Iran International
Tucker Carlson's interview with Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian was all Tehran could wish for, experts told Iran International: a global stage, no pushback, and a direct line to Donald Trump’s base.
“This was a major victory for Iranian information warfare operations,” said Marcus Kolga, a leading expert on foreign disinformation. “Whether intentionally or not, Carlson is acting as a significant conduit and amplifier for Iranian government information operations.”
The interview was recorded remotely, unlike the one Carlson did with Russia's president Vladimir Putin in February 2024.
"(Carlson) offers Pezeshkian and the Iranian regime a platform—without context or pushback—allowing Tehran to shape the record to Carlson’s viewers and listeners unopposed,” Kolga added.
A moment highlighted by many critics was when Pezeshkian asserted that Israel had tried to assassinate him without offering any evidence.
“He was trying to... put forward the message that this is Israel tricking America into getting involved in this. This really isn't America's war. Iran and America, we have nothing to fight about.” director of the Yorktown Institute's Turan Research Center Joseph Epstein said.
Epstein argued the interview fit Carlson’s broader pattern of offering authoritarian figures a platform to rewrite narratives without scrutiny—an approach that often blurs the line between journalistic curiosity and ideological alignment.
MAGA :' forever wars'
That alignment, analysts say, extended deep into the language Pezeshkian used.
From “forever wars” to calls for dialogue, his remarks were crafted to appeal to Trump-aligned isolationists and feed growing calls for US disengagement from the Middle East.
The use of such language is no accident, said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, who has long studied Iranian strategic messaging.
“One of the main goals of the Islamic Republic is to get the US out of the Middle East... and when you're pushing this isolationist rhetoric or America First, you're basically saying America needs to get out," Dagres told Iran International.
Dagres noted that Pezeshkian’s emphasis on business cooperation with the US and his softened tone on slogans like “Death to America” appeared to be an overture to Trump himself, even if the message didn’t land as clearly in today’s post-war political climate.
The interview was praised by Iran's moderates, but hardline voices slammed the president's for what they called 'appeasement'.
"A lot of conservatives condemned it because (they said) the US just bombed us. Why are you making these appeals to them?”
The messaging, several experts said, fits into a broader long-term goal: undermining the US-Israeli alliance.
“He used this as an opportunity to weaken and to increase America's skepticism of support for Israel,” said Casey Babb, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. “In 50 years or 100 years, if America and Israel are not aligned the same way they are right now, Israel could be in a very precarious situation.”
Carlson, Babb said, handed that message a valuable platform by failing to press Pezeshkian on Iran’s human rights record, nuclear activities, or assassination plots.
“There were definitely softball questions with no follow-up,” said Dagres. “Carlson didn’t challenge Pezeshkian on well-documented plots to target American officials or on the regime’s broader ambitions.”
“In failing to counter these narratives,” Kolga said, “Carlson becomes a conduit for regime propaganda—allowing this high-profile ‘conversation’ to turn into a successful Iranian strategic disinformation operation.”
“I would love to be able to take those sanctions off and give them a chance,” Trump said during a White House dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They want to meet and make peace. We have scheduled Iran talks. They want to talk.”
US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told reporters that nuclear negotiations between the two countries are expected to take place “in the next week or so,” in what would mark the first official diplomatic engagement between Washington and Tehran since the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on Tuesday denied that Iran had requested a meeting with the American side."No meeting request has been made to the American side from our end."
Trump, speaking to reporters before the dinner, said Iran had “taken a big drubbing” from joint US-Israeli strikes but now appeared ready for dialogue. “I hope the war with Iran is over,” he added.
When asked for a specific date for the talks, Trump declined to provide details. “I’d rather not say, but you’ll be reading about it tomorrow or seeing it tomorrow,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said this week that he believes Iran can resolve its differences with the United States through dialogue, but trust would be an issue after US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
"I am of the belief that we could very much easily resolve our differences and conflicts with the United States through dialogue and talks," Pezeshkian told conservative US podcaster Tucker Carlson in an interview released on Monday.
The US president also spoke warmly about the Iranian potential. “They have the oil power. They have great people, smart people, energetic people—amazing,” he said.
“I would like to see Iran build itself in a peaceful manner. They were the bully of the Middle East and now they are not any more.”
During the dinner, Netanyahu said that Iran’s influence in Syria had waned and described the Islamic Republic as "out of the picture" there, suggesting that this shift could open the door for a new peace process between Israel and Syria. He also told Trump he intended to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump said that Netanyahu had asked for US sanctions on Syria to be lifted—a request that Trump said was granted. “We took the sanctions off because we want to give them a chance,” he said, adding that similar relief could be considered for Iran if progress is made.
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a US-based Iran analyst, said that the dinner remarks exposed a gap between American and Israeli positions on Iran.
“Netanyahu has never accepted any form of negotiation with Iran and has consistently advocated for the destruction of its nuclear program,” Boroujerdi told Iran International. “His comparison of Iran’s nuclear and missile ambitions to ‘cancerous tumors’ shows he seeks perpetual control over Iran’s military activities.”
However, he said that Trump’s remarks reflect a more pragmatic view from the White House. “Trump is entering these talks from a position of strength,” he said. “This isn’t about appeasement—it’s about leverage.”
The dinner was Netanyahu’s first in-person meeting with Trump since the strikes on Iran.
