MEF Chief Editor Jim Hanson spoke with FOX News early this morning in the aftermath of the successful Israeli strikes against Iran’s nuclear programs, key members of its leadership and its military capabilities.
Transcript:
FOX: All right, let’s bring in chief editor for the Middle East Forum Jim Hanson. Jim, good morning to you.
What is your assessment of the success of this Israeli strike?
HANSON: It’s amazing from my perspective. I don’t see how you can look at the amount of damage they’ve done, the decapitation strikes to their military, taking out a lot of the air defenses so they can do follow-on missions, and apparently no losses of aircraft or anything on their side.
It’s a long way from a finished game, but this is one heck of a start for Israel to take out the most dangerous enemy in that region.
FOX: Jim, is the Ayatollah next on the target list to really facilitate regime change?
HANSON: I think he has always been on the target list and I’m sure they went at him last night and I don’t know that he’s been seen, so I’m sure if he’s alive, he’s hiding. He may be dead and he may be a follow on target.
I think what Israel needs to look at right now is how much damage they’ve done and they’ll get a good look at that during the daylight hours. Now pick their next targets and go ahead and ensure that whatever Iran does. It remains asymmetric. Iran’s not an expeditionary military, so they can attack via what’s left of their proxies after Iran took out or Israel took out most of them. But there’s not a lot they can do as far as rolling tanks or anything like that. It’ll be terrorist attacks, missile strikes and drones.
FOX: Yeah, the Supreme Leader promising a harsh punishment for the attack. But again, we don’t know if that came from a proxy or somebody else writing. Yeah, and you know, I was wondering, Jim, you know, we’ve seen a lot of over the past few years. protests inside Iran, people inside Iran who also want regime change. So how do you think the Iranian people right now are viewing this strike that took out some military sites and military commanders as well?
HANSON: The Iranian people do not like their leadership. amount of support is less than 20 to 25% for the regime. The rest of the Iranian people understand that the Islamic Republic,N the Ayatollahs, have left them behind the rest of the free world. So they wouldn’t mind at all to have a change in government.
Now, can they get that together based on this and in the chaos that comes? That’s possible. And I hope it does happen. I hope that they do change their government. The other thing that could happen is a succession battle. The Supreme Leader, if he’s alive, is very old and feeble. He’s going to die.
There’s already jockeying for position among the people who think they want to succeed him. If they start scrapping and the Iranian people get their game together,we all might be better off with anyone but them in charge in that country.
FOX: I’m glad you opened the door to jockeying a position because yes, they may be happening with regard to the ultimate leader of Iran, but it’s also potential for happening with who’s in charge of the IRGC because as we’ve reported, Salami, who replaced Qasem Soleimani, was killed last night. So one, is there a name that you are looking for to step up and take that position? But a follow-on question is, who wants that position at this point, knowing that the Israelis just wiped out basically the top four, who wants to step up and take that position next?
HANSON: Yeah, you look at Hezbollah’s leadership chart with all those X’s over the people who were running that operation, they’re all dead. It’s like the joke used to be that you don’t want to be the number two guy for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, ‘cause we kept killing him. I don’t know that anybody wants it.
And we heard that there was a strike on a meeting of IRGC leadership. So we don’t even know who’s left, which would be phenomenal. The more of them who are dead, the less capable the rest will be. And the response from Iran will be because of that, more splintered and less dangerous.
So we’re nowhere near out of the woods. This is just the opening salvo in what will be a couple weeks of battle. But it’s not going to be a war. It’s not going to be a ground war. It’s not going to be a forever war or anything. of those things.
And at this point, the US is not involved. And I think Israel is handling its business quite well.
FOX: Yeah, I mean, it is really brilliant on the part of Israelis, if you think about it, Jim, because they didn’t just target the nuclear sites or the missiles. It also seems like they, and they pre-planned this, took out the people who would have the power to call for retaliation in an orderly manner.
So clear chaos inside Iran. And we’re going to wait to see what that retaliation looks like. Do you think that this is the most significant move, Jim, that Israel has made since October 7th?
HANSON: By far, this was always the existential threat, because this was not just a threat to Israel, as some people like to pretend. Having an apocalyptic death cult like the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah’s, in control of nuclear weapons was intolerable for the free world.
So they could have hit Israel. They could have hit us. They could have just basically any nuclear detonation anywhere throws the world into chaos. So, yes, Israel has done the world a favor. We’re a safer place right now, even with the chaos and the danger that’s going to come because of this. just by having slowed this down.
And they’re not going to be able to rebuild it because as soonn as they start rebuilding, Israel will have more bombs and will take them out again if they have.
FOX: Yeah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said, remember. Iran calls Israel the small Satan. It calls America the great Satan, nwhich was a very good reminder on the part of the Prime Minister.
Jim Hanson live for us this morning. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jim.
HANSON: Good to be with you.
