Iranian Deputy FM Saeed Khatibzadeh, Nima Alkhorshid: All-Out War? Iran Says It’s Ready for Any Attack
by Dialogue Works [1-14-2026] Nima R. Alkhorshid(bio).
(RAD: Nima (on left) grew up in Iran and went on to get a PhD in engineering and now lives & teaches in Brazil. He is back in Iran visiting family and friends. I always enjoy the quality of interviews he does with others. He never boasts about himself. He comes prepared and asks relevant question & then lets the other person explain their best understanding.
This discussion with Professor Saeed is excellent and gives us better insight into what was happening leading up to the 12-day war last year in June and how Iran responded.
Before the Nov 2024 election, Trump campaigned with a message of 'peace through strength', yet he changed his approach after taking office. It has now become obvious that 'strength' translates into force to maintain the hegemonic position of the US.
What is now clear is that during the US-Iran negotiations prior to the 12-day war, the US side wanted to dictate the terms & didn't want to acknowledge Iran as an equal partner in these negotiations.
Saeed shared a very telling observation about Israel's defense. There were 7 layers of defense between Iran & Israel. Iran initially sent drones & not their advanced missiles to exhaust the Israel defenses. After going silent one day for a few hours, Iran sent ONLY ONE missile towards Israel. It was able to evade ALL of the defenses & land a bull's eye hit on the designated target. That was intended to send a message to Israel & the US that Iran can hit any target in Israel. Hopefully the message was learned.
Both Saeed & Nima speak excellent English. Iran is doing everything possible to try and convince Israel & the US that another war with Iran is not in their interest. Listen to the full interview to learn first hand what is happening that is not being talked about by our media or our government. — RAD)
Saeed Khatibzadeh is a senior Iranian diplomat and political scientist who currently serves as Deputy Foreign Minister and President of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Iran’s leading foreign policy think tank. Appointed to these roles by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on January 25, 2025, Khatibzadeh is recognized as one of Tehran’s most influential and youngest figures in diplomacy.
A professor of political science, Khatibzadeh has held key positions including Foreign Ministry Spokesperson (2020–2022), Iran’s Ambassador to Croatia, and Advisor to the Foreign Minister. He is known for his academic background, having earned a PhD in political science and international relations from Tarbiat Modares University, and for his fluency in Persian, English, German, and Arabic.
He gained international attention for masterminding the Iran Experts Initiative (IEI), a network of Iranian academics and analysts in Western think tanks, which was used to shape global perceptions during Iran’s nuclear negotiations. The initiative, proposed by Khatibzadeh in 2014 while based in Berlin, aimed to promote Iran’s foreign policy narrative through strategic media engagement and academic influence.
In recent months, Khatibzadeh has led high-level diplomatic visits to Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and China, emphasizing regional cooperation, nuclear rights, and Iran’s readiness to respond to external aggression. He has also been vocal in defending Iran’s sovereignty, notably addressing the June 2025 U.S.-Israel attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, where he highlighted Iran’s successful defense and strategic resilience.
His role positions him as a central architect of Iran’s soft power and foreign policy strategy, particularly in shaping Western and global discourse.