- 5/10/2025
Pepe Escobar breaks down the massive victory for Yemen as the country continues to defy expectations and shift the balance in the Middle East 🏅🔥.
From military resilience to diplomatic wins, Yemen is rewriting its story and challenging the global power dynamics 🌍💥.
A victory that sends ripples throughout the region and beyond – tune in for Escobar's expert take 🎙️📈.
#PepeEscobar #YemenVictory #MiddleEastPolitics #YemenWins #Geopolitics #MiddleEastConflict #YemenResilience #PowerShift #MilitaryStrategy #PoliticalAnalysis #DiplomaticVictory #ArabWorld #YemenWar #ConflictResolution #GlobalPolitics #MiddleEastNews #StrategicVictory #InternationalRelations #RegionalPower #NewsAnalysis
From military resilience to diplomatic wins, Yemen is rewriting its story and challenging the global power dynamics 🌍💥.
A victory that sends ripples throughout the region and beyond – tune in for Escobar's expert take 🎙️📈.
#PepeEscobar #YemenVictory #MiddleEastPolitics #YemenWins #Geopolitics #MiddleEastConflict #YemenResilience #PowerShift #MilitaryStrategy #PoliticalAnalysis #DiplomaticVictory #ArabWorld #YemenWar #ConflictResolution #GlobalPolitics #MiddleEastNews #StrategicVictory #InternationalRelations #RegionalPower #NewsAnalysis
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NewsTranscript
00:00Transcription by CastingWords
00:30Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
00:36Today is Thursday, May 8th, 2025.
00:40Joining us now from Moscow, back to midnight in Moscow, Pepe Escobar.
00:44Pepe, it's a pleasure. Thank you for accommodating my schedule.
00:48You just flew in from Tehran, and I have questions to ask you about your interview of an Iranian general
00:55rolling questions to ask you about the tempo of things in Moscow.
01:00But before we do, what did the United States gain by bombing Yemen?
01:06One of the greatest humiliations in the military history of the United States.
01:13I'm really sad to tell you that. This is the short version.
01:17A war without planning against a non-adversary, which was basically trying to protect, in their own words,
01:26their brothers and sisters in Palestine, you don't mess with Yemen.
01:32These people in Washington, come on, get a history book, study for 10 minutes.
01:37You will never win a war against Yemeni warriors, period.
01:40And you have just been humiliated.
01:43When I was there a few weeks ago, one of the members of the High Political Council,
01:49he told me, look, we still have our own cards on the table.
01:53We haven't shown everything.
01:55Now, after three destroyed F-18s, and nobody knows exactly what happened to USS Truman,
02:04we have the circus ringmaster saying they were begging for a ceasefire.
02:08No, no, you, Mr. President, begged for a ceasefire and tried to get away of a war that you never even thought about.
02:17When Trump boasted in the Oval Office that the Houthis capitulated,
02:23you emailed me saying it's quite the opposite.
02:27The Houthis won in a landslide.
02:29What did you mean?
02:31Well, can you imagine?
02:35Numbers themselves.
02:36This often repeated number and estimate that Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world.
02:49It's the richest in history and spirituality.
02:53It's the richest in moral clarity.
02:57And it's one of the more powerful militarily as well.
03:02They had help, of course, from Russia, Iran, and China, directly and indirectly.
03:10But their military accomplishments are their own.
03:14So, and on top of that, they know exactly how to use their military power.
03:19They did not attack anybody.
03:21What they did was to protect Palestinians their own way.
03:28And the whole, the lands of Islam as a whole supported Yemen from the beginning,
03:34and most of the global south as well.
03:37And now, they have forced the mightiest armada in the history of the universe to back down.
03:45This is beyond historic.
03:49Larry Johnson, a good friend of ours, who does the research, says the United States spent over a billion dollars.
03:58This is counting the three F-16s, which go from $78 million to $80 million each.
04:03Spent over a billion dollars.
04:05Pete Hegseth was boasting about the success of doing it.
04:09Larry's right.
04:11Hegseth is wrong.
04:12And the president was humiliated.
04:14Hegseth, absolutely.
04:15Absolutely.
04:15And it didn't have to be this way, Judge.
04:18He was forced to, ah, let's humiliate Yemen.
04:24No.
04:24Now he's humiliated by Yemen in front of the whole planet.
04:27He didn't have to be this way.
04:29This is bad planning, bad management, and bad decisions.
04:33What did you observe or conclude in your time in Tehran about Iran's preparedness, willingness, and ability to resist an onslaught, whether it comes from Israel alone or Israel and the United States?
