{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/69f0dc90f8c6637737447777?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"‘A bunch of losers with no power’: Why Iran’s hardliners won’t win","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/1777392751303-82e98383-8c40-4e34-9678-22f13b7f3251.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>Iran’s regime is facing an existential crisis prompted by the US-Israeli war.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Despite taking a military battering and the economy being in ruins, Tehran refuses to surrender to Donald Trump. Historian Arash Azizi takes Roland Oliphant and Sophia Yan inside the clash between the regime establishment and the ultra-hardliners who fear their vision of the Islamic Republic will not survive peace.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>He explains why the country’s powerful, IRGC-linked chief negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf is increasingly being attacked in Iranian media and the dilemma facing the Islamic Republic as it looks to make a deal without surrendering the anti-American dogmatism that revolutionaries hold so dear.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Plus, senior foreign correspondent Adrian Blomfeld reports from the Strait of Hormuz and Sophia and Roland discuss the significance of the UAE pulling out of OPEC.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Highlights</strong></p><p><br></p><ul><li>Arash Azizi on why Iran’s hardliners are a “bunch of losers with no power”</li><li>How the Iranian regime is facing a choice between reform and destruction&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p><p>CONTRIBUTORS:</p><p><br></p><p>Roland Oliphant, co-host @rolandoliphant</p><p>Sophia Yan, senior foreign correspondent @sophiacyan&nbsp;</p><p>Arash Azizi, author and historian Yale University @arash_tehran&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>CONTENT REFERENCED:</p><p><br></p><p>Adrian Blomfield: <a href=\"https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/28/strait-of-hormuz-irans-mosquito-fleet-winning-blockade/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Here in the Strait, Iran’s mosquito fleet renders Trump blockade futile</a></p><p>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/28/strait-of-hormuz-irans-mosquito-fleet-winning-blockade/</p><p><br></p><p>Robert White, Iona Cleave: Trump ‘unlikely to accept’ Iran’s Hormuz deal <a href=\"https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/28/iran-war-live-trump-peace-talks-hormuz-strikes-lebanon/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/04/28/iran-war-live-trump-peace-talks-hormuz-strikes-lebanon/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Producer: Peter Shevlin</p><p>Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey &amp; Louisa Wells</p><p><br></p><p>► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning.&nbsp;telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor</p><p><br></p><p>► EMAIL US: Contact the team on&nbsp;<a href=\"https://open.acast.com/networks/65719504ffda880012bd81a4/shows/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/episodes/battlelines@telegraph.co.uk%C2%A0\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">battlelines@telegraph.co.uk&nbsp;</a></p><p><br></p><p>► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here:&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/</a></p>","author_name":"The Telegraph"}