Lisa Daftari

I’ve spent much of my career exposing the Iranian regime and the threats it poses. What many Americans don’t realize is that those threats don’t stop at our borders. For nearly two decades, I’ve dealt with stalking, hacking, intimidation and threats simply for speaking out about the Iran regime. This is how the regime operates. It tries to silence its critics, even thousands of miles away, where freedom of speech is supposed to be protected. And it’s not just my story. Journalists, activists and Iranian dissidents living abroad continue to face these tactics. The Iranian regime should not be allowed to decide who gets to speak freely on American soil.

Iran’s strategy has never been limited to missiles, militias and proxies. For decades, the regime has also understood the power of narrative. Today, those narratives move through universities, media, activist movements and social platforms, shaping how people understand Iran, Hamas, Israel and the United States itself. The battlefield matters. So does the story being told about it.

Iran’s regime has spent 47 years turning “Death to America” into policy. Today, sanctions are choking its ability to fund proxies, pay mercenaries and sustain the system it built across the region. No one can predict exactly when this regime will fall. But if its power is truly dismantled, the impact will go far beyond Iran. It would be a generational gain for the Iranian people, the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

On @foxnews with kevincorke: The Trump administration has three options after the Houthi attack on a Saudi airport that killed 12 people including an American citizen. We can continue giving the Saudis intel and support from the sidelines. We can join in targeted strikes against the Houthis and other proxy groups. Or we can re-engage in military warfare against Iran’s regime, which gets to the center of the problem. That last option probably won’t happen before the midterms. And that’s exactly the calculation of the Iran regime. They know we’re up against the midterms, so they escalate, instigate, and provoke. But a pause on bombs is not a pause on pressure. The economic sanctions, the blockade, the deterrence all remain in place. Lisa Daftari | The Foreign Desk | Editor-in-Chief #Iran #Houthis #SaudiArabia #FoxNews #ForeignPolicy NationalSecurity Midterms TheForeignDesk LisaDaftari

This has been their playbook for 47 years. The regime stays in power by holding deadly weapons and then asking for dialogue. Dialogue for what? To play out the clock. To get money. To replenish their proxies, their missiles, their drones, and their nuclear program. Bibi Netanyahu delivered a powerful speech at the UN and put to bed the idea that there’s daylight between the US and Israel. But here’s what else he did. He activated the Iranian people. He spoke more about the Iranian people than Pezeshkian did- Pezeshkian focused on the Palestinian people. Bibi told the Iranian people: you will take over. You will collapse the regime yourselves. Foreshadowing of things to come?! #Iran #Netanyahu #UnitedNations #IranRegime #MiddleEast

The Iranian regime is being strangled. And we need to be patient enough to see it through. We’re watching inflation numbers of 90 percent in Iran. The rial is 300 million to $1. We haven’t seen these numbers before. On the ground, people are buying rice at 200 percent inflation, oil at 300 percent inflation, minimum wage is $72 a month. This is a once in a generation opportunity to get rid of a deadly genocidal regime that wants all Americans dead. Regardless of how you vote, regardless of how you feel about Donald Trump, this is a deadly regime and its ideology will not change. Its handbook has not changed. And based on the offer on the table today, we know they have no intention of keeping any deal. Lisa Daftari on @foxnews Sunday with @mikeyonfox 🏆 #Iran #IranEconomy #IranProtests #FreeIran #ForeignPolicy NationalSecurity EconomicSanctions TheForeignDesk LisaDaftari China

On Fox News Sunday with @mikeyonfox: Too little, too late. Iran’s regime is holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage and now they want to be paid to reopen it. This is an international waterway. It’s not a bargaining chip that should be held hostage by terrorists. If you’re having deja vu, you should. In June we had the MOU, which was a very similar offer. All they had to do was open the Strait and promise not to work on nuclear weapons. And what did they want from us? Everything and the kitchen sink. Removal of sanctions. Blockades removed. Frozen assets handed over. And how do we know they’re not going to take all that money and put it right back into their ballistic missiles, their drones, their nuclear program, and their deadly proxies? That’s exactly what they’re trying to do. We’ve seen this act before. And it’s very smart of Donald Trump to say no to a bad deal. Lisa Daftari | The Foreign Desk | Editor-in-Chief #Iran #StraitOfHormuz #IranDeal #ForeignPolicy #NationalSecurity