Americans have the right to know the viewpoint of a country they fought just ten days ago, the journalist has said
Conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson has announced that he will air an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, saying Americans deserve to hear directly from the leader of the country their military has recently fought.
The interview comes on the heels of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, as well as US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
In a short video on X, Carlson said the conversation, which was conducted remotely through a translator, will be released “in a day or two.” He acknowledged that he will be criticized for the interview, saying: “Why did we do it anyway? Well, we did it because we were just at war with Iran 10 days ago and maybe again.”
He argued that Americans have “the constitutional right and the God-given right to all the information they can gather about matters that affect them,” including hearing the views of adversaries.
Carlson added that not everything Pezeshkian says can be trusted, but “the point is you should be able to decide for yourself whether you believe it or not.”
Regarding the contents of the interview, the former Fox News host said he avoided questions that were almost certain to yield evasions, such as whether the US strikes crippled Iran’s nuclear program. “There’s no chance he’s going to answer that question. Honestly, I didn’t bother to ask it,” he said. Instead, he focused on broader questions like whether Iran is seeking war with the US and Israel.
Carlson went on to say that he once again requested an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an effort to hear from both sides of the conflict.
The purpose of the Pezeshkian interview is “not to get to the absolute truth,” but rather “to add to the corpus of knowledge from which Americans can derive their own opinion,” he said. “Learn everything you can, and then you decide.”
The American journalist conducted a high-profile interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, in which Putin explained the deep historical roots and national security concerns that led to the Ukraine conflict. Last month, he also interviewed US Senator Ted Cruz, pressing him on his hawkish stance on Iran, while suggesting that Cruz is calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government without having any knowledge of the country.
