Ali Shamkhani

And yet we killed nuclear scientists.

We almost killed the lead negotiator, Ali Shamkhani.

They were going to give us everything we wanted.

Everything Trump wanted, they were going to get.

And I think this is a continuation of the pattern we saw during the JCPOA, the lead up, the Iran-US and EU nuclear deal, whereby those negotiators, Zarif, were empowered to do a deal, but at home they were never supported in the full implementation of that deal.

Because Khamenei, and we can talk about Shamkhani as well, at home, they were worried about the influx of Western money, Western investment funds, Western people into Iran, because that might dilute the purity of the revolution, and it might threaten those sort of domestic oligarchic monopolies that the IRGC have.

So you've got these very strange tendencies where there are negotiators going for a deal because they need the economic relief in the short term, and they're to a degree being empowered to do that.

But at home, really, Mojtaba and the hardliners are wary of the implementation of such a deal because it would threaten monopolies on sanctions evasions or energy trading and domestic power.

China hosted and brokered the talks, which Iraq and Oman had helped prepare with rounds of meetings in 2021 and 2022.

The deal was signed by Ali Shamkhani, who then led Iran's top security body, and Saudi National Security Advisor Musa Dalibin.

The statement committed both sides to respect national sovereignty and refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

Iran reopened its Riyadh embassy in June, and ambassadors were exchanged that September.

I think that's the saddest part about all this.

Ali Shamkhani, who was the head negotiator, was going to give us everything we wanted.

Again, agreement on no nuclear weapons, allowing UN and US weapons inspectors to all their facilities to inspect to make sure they're not developing a nuclear weapon, and enriching to, I think it was 3.75 or 7.6%, I forget which one it is, of uranium.

So therefore, there's several different guards in place to ensure they're not developing a nuclear weapon.

That's how they transport, uh, other materials, you know, in the cargo of the civilian aircrafts, so they cannot be shot down.

So, uh, what happened is that's when the threats coming, especially by Mohsen Rezaei, who is the, you know, the new Ali Shamkhani, National Security Advisor of Iran, and the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei on the National Security Council.

He said that, "If we can't fly, no one else will." And since they are already frustrated with the strait [laughs]

Exactly.