Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Iranian President Pezeshkian Will Have Millions of Views by the Time You Read This

July 8—In the email sent to subscribers to Tucker Carlson Network (TCN), the popular talk show host included the following disclaimer:

We interviewed the President of Iran. Here’s Why.

“American citizens have the constitutional right, and the God-given right to all the information they can gather about matters that affect them. If their country is doing something with their money, in their name, they have a right—an absolute right—to know as much about it as they can. And that would include hearing from the people they’re fighting.

“Now, can you believe everything you hear from the President of Iran? Probably not. But that’s not the point. The point is, you should be able to decide for yourself whether you believe it or not. And keep in mind that anyone who seeks to deny you that right is not your ally, but your enemy.

“By the way, we have also put in, for the third time in the last several months, an interview request with the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, and we hope he accepts that….”

The already-over-11k comments on the YouTube posting of the interview say things like: “Dear NYT, Washington Post, BBC, Fox News, and CNN, this is what we call actual journalism.” “Wait, you can do this? Actually interview someone instead of just being told what Israel tells us?” “My wife’s cancer doctor was Iranian and after 15 hr. surgery is cancer free since 2011.” “Israel on my shit list USS Liberty,” etc.

Carlson begins the interview by noting the “pause” in the war between Iran and the United States, and asks President Pezeshkian how he’d like to see it end.

Pezeshkian: We were not the initiators of the war. We did not start this war, and we do not want this war to continue in any way. From the beginning, it was the motto of my administration that I always adhere to, and that was fostering the national unity inside the country and also fostering peace and tranquility and friendship with the neighboring countries and the world.

On whether Iran would be prepared to “give up its nuclear program for peace” (Carlson didn’t specify enrichment or weapons), Pezeshkian said that since 1984 Israel had been trying to get the West to believe that Iran intended to develop a nuclear bomb, but that there is still a fatwa against it, which remains in place. “But the truth is that we have never been after developing a nuclear bomb, not in the past, not presently, or in the future….”

On the question of whether Iran would be open to some sort of verification process:

Pezeshkian: Mr. Carlson, sir, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we were right in the middle of holding talks with the United States and the President of the United States invited us to hold such talks in order to have peace, and we were told during the process of these negotiations and talks that “as long as we don’t give the permission to Israel, they are not going to attack you.” And we were going to have the next round of the talks very soon, but in the middle of it, suddenly Israel torpedoed the negotiating table. We were sitting at the negotiating table when it happened. And by doing this they totally ruined and destroyed diplomacy.

But, and in order to answer your question with regard to the surveillance or the supervision over our nuclear program, I would like to say that we are ready to hold talks over it.

We have never been the party that has run away from verification. We stand ready to have these supervisions, but unfortunately, as the result of the United States’ unlawful attacks against our nuclear centers and installations, many of the pieces of equipment and the facilities there have been severely damaged. Therefore, we don’t have any access to them. We cannot see, and unless this access is going to be back there again, we have to wait for it and to see what happens, and how much they have been damaged so that we can go for the supervision.

For space reasons, no more is transcribed here. What becomes very clear is that restoring trust in the ability to engage in diplomacy with the United States is the major factor, including regional questions, not explicitly stated by Pezeshkian but implied, i.e., the Israeli genocide going on in Gaza.