U Montana’s Dr. Mehrdad Kia and the Latest on Middle East Peace

The Iranian regime leadership is scared, hiding, and the Supreme Leader is being referred to as "the rat" by the people of Iran. That's the latest from Dr. Mehrdad Kia who heads up The University of Montana's Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center.

Dr. Kia also grew up in Iran, and fled before the terrorist regime took over.

I wanted to get his take on what's been going on in Iran following the successful strikes on the Iranian nuclear facilities, and the recent visit to the White House by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. Plus, we took phone calls from folks across Montana. (Full audio below)

Dr. Kia On Iran

"The Supreme Leader has been more or less hiding very deep under the ground, and he has only showed up a few times to deliver fast speeches, but he is surrounded by security, and they whisk him out very quickly after he has delivered his speeches. It might be of some interest for your listeners to know that he now has a new title among the people of Iran. They call him Ali the rat, because rats usually hide very deep under the ground. And this guy is basically mortified that the same thing that happened to his military leadership might happen to him now."

Dr. Kia also says the Iranian proxies have also taken a big hit.

"Hamas has been decapitated, though I have to say that it is still trying to flex muscle in Gaza, but it's military potential have been significantly diminished. Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Iranian regime is trying to reconstitute it, but Israel just struck just a couple days ago and killed its military commanders. So that was a warning once again to Iran that Israel is watching the situation in Lebanon very closely, and any attempt to reconstitute Hezbollah will be dealt with immediately. And of course, the third proxy was the Houthis in Yemen, and they have been, more or less, very silent. They were hit very badly by Israel and United States, and the result has been that the Houthis have basically decided to stand on the sideline."

What about the White House visit by Saudi's Crown Prince?

Dr. Kia: "I think the MBS meeting signals the emergence of Saudi Arabia as the most powerful Arab country in the region. MBS is a very ambitious leader, and he wants to make sure that Saudi Arabia will be also a military and economic power, even beyond the time when they run out of oil. So all this massive investment he's calling for by United States and it's European allies is basically to turn Saudi Arabia in a new direction, and of course, the biggest threat to his position is the Islamic regime in Iran."