By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye
Kakooza Nkuliza Charles (KNC) and Angelibert Mutabaruka famously known as Angeli Mutabaruka are famous media personalities who feature among Rwandan strong commentators and analysts. These two media practitioners serving Radio 1 and TV1 Stations, while together, form a complete and irresistible duo which draws audiences across Rwanda. KNC and Mutabaruka stand eminent in their Rirarashe [The Sun Rises] Program.
In an episode broadcasted on 5 March 2026, KNC said “Ayatollah, as the leader, they (Iranians) didn’t regard him just as a leader; they considered him a person who establishes a deep communion between them and God. That spirituality, itself, matters immensely. A person could not love Ayatollah, but going and killing him…… By the way, Khamenei died intentionally. They had warned him to quit the place where he was. Even, the Chinese alerted him but he refused, saying “No, I won’t leave here. You, go. But I will remain here. Let me die as a martyr; my blood will leave a colossal mark on history.”
Life In Humanity was attracted to it as well; consequently, we transcribed and translated the transmission exactly as it was aired. It contains a lot of realities, around the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the US-Israel war on Iran, which you can rarely find in any other media organizations.
KNC: He [Ali Khamenei] was assassinated while they had determined how things would be run after his death. What people say, they don’t know it. To prepare for this war, Iran was split into 8 autonomous zones which use strong weapons.
Mutabaruka: Are the zones like provinces?
KNC: Yes, but they are military zones [military provinces]. They (Iran) have constructed underground facilities extremely difficult to destroy, because what they are now demolishing; the real question is: what do they actually destroy? The core infrastructure may still be intact; otherwise, they [Iranians] could actually no longer possess the ability to continue firing back. The Iranians are likely to ooze the ability, to launch these missiles, which surpasses what their [US and Israel] intelligence disclosed to them.
Mutabaruka: Does shooting down their [Iran] cheap drones demand using Patriot missiles?
KNC: You [US and Iran] intercept a $20 000-worth drone with a 4 000 000-worth missile.
Mutabaruka: [Bursting into laughter]. The economy [of the US and Israel] is being devastated.
KNC: Besides; normally, you will use approximately three interceptor missiles for you to maximize the chances of hitting the target. A very stunning development has emerged, in connection with Zelenskyy [ Volodymyr]. [After both Mutabaruka and KNC explode in laughter], KNC [backhandedly/ironically says] Zelenskyy’s proficiency is going to save what the US has failed. By the way, this war may spiral into a world war, while you are joking. Because, if Zelensky from the very distant region states “I am also intervening, to support my partners,…” But, to be frank, what power is Zelenskyy really projecting?
Mutabaruka: Is it true?Top of Form
KNC: Do you think that they are fabricating a lie against him?
Mutabaruka: I have seen that Zelenskyy has sent envoys to those countries, so he can assist them to mount self-defense. [While laughing strongly] Will he stop missile attacks from Iran?
KNC: However, he has always begged the US for Patriot missiles.
Mutabaruka: Is the situation easy for him? Doesn’t it even come pass that he asks for weapons but they fail to work, so that some explosives fall to Kyiv [from Russia]?
KNC: In the meantime, one Patriot interceptor costs $4 000 000, one THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] missile costs $15 000 000.
Mutabaruka: I don’t know well, if it is Fattah-2 that Iran fired yesterday.
KNC: That’s a hypersonic missile. They [Iran] are saying that they have not reached the level of employing their modern arms yet.
Mutabaruka: It [Iran] reportedly dropped the missiles only twice. Even the Iron Dome [hyped as an ultra-strong defense system] is not infallible. I have seen a story, released by powerful media houses, which says that the US’ poor defense system has caused some of its military members and intelligence service employees to die.
KNC: There is another issue which astonished me. By the way, it demands that we simultaneously match multiple pieces of news that are not one-sided. Right now, it is not easy to obtain accurate news from Iran. You can find it on some televisions, especially Russian ones-Sputnik and Russia Today; at least, on these televisions you can get some news.
