GB News presenter Will Kingston was forced to intervene as panellist Jonathan Lis lost his temper live on air during a heated debate about the Iran war, leading to Lis being silenced.
Lis clashed with Lisa Daftari, editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk and an Iranian scholar, over Donald Trump's sanctions on Russia and the ongoing conflict with Iran. The exchange escalated quickly, with Lis arguing: “The idea that this was always meant to be the long game, the war to end all wars, is just what the kids would call ‘cope’ – it’s total nonsense and always has been. This is supposed to be a Venezuela-type decapitation strategy of the Ayatollah-“ before Daftari cut him off.
Clash over war strategy
Daftari challenged him: “But who said that this was going to be a Venezuela-type, you?” Lis insisted: “That’s what they thought it was going to be,” but Daftari responded: “Jonathan Lis, I love your confidence. I love that you think that your opinion about the long war is the same as mine, somebody who has been an Iran scholar for two decades-“
Lis told her: “You’ve been wrong about the Iran war, Lisa, I can’t help that.” Daftari fumed: “I love that you believe you know everything about foreign policy when you know nothing about foreign policy!”
Accusations and interruptions
Cutting across her, Lis asked: “Did you seriously think, Lisa, that in February when they started this war, that we’d still be fighting it in October with no signs of [it ending], because I know full well that when we debated this in February, March and April, you weren’t saying, ‘Oh yeah, there’ll still be no end in sight six months later’. You weren’t saying that. You’re revising your strategy because you’ve been exposed as completely wrong on this.”
Daftari shouted back: “Jonathan Lis, do not put words in my mouth! Even at this moment I’m not saying there’s no end in sight. I’m just saying it wasn’t the slam-dunk foreign policy move like Venezuela that you are saying!” Lis hit back: “No, you said this is going to be easy for Trump,” as Daftari insisted: “These talking points are the Iran regime’s talking points!”
Presenter steps in
She was told: “No, no, I’m sorry Lisa, you’re wrong,” but forged ahead, saying: “The term Islamophobia that you used in the last segment? Guess who coined that term. The Iran regime did! You know why? Because people like you are willing to use it to defend them and to allow Islamists to carry on. But Jonathan, I admire your confidence, but please allow the experts to educate you-“ Lis fumed: “Don’t call rank please, Lisa.”
Kingston was then forced to get between the pair as he shouted: “Okay, stop. All right, okay. All right, stop! Jonathan, stop!” Lis refused to give up, hitting back with Daftari yelling across him and making some of his words inaudible: “You have no honesty in this conversation, Lisa. You know perfectly well Donald Trump says it with his own mouth that he didn’t know Iran was going to strike against US targets in the Middle East and he didn’t know that they were going to [inaudible] even though all the experts did. So we’re in a far worse position than we were at the start of this war, and you don’t have the intellectual honesty to own up to that!” An exasperated Kingston silenced Lis as he fumed: “One at a time!”
