The U.S. embassy in Israel told its staff on Friday to leave the country if they wish to do so, and quickly. The instruction comes as the U.S. has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran — despite reports finding that the Trump administration’s accusations against the country are unsupported by U.S. intelligence. In a staff-wide email, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee instructed employees that…
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Urged on by Israel and neocon war hawks, President Trump has brought the US to the verge of a war with Iran, amassing more American military forces in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In this episode of The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about the disastrous ramifications such a war would have—and what options still remain to avoid it.
Guests:
Trita Parsi is an Iranian-born Swedish writer and policy analyst and the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored four books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel.
Additional links/info:
Trita Parsi, Common Dreams, “How does this end? Even a ‘small’ US strike on Iran by Trump would be disastrous”
Maximillian Alvarez, TRNN, “Jeremy Scahill: Prospects for avoiding US-Iran war ‘remain fragile’”
Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production: David Hebden
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us. We are on the verge of a war with Iran, a war that could unleash a conflict that can lead to a wider war in the region and have devastating effects on
Just as they did with the Venezuelan attack in early January, the ongoing starvation of Cuba, and the bombing of Iran last summer, Democratic leadership in Congress is once again throwing its de facto support behind Trump’s militarism with conspicuous silence and limp process criticisms, suppressing genuine pushback and working to prop up every premise of his bellicosity. As Democrats shrug in the face of a build up to war with Iran, it’s clear once again that, when it comes to matters of bombing, sanctions, genocide, and wars of aggression, the US functionally has no opposition party.Despite it being over a week since Trump began his massive military buildup targeting Iran, neither Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries has released a single press release or social media post about Iran or the threats Trump is leveling against it. And when they do discuss it, always after being forced to by reporters, they hand-wring in vague terms or make process criticisms about Trump not “making his case to the American people” or some other such shallow critique. Schumer, in particular, refuses to criticize a war on Iran in principle, only complaining about Trump filling out the right paperwork:
.@SenSchumer on potential Iran strikes, ahead of Congressional closed-door briefing: “The administration has to make its case to the American people as something as important as this.” pic.twitter.com/1qNKFCnyob— CSPAN (@cspan) February 24, 2026
Despite the fact that only 14% of Democrats support an attack on Iran and 75% explicitly oppose it, this anti-war sentiment is nowhere to be found in Democratic leadership who refuse to support, and are likely suppressing, a war powers resolution proposed by
President Donald Trump continued to push for war with Iran during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, falsely asserting that Iranian officials have not disavowed nuclear weapons development. Trump repeated the claim that his administration “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, adding that Iranian officials are “terrible people” who are “starting it all over.
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With President Trump marshaling the largest buildup of US military forces in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the threat of an imminent conflict—or even a major war—between the US and Iran is ever present. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with journalist Jeremy Scahill of DropSite news about where things stand now, the fragile state of this week’s talks between the US and Iran, and all that hangs in the balance.
Guest:
Jeremy Scahill is an independent journalist, author and filmmaker. He is co-founder of the investigative news organization Drop Site News. Scahill is author of the international best-selling books Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army and Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield. His film, Dirty Wars, won widespread acclaim and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2013 for Best Documentary Feature.
Additional links/info:
Jeremy Scahill & Murtaza Hussain, DropSite News, “Iranian officials to Drop Site: Tehran is showing “unbelievable level of flexibility” in talks to prevent US war”
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome everyone to the Real News Network podcast. I’m Maximillian Alvarez. I’m the editor in chief here at The Real News, and it’s so great to have you all with us. We’re recording this podcast on Tuesday, February 24th, and I genuinely don’t know if the United States will be at war with Iran by the time that you hear it. In their latest report for DropSite News, Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain write,
The U.S. and Iran are headed to a new
As the U.S. slowly continues its brokered negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and ballistic missiles, it is also expanding its military posture across the Middle East — amounting to the biggest military buildup in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. took place in Geneva on February 17 with little progress and plenty of details left…
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