BNC#8: Iraj Abedian Q&A - Global power games, SA silence and a chilling warning the world can’t ignore

A gripping, no-holds-barred discussion unpacking global power plays, Iran’s ideological conflict, and the ripple effects on South Africa’s fragile political landscape. From Trump-era strategy to ANC silence, it exposes how influence, religion, and realpolitik collide with devastating human consequences. With firsthand insight into communication blackouts and life under bombardment, the conversation warns of global fallout if the regime endures - and challenges business, civil society, and leaders to break their silence before it’s too late..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the Q&A.Alec Hogg 00:19:36 - 00:47:44Iraj, that's moving. That's insightful. We're all far better informed, but we also don't have much time for questions. Now, I need to throw something at you. Because it occurred to me, as you were talking, that when Nick Hudson yesterday was telling us about these super powers that were manipulating things, it sounded a little bit like there could be something happening here.00:47:46 - 01:26:151979 you explained that those four countries got together, installed the mullahs, and quickly got their butts kicked. And and now we are the consequences of that is what Trump did being manipulated by some dark forces. Iraj AbedianWell, that's the American American, politics. American politics could be, could be the dark horse. I think if if Trump has got his own way without restraint, together with Netanyahu, they know what they face.01:26:19 - 01:58:17All the information and in fact, better than President Trump. Is this secretary of a state which for 13 years has been in the Senate, chairing the committee that had every report about the Iranian regime? He is the most informed and the most, knowledgeable about the risk of this regime surviving. President Trump, obviously, his own mission, his own views, his own approaches.01:58:21 - 02:08:12But I can trust more. The secretary of State to come to making reasonable decisions.Alec Hogg 02:08:16 - 02:13:39So the way you've outlined it, this is this is a fight to the death. Yeah.Iraj Abedian 02:13:43 - 02:22:13Yeah. It's just far too deep. Because for the for the mullahs, this is not a materialistic thing. It's not a question of rational choice, cost benefit analysis. They have a mission in life.02:22:25 - 02:48:05God has given them a wealthy nation. What else do they want? And then they got it. They must fulfill their mission. And as one of them said, if it means that in confrontation with the hegemonic, imperialist secular world, they have to sacrifice 89 million of the 90 million population of Iran. That's a little price to pay, because there will be a million left to to say we are victorious.02:48:12 - 03:03:29That's the mindset. It is not about what I hear in the people that way, for their own sake and for their own head. They'll come to their senses. Alec HoggAnd South Africa is positioned yet, as you were talking, is what I was thinking. You know.03:03:33 - 03:27:28It's well documented that South Africa is, if not a criminal state, not far from it. Now if democracy can be hijacked by religion. Can it not be hijacked by criminality? Iraj AbedianIt can. It's kind of a particularly when political parties are structured the way in terms of the Constitution, they have a part. You don't have to capture the government.03:27:32 - 03:53:04You have to capture the the political party that is in charge of governance. And if you capture the heart of that party, then you do what you like. And we saw it under under, President Zuma. Reign as a president. Now even political party ANC didn't agree with him, but the core party bosses were in the back pocket of the criminals, and the rest is history.Alec Hogg 03:53:08 - 04:17:49So what are the what are the warning signs already? Are we already too far? We heard from Magnus, for instance. Just walk down Johannesburg and you'll see that's that's or Hillbrow and that's the reality of, of of where we've got to. Iraj AbedianNo, I don't think so. I think South Africa has got a constitution that allows different socialist stakeholders, particularly judiciary and political parties pushback.04:18:03 - 04:50:03Secondly, I don't I'm not as, pessimistic or I haven't lost hope on South Africa's ability to push back. If the society and particularly if the business community, some of you may have heard me over the years saying the stakeholder that is least quiet is the business community, although they control the purse, they are quiet. And I'm I don't know, I feel another one to mention names here about so-called captains of industry, captains of industry, sitting with the president and representing the few corporates.04:50:03 - 05:14:08That's not the business community. They are taking care of their own corporate interests. And I've been in some of those meetings how it how it pans out, if the business community becomes vocal, becomes patriotic as they are the majority of them, and makes the facts not ideology. The fact is that it's the business community that generates the money, the resources, the skills, whatever.05:14:08 - 05:40:03Whoever, whichever party wants, whether it's the EFF, ANC, whatever, all the manifesto that they want can only be delivered through the business sector, broadly defined.Alec HoggTheoretically, but in practical terms, there are cynics who say Iran has been paying that funding roll for the ruling political party, and they are still ruling, even though it is a government of national unity.Iraj Abedian 05:40:09 - 06:07:27Remember, in their view, it's not a bad thing. God has given them an endowment of a national. They have to invest. The first country that they invested in by the way, was Algeria. They won the election. The French came out and did it overnight. So it's not in their are the interpretation of bribing and doing. They say God has given us an opportunity to establish this pan-Islamic civilization to counter the East and the West.06:07:36 - 06:36:34Where is our opportunity? Algeria was one Kenya. They invested in it. And so the interpretation of their pay day and see CBD and see was another useful instrument for them at the right time in the right place. If ANC becomes tomorrow nothing, they'll go to another source. In Sudan they invested heavily and and and this is a mission that is got a