04:55And the trip hasn't finished yet, George.
04:59All right.
04:59All right.
05:00I know you're taking like two days from Tehran up to Moscow so you can be there for the celebrations tomorrow.
05:06And it's a lot tomorrow there already.
05:08And then you're going back to Tehran.
05:11Exactly.
05:12But answering your question, there were different instances.
05:17We had some outstanding conversations with Iranian analysts, with diplomats, with academics.
05:24We had a round table, for instance, that started at one of the Tehran's universities that started as U.S.-Iran relations.
05:34And after half an hour, it became a debate about the new great game that is being played all over in the geopolitical chessboard.
05:43And, of course, there was that, by now, relatively well-known incident.
05:48We were visiting the IRGC Aerospace Museum.
05:52And then I found my opening.
05:56There was a brigadier general that was explaining military matters to us.
06:01So I said, okay, I have to ask him directly.
06:03And I did.
06:04What's going to happen or what did happen or what's going to happen with Operation True Promise 3?
06:10His answer was extraordinary.
06:13It was very diplomatic.
06:14He said, look, basically, he said, I'm not making decisions.
06:18But, look, he's a brigadier general at the IRGC.
06:21So he knows everything about their political and military decisions.
06:25So he answered in detail.
06:27And I'm sure Chris has the video.
06:29We do.
06:30Cut number six.
06:31This is a very serious question.
06:34Please translate it correctly.
06:35True Promise 1 and 2 were seen as a sign of weakness?
06:38No, please.
06:40No, please.
06:41Operation True Promise 3 was interpreted in Tel Aviv and in Washington as a sign of weakness.
06:49Why it was postponed?
06:51We want to know the real reason.
06:53Because this information is essential to be disseminated in the West.
06:58Please translate it correctly.
06:59We want to know the U.S. and the Israeli regime.
07:03He says that our confrontation with the U.S. and the Israeli regime, it has not been new.
07:08And it will never finish in a short destination.
07:12And he says that the tactics that we are going to use in this operation, it is exactly based on our decision.
07:22Not nothing from outside, no impression, no interpression can have any impression or effect in this decision.
07:29And in this operation and tactics.
07:30He says that we are soldiers of the leader of the Islamic revolution.
07:37We will never hesitate.
07:38We will never postpone.
07:40We will never haste.
07:41And we will never take a step back from our red lines.
07:43He says that at the right time this operation will take place.
07:48He says that so far, as it is being shown, we have never take any step backward and we will never take a step back from our red lines.
08:10So this is very important.
08:11The operation is ready to go.
08:13They are just waiting for the right moment.
08:15Is that it?
08:16He says that I'm not in charge of that.
08:19But whenever it is the right time, the armed forces and the IRGC will be announced and we will carry it and we will make it take place.
08:27It's a great interview and before I ask you to extrapolate, I'm smiling.
08:45Because the last time I saw somebody yelling at an interpreter to interpret properly was me in a courtroom where the interpreters have a tendency to summarize rather than to translate literally.
09:00And you wanted, as I did at the time, a literal translation.
09:04All right.
09:04Who was he and what was that all about?
09:07Well, he is in charge of this very sophisticated aerospace museum outside of Iran by the IRGC.
09:19Over there, we saw all the different models of Chahit drones, for instance.
09:25We saw different ballistic missiles, including the latest Fata missile, which was unveiled less than two years ago.
09:33So it is very, very impressive.
09:35But, of course, we wanted to get down to business.
09:39And that's why the first minute that we had relatively free, I said, no, I have to ask him now because we won't have any chance.
09:47Before that, Judge, I had already asked my host, can you get us a meeting with a top high-ranking IRGC general?
09:58They said, look, we are trying, but it's very, very good.
10:00You just stumbled upon him in the museum.
10:03No, we didn't.
10:04He made a presentation to us before, Judge, at a sort of briefing room, talking about the history of, basically, their ballistic missile program, which you and our audience, you very well know that the Americans try to introduce this into the nuclear negotiations.
10:23So it's very, very, very, very, very, very, very important.
