My Conversation with Arash Azizi, Now Live

There’s a lot swirling this week – the pending Gaza ceasefire/hostage release deal, confirmation hearings for many of the incoming Trump Administration’s Cabinet secretaries, the outgoing President’s farewell address and, of course, the inauguration.

One issue that I’m keeping a close eye on through this eventful transition is how the incoming administration is going to be positioning itself on Iran.

Under questioning by his colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s State Department nominee, made some interesting comments at his confirmation hearing. He talked about being “open to any arrangement that allows us to have safety and stability in the region,” the weak position the regime finds itself in and his assessment that there is likely a faction within the regime that is looking for an “off-ramp.”

Coming from one of the tougher Iran hawks in Washington, these comments struck me as indicating more openness than I expected to another run at meaningful diplomacy with Iran. So, I was anxious to pursue the topic in my Word on the Street conversation with Tehran-born journalist and author Arash Azizi, one of the most astute observers writing today on Iranian politics and society. You can find Arash’s latest work in The Atlantic here, and a link to his most recent book here.

While I’ve only recently gotten to know Arash, I’ve quickly come to value his pragmatic and lucid analysis of the regime and its relationships with the US and with its own people. I found his answers and commentary incredibly helpful in grasping – and myth-busting – the reality of life under Khamenei.

I hope you’ll tune in and consider sharing the recording of our conversation. We covered a lot of ground not just on Iran, but also his strong objection to the efforts of other authors and writers to organize boycotts against Israeli cultural institutions and writers.

I hope you, like me, learn something that surprises you from this conversation, whether it be the status of Iranian Jews, the internal popularity of the regime or the potential benefits of the new US administration’s negotiating tactics.

In 2025, I’ll be doing at least monthly interviews with special guests exploring the news of the day and providing deeper analysis of key issues related to the US, Israel and the Middle East. Follow along here on my Substack page here for more recordings and my weekly column – and please spread the word to friends and colleagues.