Who’s the Real Bully of the Middle East?
The Intercept Briefing
The Intercept
4.8 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Iran announced Monday appears to be holding. President Donald Trump made the announcement after unilaterally dragging the U.S. into the conflict and authorizing strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites using 30,000-pound bunker busters.
Israel attacked Iran on June 13, just days before Iran and the U.S. were set to resume talks in Oman over the country’s nuclear enrichment program.
“ You don't have to be anti-war to understand that diplomacy in this case would've been better,” said Hooman Majd, an Iranian American writer and the author of three books on Iran. Majd is a contributor to NBC News and covered the 2015 Iran deal for the network.
This week on The Intercept Briefing, Majd joins host Akela Lacy to discuss what's left of the path to diplomacy after years of sabotage, from Israel's aggressive military posture to Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Annie Shabel, the CEO of The Intercept. |
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| 1:01.6 | Welcome to the Intercept briefing. I'm Akala Lacey. Earlier this month, almost two years into its |
| 1:08.6 | genocide in Gaza, Israel started a war with Iran. It started with strikes, |
| 1:14.6 | hitting military leaders, nuclear facilities, cities, and civilian residences across the country. |
| 1:20.9 | A few days later, Donald Trump unilaterally dragged the U.S. into the conflict, |
| 1:25.7 | authorizing strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites using |
| 1:29.0 | 30,000-pound bunker busters. |
... |
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