10:32but i was sensing that it would be very hard for us to talk directly to an irgc general i'm sorry
10:42so i took my chance what was promise three about which you and he were speaking what was or is that
10:52a response to the latest israeli attack on iran remember that true promise one and two stunned
11:00not only israel but the pentagon and the u.s military establishment and they decided to hold
11:08on true promise three and he explained that this is not his translator by the way he was a bit
11:16terrified later on on x a farsi speaking uh girl very very smart she sent her own translator to the
11:28these images were shot by an iraqi american blogger a very very very cool guy and then she sent him
11:36her own translation of what the brigadier general said it's much more nuanced and diplomatic in fact
11:43he's still saying the same thing it's ready to go we decide when but it will go wow um let me um
11:54change the subject uh slightly here's the breaking news now
12:00in haaretz u.s president donald trump has grown tired of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's
12:06stalling in the negotiations with hamas the trump administration cut out the israeli government from
12:15the talks and spoke directly with hamas now they are also trying to cut out the middleman and speak
12:21directly to the israeli public what what does this tell you my dear friend
12:31and judge uh the president wants some sort of deal any deal anywhere that's why he was so ebullient
12:43selling a sort of non-deal with ansarala in yemen of course he cannot do the same thing vis-a-vis
12:53the war provoked and weaponized by the U.S. in Ukrainian soil against Russia.
13:03It's crazy because he's a new president trying to be the mediator of a war
13:07that his own superpower started.
13:10In itself, this is Kafka, total Kafka territory.
13:14And, of course, with Hamas and with Israel, even under immense pressure by the Zionist lobby,
13:24Trump wants some sort of deal that he can sell to American public opinion and to global public opinion,
13:30not necessarily to the benefit of the Palestinians,
13:34because now the new Israeli government policy is mass starvation.
13:40It's not straight-up genocide as it was so far.
13:47And this, he has to know, even being Trump, doesn't pay attention to anybody except himself,
13:54mega-narcissus, he has to know that for the whole world, this won't stand.
14:00So there is the absolute necessity of some sort of deal involving Hamas, of course,
14:06and breaking, let's say, the carefully calibrated dementia of the government in Tel Aviv.
14:14Well, the government in Tel Aviv announced that it's going to invade and occupy Gaza.
14:21John Mearsheimer says that's an impossibility, but a lot of people will die on both sides as they try it.
14:28Absolutely.
14:29John is absolutely correct.
14:31And the Iranians have a very similar analysis as well.
14:37This is an extremely complicated discussion in Iran, Judge, in Tehran with very well-informed people.
14:46To what extent actual, practical Iranian help goes to prevent, let's say, and I'm going to be very blunt here,
14:58a final solution against Gaza and the Palestinians?
15:02Wow.
15:03There's an enormous open debate in Tehran about it.
15:07We discussed this at the university, you know, including PhD students, ultra-sharp questions.
15:13But there is no consensus, and the Iranians know that there's a limit, that they can help up to a certain limit,
15:22and it's up to Palestinian resistance in itself, of course.
15:26And the whole broader team of the axis of resistance, we spent practically the whole week talking about axis of resistance every day.
15:34And Iran now, they have, I wouldn't say a more existential problem,
15:40but they do have an existential problem of the possibility of a joint U.S.-Israel attack against Iran within the next few months.
15:49So they are fully concentrated on it.
15:52I want to switch gears because I know you're in Moscow, and I know tomorrow's a day of great celebration.
15:59Here is a brief summary of a joint press conference between President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi.
16:07I think they had this press conference while you were traveling.
16:11President Putin summarized their relations together as following.
16:16Relations between Russia and China have reached their highest level in history.
16:22Large Chinese manufacturers of microelectronics, automobiles, and household appliances will increase their presence in the Russian market.
16:31Russia and China have built a reliable system of mutual trade protected from the current global situation.
16:39All foreign trade transactions between Moscow and Beijing are carried out in national currencies.
16:46President Putin announced plans to significantly increase bilateral trade between Russia and China by 2030.
16:54Here's the last one.
16:55Russia and Russia and China have suffered the greatest losses in World War II and are now closer to each other than they have ever been.
17:04Are you surprised at any of this?
17:07Of course not, Judge.
17:08This is what's going to happen today.
17:13Exactly.
17:13When they started talking, I was on my way from the airport to my place in Moscow.
17:19So that's the kind of entrance or arrival, right?
17:25I had to be here this day, today and tomorrow, because this is way beyond historic for two reasons.
17:33And they are interconnected.
17:35Number one is the victory against Nazism and fascism 80 years ago, where the Soviet Union were the number one active.
17:46Whatever the West, the collective, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
17:50Can I just stop you for a minute and tell you the names of two people who agree with everything you just said?
17:59One is Winston Churchill and the other is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
18:05Thank you, Judge.
