The Foreign Desk‘s Editor-in-Chief Lisa Daftari – an award-winning investigative journalist with expertise in the Middle East, counterterrorism, and the global persecution of Christians – joined SiriusXM host Rebecca Mansour for a special Friday night edition of Breitbart News Tonight to discuss the current protests in Iran.
Daftari blasted Iran’s “Mullah theocracy that is putting their money in all parts of the world and using it to export terrorism instead of taking care of the people in Iran.”
Daftari also said the protests, like others in the Middle-East that have ultimately led to significant change, do not begin with “lofty dreams of freedom and justice” but instead are driven by “starvation and a poor economy and that’s exactly what we’re seeing in Iran.”
She cited the lack of employment and access to higher education as driving current frustrations in Iran, but mostly it’s “with regard to basic needs, going to the supermarket and buying a carton of eggs, or a loaf of bread – literally these are the examples that people are telling me where they’re facing a lot of pressure to feed their families and put food on the table,” she said.
Daftari pointed out that instead of investing in its people at home, the Iranian regime is sending its money to Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and even terrorists in Iraq and Yemen, as well – all in the cause of exporting extremism and terrorism.
Daftari also said President Trump has always been careful to distinguish the people of Iran from the government of Iran, and the current protests present an opportunity for his administration, one he seems to be taking advantage of given past and present comments from his White House.
She cited former President Barack Obama’s handling of Iran as one of his biggest failures and connected his lack of action with a recent Politico story involving his appeasement of a drug-running Hezbollah. She believes the Trump administration is now positioned to capitalize on events in Iran in a manner which the Obama administration was not.
Breitbart News Tonight is broadcast live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to Midnight Eastern (6-9:00 p.m. Pacific).
Listeners are encouraged to call into the show at: 866-957-2874. Follow Breitbart News, Rebecca Mansour, and Joel Pollak on Twitter for live updates during the show.
The full audio of the segment featuring Daftari can be heard below.
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