Exclusive Interview
«Fortunately, Iran is led by realists, and on that day, with accurate foresight, Iran had read America’s intention for war and had relocated its sensitive materials»: Interview with Majid Afshani by Sviatoslav Arov
June 17, 2025
On June 13, 2025, Israel launched blistering attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure, deploying warplanes and drones previously smuggled into the state to assault significant facilities and kill top generals and nuclear physicists.
The scale of the latest escalation in the Middle East took many by surprise. However, an enormous number of signs had indicated that conflict was likely to happen. A local expert, Majid Afshani, Board Member of Governance and Policy Think Tank (Iran), provides his insights on recent developments in Iran, as shared in an interview with PIR Center.
The interview was conducted by Sviatoslav Arov, Research Fellow at PIR Center – Executive Assistant to Director of PIR Center.
Sviatoslav Arov: How do you evaluate the scale or Israeli attack on Iran? On the one hand, it is not the first attack of Israel on Iran for the recent years, as well as there have been terrorist attacks on Iranian nuclear physicists before. On the other hand, it seems that today both Iran and Israel are going to act defensively.
Majid Afshani: What everyone must not forget is that it was Israel that carried out an armed attack, which means act of aggression, and Iran is therefore engaging in legitimate self-defense. Describing initiation of the unlawful terrorism attack as “defense” is incorrect.
Israel’s ideology is elimination of others, and for Netanyahu, this war is a matter of life and death. They will do anything to drag the United States into this conflict, and the next stages will involve entering a balance of terror and the mass killing of civilians, with the pretense of separating the Iran’s people from the government quickly falling away.
Israel is mistakenly counting on the support of public discontent. Even today, prominent critics and opposition figures have taken a strong stance against Israel, and the more civilian casualties there are, the more united Iran will become, reaching an unprecedented level of national consensus. Ultimately, despite the damages it may suffer, Iran faces no dead end in this war. First, geopolitics cannot be changed overnight, and the country’s size and population are immutable factors – a single province and a tenth of Iran’s population still exceed that of the entire Israeli regime.
Second, neither Israel nor the United States will have any answer for Iran’s point of no return. The West should ask itself: when the military bases of the regime’s supporters in the region are set ablaze, how will it cope with an explosive surge in oil prices and an unbelievable crash in the stock markets? On the promised day, what will be the positions of China, Russia, and all the countries dissatisfied with the dominance of the dollar? If there is any wisdom left in the U.S. deep state, it will not gamble the world’s ultimate loss to China on Netanyahu’s recklessness.
Iran, in this ongoing exchange of attacks, continues to seek a heavier, more decisive blow to stop these crimes done by Israelis.
The sooner Israel’s allies and supporters – chief among them the United States – realize that Israel has no chance, the fewer casualties there will be. If they persist in their miscalculations, new option come to the table, and Iran will not hesitate in this decision; this strategy has broad social support. No one is safe, until everyone is.
Sviatoslav Arov: In your opinion, what will Iran’s response be? Can it lead to a new major conflict, not just an exchange of strikes?
Majid Afshani: Iran’s record of conduct has shown that it has never sought war, whether limited or extensive, but this principle should not have led others to miscalculate and assume that Iran is unprepared for a major and probably long conflict. In the coming days, as in the past few hours, you will see that Iran will emerge with dignity from the inevitable path that has been set before it. There is still an opportunity to prevent further casualties, but Tehran’s deterrence threshold and guarantees will be different, this time.
Otherwise, Trump, contrary to all his claims against previous American presidents, has followed the same path that wastes American taxpayers’ money in the Middle East. It is obvious to all Iranians that Israel did not start this war without the intelligence, military, and logistical support of the United States.
Sviatoslav Arov: It seems that the recent developments have provided the most compelling reason for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. And it looks like nuclear deal negotiations are over.
Majid Afshani: The stated goal of the nuclear negotiations, from the American perspective, has been to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear technology. The attacks on nuclear facilities and the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, carried out with the full knowledge and cooperation of the United States, have rendered negotiations meaningless.
Instead, they have exposed Iran to aggression from an enemy armed with nuclear weapons. Iran has the legitimate right to change its nuclear doctrine at any level to repel this inherent threat to its national interests and to take any necessary action to safeguard its peaceful nuclear technology. The previous path of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resulted in Iran’s nuclear facilities being bombed and its nuclear scientists assassinated, so it is certainly legitimate and rational to reconsider and readjust relations to change this situation.
Sviatoslav Arov: Have the nuclear facilities in Iran been seriously damaged? Do Israeli attacks on them suspended or suppressed Iran’s nuclear program?
Majid Afshani: I have no information beyond Director General Grossi’s report. I would just like to remind you that Iran’s nuclear issue has never been more than a pretext. I refer you to my tweet* on April 11, 2025 and the republished Al Jazeera report. Fortunately, Iran is led by realists, and on that day, with accurate foresight, Iran had read America’s intention for war and had relocated its sensitive materials.
* Social network X is part of the Meta platform and is prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Keywords: International Security; Nuclear Nonproliferation; Iran; Iran–Israel
NPT
E16/AST – 25/06/17