Mutabaruka: Even yesterday AFP’s journalists who are in Tehran were called by international radio stations. They also explained that they are really working from Tehran but that it is hard to garner news, because infrastructures which could permit them to obtain the news have been demolished by the US-Israel strikes. The journalists affirmed that the country actually abounds with news! They said that they instead get news from Jerusalem and Telaviv more easily than the one from Tehran. Those places including Jerusalem have been devastated.
KNC: A Fox News reporter recounted something which…In fact, the US carries a way in which it controls media so that the latter ones disseminate what the US wants.
Mutabaruka: She [US] allegedly pours money into media, [to possess the media control].
KNC: Yes, except people who don’t notice it; in other places, media organizations are funded by the governments. They [governments] provide them [media] with several privileges which involve financing.
Mutabaruka: Yes, it [government] used to bully them [media], but it no longer does it so; it instead furnishes them with huge quantities of money.
KNC: Yes; for example, in the Ukraine war European media organizations including those mega-powerful ones received incalculable money, to cover it.
Mutabaruka: Have you seen the extent to which they sang the war, so that you could judge that it was God’s Son who had come to the Earth? Do they still do so?
KNC: No, it has finished. They [ the media] are not interested in the war any longer.
Mutabaruka: Do you still remember how these media have deceived people and these people abandoned their jobs, to go to serve in the Ukraine army?
KNC: It’s I alone who have said that these media’s reports on the War just constituted propaganda, but you laughed at me. Probably you [Mutabaruka] didn’t concur on my viewpoint either.
Mutabaruka: Me? For me, it’s no, since I knew the truth, I was already aware that it was rumors that these media were propagating.
KNC: Back to the thing that astonished me, I was forced to revisit a CNN story of damage in Israel caused by Iran, I took time to hear what the US lawmakers who attended the intelligence briefing on the Iran war declared. You can also check it yourself as it is recorded; their statements, after the briefing, are shameful and sorrowful. It has prompted to think “If the war continues like this, it will expose things.”
Mutabaruka: In fact, even Netanyahu has unintentionally revealed the true information unknowingly. In truth, he usually affirmed that Israel had sustained no problem, that they [Israel] had prevented most threats that could result in huge damage. But while in the place where he stated that Iran constitutes Israel’s eternal enemy to whom both the Holy Bible and the Torah have referred,…
KNC: How is the enemy called?
Mutabaruka: If it is Amalek, [I don’t precisely know]. [KNC laughs strongly]. He [Benjamin Netanyahu] stoodp up in a place which had been annihilated. The footage showed a place- if it was a city or town- which was entirely destroyed.
KNC: Didn’t he commit a mistake?
Mutabaruka: He stood there, declaring “Don’t you behold? This is the enemy that is spoken about in the Bible. The enemy is absolutely this one; see what he is doing. He was standing in an overwhelmingly ruined location while he was telling the public that nothing had been spoilt.”
KNC: The truth is this I am going to show you. The reporter [from Fox News] said “They [Israel] provide us with warnings that within 10 minutes, we need to have reached hidings but an astounding issue is that in a very short period of time like that of the blink of an eye, we hear blasts, while they have told us they will arrive in 10 minutes.” The journalists reported that is evident that they [Iran] are using missiles with such higher speed than the usual one that the radars are failing to calculate their accurate speed.
Mutabaruka: In fact, there are American soldiers who have talked anonymously to some reporters. They have told them “Sirens alerting us didn’t warn us that there was anything which was going to happen in Bahrain and Kuwait. They didn’t communicate to us that there was something which had come; they instead rang when a missile had already been dropped.”
KNC: It signifies that these missiles are equipped with higher speed than the normal one.
Mutabaruka: Yes, they possess very higher rapidity!
