UK television anchor schooled by Prof Marandi in fiery interview

KARACHI: In a rather tense interview on Sky News, Iranian academic and political analyst Professor Mohammad Marandi delivered a sharp and unflinching rebuttal to anchor Yalda Hakim’s provocative line of questioning.

The exchange quickly gained traction online, with many viewers describing it as a masterclass in media resistance, as Marandi countered what he saw as biased framing and Western-centric narratives regarding Iran, Israel and the broader Middle East conflict.

At one point, Hakim asked Marandi whether Iran had “majorly miscalculated” and if it would accept US President Donald Trump’s offer of negotiations. Marandi responded with: “Well, according to your narrative, Iran always miscalculates. It’s a regime -- I heard the regime 20 times in the last 10 minutes as I was listening....and you say the regime is unpopular and is killing its people. When General Soleimani was murdered by the same Trump that you talk about, millions of people came to the streets of this city, Tehran, that I’m in.”

He continued by challenging the justification of Israeli actions: “This propaganda that you’re producing is only justifying aggression. What the Israeli regime did was aggression. What it did was unjustified aggression. And Netanyahu has been saying for over 30 years, some say up to 40 years, he’s been saying that Iran’s on the verge of creating a nuclear weapon. And thanks to people like you, he gets away with these lies. But people can go online and check how many times he’s said Iran’s on the verge.”

As Hakim pressed on, questioning the effectiveness of Iran’s intelligence and security apparatus and referencing Israeli drone attacks inside Iran, Marandi responded with visible frustration at the repeated use of the term ‘regime’: “Saying regime, regime, regime, I think it helps you contain your contempt for independent countries. After all, you work for Sky News. ... how do you know that the Israeli regime had bases inside Iran? You’re just repeating their propaganda. Of course, Israel, for you, is not a regime....how do you know that the top commanders are being killed?”

When Hakim interjected, asking if he was denying the deaths of top commanders, Marandi shot back: “What you’re referring to, basically, is an attack, an act of aggression, that they suddenly fire missiles at civilian targets in apartment buildings and slaughter people in those apartment buildings, slaughtering whole families....One of the buildings that has some of these commanders, one or two of these commanders, was a large apartment building where they killed everyone, 60 people, 20 children. That’s not important for people like you. But that’s important for people like us. For you, people like you, who support ethno-supremacism and the chosen people being able to slaughter and exterminate.”

In an attempt to reframe the discussion, Hakim said: “I’m just trying to get the perspective. We’re trying to give you airtime so that you can give us the Iranian perspective on this...As the spokesperson of the regime or, you know, as someone who worked closely with the negotiating team, do you believe they will come to the negotiating table now?”

Marandi, undeterred, fired back: “It was Trump that conspired with Netanyahu to attack Iran. This is how you twist the truth. You shouldn’t invite me because you’re easily exposed. Iran was negotiating. Initially, Trump had one position, and so did Witkoff. And then they flipped and said no enrichment, and then they continued the negotiations. And the night before the attack, Trump said that we don’t want war. And then after the attack, he said, we’re all for it. And you’re saying Iran? Is Iran going to come back to the negotiating table? The audacity. Show at least a bit of integrity. A bit of integrity will help.”