Killing of 2 High Ranking Iranian Officials Major Blow to Regime

Now Israel says that its military has killed Iran's top security official and the head of the Basij, a parliamentary force used to suppress protests in the Islamic Republic. Joining me now to discuss this is Blaise Mishtal, vice president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. Blaise, thanks so much for joining us here. Now Israel reports killing two high-ranking Iranian officials, the national security chief and the Basij parliamentary commander. How does this further weaken Iran's military capabilities and chain of command? Well, good evening, Jack. Thanks for having me. I think this strikes two major blows to the Iranian regime. First and foremost, it shows that two weeks, more than two weeks into this war, Israel and the United States continue to be able to gather the intelligence to find Iran's top leaders. There's nowhere that they can hide. But it also sends a signal to the Iranian people that this is not just a war about trying to stop Iran's missiles or nuclear program. This is also a war about trying to free the Iranian people from the oppressive yoke they've been under for 47 years. And I think that's really significant as well. And here it's important to note that not only did Israel kill Ali Laranjani, one of the most senior-ranking security officials that's left in Iran, but also the commander of Basij. Those are the groups of thugs that roam the streets and enforce the will brutally of the Islamic Republic, beating people and, as we saw in January, killing them by the tens of thousands. And so this is really a signal to the people that their oppressors are now the ones running for their lives. And hopefully, that is a spark of hope for those people who've lived under their thumb for too long. And President Trump commenting on the US successes in the Operation Epic Fury so far. Let's have a look. We could take out their electric capacity in one hour. There's nothing they can do right now because everything is knocked out. They have, again, no radar, no anti-aircraft. They have nothing. Blaze, considering these updates regarding Iran's material losses, what threats remain in regards to Iran's military capabilities? Yeah, so we've seen Iran reduce its rate of fire of missiles and drones by something like 90 percent since the start of the war. But clearly, they still retain some capability to launch those projectiles. You know, this is a regime that was armed to the teeth, that was bristling with all types of different missiles and rockets and drones, several thousand of each of them, if not more. And even though the United States and Israel has taken out the vast majority of both their missiles and drones and the launchers that they use, they obviously still retain some. And that's enough, unfortunately, to harass the region, harass the Persian Gulf states, harass ships in the Persian Gulf, and continue to target Israel with ballistic missiles. So they're shooting far fewer projectiles than they were, but it's clearly not yet zero. And I think it's going to be, you know, a matter of time as the United States and Israel continue to hunt those military assets until they can drive that firing down to an acceptable level. Certainly more to go, but, you know, we're only a few weeks in here. So give it a few more weeks and we'll look back and see how much they've obliterated by then. But considering how the president has highlighted that the U.S. is capable of eliminating Iran's electrical capacity, does this mean that we've obtained air superiority over Iran? Oh, absolutely. I mean, going back to your first question, Jack, the fact that we can find and target Ali Laranjani and General Soleimani, I think, is a testament to the fact that we now have the ability to fly over Tehran at will. I assume there are drones surveilling everything that is happening in the capital city and throughout the country to have that intelligence picture to be able to know where they are, when, and the freedom to fly over Iranian skies. And not just that, but we've seen the United States using some assets, for example, the A-10 Warthog airplane to provide close air support, which would not be being used if it was not safe to fly at very low altitudes anywhere they wanted to go over Iran. And I think that is a testament to how degraded the Iranian regime has become and, in fact, how ineffective a lot of the weapons it got from Beijing, among others, have been in trying to defend itself. So yes, the United States and Israel have clearly established air superiority. As President Trump said, there's many more targets that the U.S. could be going after. And I think it's a matter of restraint and looking to the future and wanting to make sure that an Iran that is hopefully free from the Islamic Republic is capable of rebuilding itself that is keeping the U.S. from hitting some of those more valuable economic targets for now. And earlier today, President Trump heavily criticized the BBC's coverage of the war. Let's look. But I watched him this morning for some crazy reason, and it was so inaccurate. The reporting of the war was unbelievable. We have decimated that country. And if you watch BBC, it's almost like they're fighting us to a draw. Now, Blaise, since the start of this conflict, we've seen examples of media outlets platforming the Iranian regime or continuing to frame the U.S. as losing. Where is this coming from? Yeah, it's really interesting. And it's not just the media. I think there's this tendency to see Iran as a 900-pound gorilla. And there have been warnings here in Washington and elsewhere in Europe, even ahead of the war, the 12-day war in June last year and this war, that this would be World War III, that Iran would be capable of defeating the United States and somehow lighting the world on fire if it were to be taken on. And clearly that hasn't happened. But there's, I think, such a skewed perspective that sees everything that the United States does as somehow evil or imperial or aggressive, even here in the United States by Americans, but certainly in Europe as well, that that really inflects the media coverage and also harps on the negative. Unfortunately, yes, there are drone and missile strikes, but no more than four or five a day for the past week. They're far and few between. And yet rather than talking about the successes of the defense that the United States is mounting or the successes of the U.S. and Israeli military operations in targeting and degrading Iranian military assets or talking about the evil of the Iranian regime itself, there really is a tendency to focus on the negative and try to blame the United States for everything, which is quite disappointing. I mean, does this just show that Iran has influence over Western media? It certainly shows that there is a tendency to doubt America and for some reason platform our adversaries or give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not sure it's necessarily Iranian influence per se so much as it is just some form of latent anti-Americanism that has infected much of Europe and even much of America itself. Blaise Michtal, thank you so much for sharing your time and insights with us today. Thanks for having me, Jack.