apocalyptic religious content to it with a lot of resources and a lot of military.06:36:38 - 07:03:03So I'm not surprised at all. Alec HoggAre you surprised that the ANC has not changed its approach towards Iran? That it has not woken up to the fact that it is on the wrong side of history? Iraj AbedianI think ANC, as we have seen it, like most other organizations, they take time to make a wrong decision than they make time to correct their course.07:03:03 - 07:32:00Correction is not quick. Look how long it took took to accept that Zuma was corrupt and the country was being robbed in the daylight. But eventually in 2017, ANC came out. How did it happen? Through two forces, through public discourses and through fact based, confrontation, if you like. I'm not talking about violent confrontation. I'm against violence, but against intellectual fact based engagement when they show the facts.07:32:04 - 08:04:14A lot of ANC people finally change their position and they recall Zuma.Alec HoggDid you follow the story of Emma Powell? She was the international spokesperson, for the Democratic Alliance, who said a few things about the ANC relationship with Iran and got fired. Have you followed that story? And does that not put the DA, perhaps in some way complicit in this situation that we're looking at?Iraj Abedian 08:04:18 - 08:27:23Yeah. I mean, that's, I, I operate differently than political scientists. After that, the I should have called the meeting and say, this is not our mission of, not just DA a all the other so-called members of the of of of the of the state of g and you coalition and and you I was, I can't understand.08:27:23 - 08:51:16I can't credit any of them. Not ANC not DA you I think none of them has expressed their view on the situation that I mentioned. And you don't have to be a super part or super, super superbly endowed. Strategic unit to know what is happening. It's on the website to spend ten minutes. You can see it.08:51:19 - 09:13:06Give me and millions of others a call. I'll give you all the data that you want. Don't believe me? Check the facts. DA has been quiet. Yeah, EFF has been quiet. ANC as well, for reasons the ANC may have a reason. Why is DA quiet. Why is, a SADC religious group in why our religious leaders are quiet.09:13:10 - 09:45:29Where are the churches? Where are the why? I mean, how long human killing is human killing? Look at what I shared with you on the, on on our own history. Churches of all orientations were actively against apartheid. It doesn't take either as much deep moral conviction or anything else to say. Killing people is not the job of the government.09:45:33 - 10:11:35In the name of God and in the name of religion is satanic. Never mind unacceptable. But churches have been quiet. Or at least I've missed them. The Muslims, the Jews, the Christians, the Buddhists, all of them. What's happened to our voice? What's happening to our humanity? So it is easy. And possibly I don't have any evidence, as I've said, but it doesn't take too much to connect the dots.10:11:35 - 10:22:33As the late Irvin Gordon would go on to told us a in ANC was bribed were the churches bribed ? Was the DA bribed to.Alec Hogg 10:22:37 - 10:58:21Just to close off with the situation inside Iran. You you have friends. You have family. What's the feedback from them?Iraj AbedianFirst of all, feedback because of the internet, and communication blackout is absolutely something random. To just give you a personal view over. Since the war started, I've had three less than 3) seconds SMS and call with my sister and brother because, Starlink has arranged certain, facilities, but they cut off after 60s.10:58:25 - 11:15:38So when my sister calls, all that she can say is that we are all alive. And you. Okay? And I talk to mommy, and I talk to my brother. And so when my brother sends a message, he has to be less than 30s. Yes. I've got three of them since the start of the war, but that's the extent of communication that is allowed.11:15:42 - 11:39:25So anybody who says what's happening there, other than what you watch on, on the screen, is of the devastation which grinds every cell in my body, not because of, the, the bombing that's over nine thousands of them have been thrown over the past 12 days. But to watch that for every bomb that goes down some infrastructure, some I'm an economist.11:39:25 - 12:03:32So I think of the resource cost, think of the people who die and that they'll continue to die. This is not going to be a quick, quick humanitarian. No matter which side wins. Heaven helps us all. And you can watch me here and hold me accountable to it. If the regime survives, no part of the world will be spared of its consequences.12:03:32 - 12:28:23But there'll be a through indirect, through oil price, through cost of living, or through sheer terrorist activities. Alec HoggWhat, if anything, can we do? I think you've done. Iraj AbedianI must credit you have said in quiet or in private. I can say it in public. BizNews has been the only platform that has at least allowed a voice on behalf of the Iranian people.12:28:27 - 12:40:36That is the minimum that we can do. And you've done brilliantly in comparison with all other, and so I think.12:40:40 - 13:11:37I can't dictate, but if I may humbly suggest, nothing would stop the business community in South Africa to issue a statement. That's what goes on in Iran is a humanitarian crisis that we cannot, as South African, align ourselves with it as a business community, as a whatever rule that you would want. I'm absolutely shocked and disappointed as an activist, that I've been in the academia and social communities and groupings.13:11:49 - 13:39:30None of the human rights, none of the sink tanks. None of the groupings business, commerce, United and un-United, Business South Africa. None of them has issued a statement to say how this is not human. We cannot watch and be quiet. Remember, please, what Saudi said, if you watch and you cannot relate to another humans, whether it's in Southern Sudan where there is in West Africa, but there is Middle East.13:39:30 - 13:54:34If you watch human pain, massacres vividly, not suspicion and speculation actual, and you remain quiet. You cannot retain the name human. That's what drives me.

BNC#8: Iraj Abedian Q&A - Global power games, SA silence and a chilling warning the world can’t ignore

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