18:07Thank you, Judge.
18:08We don't need anything else, right?
18:09I accept that if President Trump wants to reinvent history and it has antagonized the Russians, needlessly, but it has.
18:19Exactly.
18:20On the same level of the leadership in the European Union and European Commission.
18:26For them, what happened in 1945 never existed.
18:30So this is where we are in terms of the moral devastation of the fragmented West.
18:37So this is reason number one for May 9.
18:40Just to give you an idea, Judge.
18:42Now it's 10 minutes to midnight in Moscow.
18:46Everybody is asleep.
18:48There is radio silence everywhere.
18:50Tomorrow, even mobile internet will be cut off because there is a strong possibility of a drone attack during the parade.
18:59They are taking no chances here.
19:01I was told this morning that this is the reddest red line in Russia in decades.
19:08Wow.
19:08So it's very, very, very, very, very serious.
19:11So this is reason number one.
19:13Reason number two is what happened this morning at the Kremlin.
19:16When Xi Jinping came to visit Putin, this was the first of their meetings.
19:21They have another one.
19:21There was a gala dinner tonight.
19:23That was, of course, more relaxed.
19:25But tomorrow and the day after, they're going to have another long meeting.
19:31This one today was picking up from their meeting two years ago.
19:38I'm sure our audience remembers very well.
19:40When Xi, at the end, when Putin was taking Xi out of the Kremlin, Xi Jinping said, we are facing changes that we have not seen in a hundred years.
19:51And we are at the forefront.
19:52We are driving them.
19:54And Putin said, you're absolutely right.
19:56So they're picking up.
19:57This is where they are.
19:58These are the two big powers driving the changes.
20:02You know, I've been saying this for weeks.
20:05It would have been wonderful if President Trump had flown to Moscow, showed up at the victory parade, congratulated the Russians, and then stayed for a week and negotiated with Xi and Modi and Putin for the grand political, geopolitical, and economic reset between the great powers.
20:25But it doesn't appear as though that's going to, unless he's secretly flying to Moscow now, it doesn't appear that that's going to happen.
20:32You're absolutely right, Judge.
20:35This would have been the new Yalta.
20:37And many of us independents in the U.S. and across the global south, we were expecting, okay, this has to happen.
20:46It's the only chance to have a reset of international relations and the grand chess board and going towards a more rational territory.
20:59Unfortunately, President Trump didn't pick up.
21:03It was up to him to pick up the opportunity.
21:06Chris, go ahead.
21:08No, please, please continue, Pepe.
21:10My apologies.
21:11So the fact that they met today, picking up on the changes that never happened in these past 100 years.
21:21They are forging this new system of international relations.
21:26They are at the driver's seat.
21:28It's not by accident that we have 20-something leaders from all across the global south here.
21:35Very important.
21:36Including Captain Ibrahim Traoré from Burkina Faso, who is the great African leader nowadays.
21:46Including President Lula from Brazil.
21:47I'm very happy that Lula is here.
21:50Because there is a chemistry between, a personal chemistry, putting respects Lula a lot.
21:56Putting those stories.
21:57So the global south is here.
22:00And they are listening to the two superpowers in the driver's seat.
22:04Chris, can you put up the full screen from Dmitry Medvedev?
22:09Russia on Trump's World War II claim.
22:12From former President and Deputy National Security Chair Medvedev.
22:17Our people sacrificed 27 million lives of their sons and daughters in the name of destroying accursed fascism.
22:24Therefore, Victory Day, that's tomorrow, is ours.
22:28And it is May 9.
22:29So it was, so it is, so it will always be.
22:34Well, I hope you have a great time celebrating.
22:38If you come across Ray McGovern, who's there with you.
22:42I'm trying to find one of his staying, Judge.
22:44Maybe you know.
22:45Chris may know.
22:46And he can give you that information after we get off air.
22:49But give him a hug and a kiss.
22:50And I want a selfie of the two of you here together, and we'll post it.
22:53We'll do it.
22:55Safe travels.
22:56God bless you.
22:57Wherever you're going to be in a week, we'll see you next week.
23:00Yes.
23:01And from Iran, it's very complicated.
23:03I tried earlier this week, and it didn't work.
23:07All right.
23:09Thank you, my friend.
23:10And coming up tomorrow at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Ray McGovern from Moscow, Larry Johnson
23:17from the States, the Intelligence Community Roundtable.
23:20And if we can find him after the Intelligence Community Roundtable, Max Blumenthal.
23:28Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.