. With a flurry of hyperbolic - often contradictory - statements from the American leadership, the objectives, the progress, and the endgame of this war are not much clearer three weeks into it.
But Donald Trump has turned to one man to make the case for this war in a way he could never enunciate. Dr Muhanad Seloom has cut a somewhat isolated figure in the defence world outside of MAGA. An international security academic, he has been arguing that Trump's war is succeeding. Trump obviously likes what he is saying. The President posted Seloon's argument on Truth Social, with the caption: 'The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why'.
Lewis spoke to Dr Seloom from Doha to try and understand what the thinking might just be in the White House and what success would look like for America - with more and more voices sounding the alarm about the consequences of its failure.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.3 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.7 | The United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core |
| 0:24.3 | national security interests. |
| 0:27.5 | We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. |
| 0:33.0 | It will be totally again obliterated. |
| 0:36.9 | Toma, do you. be totally again obliterated. There absolutely was an imminent threat and we knew that if Iran was attacked, |
| 0:53.3 | and we believe they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us. |
| 0:56.0 | We have a bit of breaking news that has just come in. |
| 0:59.0 | Right now, the Iranian state media is telling the people of Iran that the Ayatollah has been killed. |
| 1:06.0 | Again, Iran's state-run media is now confirming that the Ayatollah has been killed. |
| 1:13.6 | The mission is laser-focused. |
| 1:18.6 | Abliterate Iran's missiles and drones and facilities that produce them, |
| 1:22.6 | annihilate its Navy and critical security infrastructure, and sever their pathway to nuclear weapons. |
| 1:28.6 | Iran will never possess a nuclear bomb, not on our watch, not ever. |
| 1:34.5 | We could call it a tremendous success right now, as we leave here, I could call it, |
| 1:39.4 | or we could go further, and we're going to go further. |
| 1:44.4 | It has been a dizzying three weeks in a dizzying war. |
| 1:48.8 | There is so much that is so strange about the Iran conflict. |
| 1:52.5 | So many unbound threads just hanging in the air. |
| 1:56.0 | So many mysteries about the biggest, most consequential Middle Eastern War for a generation. |
| 2:02.3 | Principally and incredibly, why is it happening? What are its objectives? |
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