KNC: Another issue which has surprised people: they [US and Israel] tell us that they have ruined Iran’s capabilities; which the US parliamentarians questioned, saying “They say Iran has been incapacitated, but what they show us differs from what they tell you. This forms a disgraceful situation. If we don’t stop it, it will alarmingly disastrous; first of all, this man [US President, Donal Trump] doesn’t bear a plan for exit, he is like a man in the middle of a waterbody who is starting to uncontrollably swallow water.
What we have learnt from the briefing is shameful. With the briefing, it is clear that the number of military personnel members who has died is more elevated than the one mentioned in the media.”
Mutabaruka: In truth, he [President Trump] has lacked the justification of the war. He said “Israel informed us that she was going to attack, and we then decided to support her.” But again, was Israel going to carry out attacks for what reason?
KNC: No reason for the war.
Mutabaruka: He might have not heeded military officers’ advice, since it is they that hold true information of Iran’s resources and thinking.
KNC: Let me ask you: don’t you know that he instantaneously fired his highest-ranking military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs [General Charles Q. Brown ]? He had told him “This is an impossible mission.”
Mutabaruka: Yes, he had told him “It’s not right to send soldiers to fight Iran.”
KNC: Right, he sacked him and attacked after he had dismissed him from the position. Another surprising thing: have you seen the early warning radar stationed in their [US] Qatar facility? It has been completely ruined, beyond repair. It means that missiles that can be launched from the region can face undetected passage or reduced early warning, since it [the radar] could perform detection up to 5 000 kilometers. That is why, I think, early-waring radars in other places are not managing to exactly pinpoint Iran’s missiles.
Mutabaruka: A few chances with which they [US and Israel] are left are that countries being crossed by these (Iranian] missiles can provide early warnings that there are missiles which are coming, if they can’t down them. Because, the missiles brought down by NATO in Turkey were heading to Cyprus. If they had not shot them down in Turkey’s sky, they could have reached where they had to go.
KNC: Another surprising aspect, though some people say that I am exaggerating, I think Iran is perpetrating some mistakes which ….
Mutabaruka: [mistakes] which can pull other nations into the war.
KNC: Yes. Moreover, the war will end; if it is over, how will their relations stand? That’s one thing. The second, it [Iran] is behaving so, in order to exert pressure upon them and batter their economies; which constitutes a way to indicate to them that US presence on their soil stands useless, it can’t protect its allies, to the extent they will say “You deploy forces here, but you don’t defend us.” Iran probably thinks “Then, it is possible that they [US allies in the region] will tell ‘Seek a way to end this war.’” Perhaps, that’s why Iran is conducting the strikes on the countries. Yet still, another question which I ask myself: does Iran possess how much ability to drag the US into the whole region?
Mutabaruka: I, instead, think that Iran can commit the mistake of provoking the countries to fire at it, while they didn’t initially intend to do so?
KNC: Yes, that’s my point.
Mutabaruka: For instance, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has called and told his Iranian counterpart “Violating our airspace has been prohibited to both you and those you are confronting. We are then entitled to retaliate to any other person who will intrude into our sky. It signifies that if Iran dares to fire missiles through their [Turkey] airspace, these people [Turkey] can respond to it.”
KNC: I think that a country like Turkey shares a lot of commonalities with Iran. Turkish are neither Europeans nor Arabs. They are Persians, aren’t they? Turkey considers Iran its close ally, in effort to balance American influence which can prompt the Kurds to claim their rights to create their own independent nations- which Turkey cannot accept at all. If you recall, I feel that it was around in the 1999s approaching 2000, the then Kurds leader named Abdullah Öcalan who was even strong, I think he was caught in an airplane going to Kenya and returned to Turkey. Facing him and other very powerful Kurds who always clash with Erdogan’s regime; today if Turkey stopped good relations with Iran or Iran’s instability, it would place Turkey’s security in danger.
I don’t know if you comprehend that point well. Todays, there are Kurds in Syria who own weapons and always clash with Turkey, plus the Kurds in Iran and Iraq. That coalition already represents a threat to Turkey; then, if you annihilate Iran, it only gets worse for Turkey. Furthermore, Turkey doesn’t trust the US, because of the problem of who? The problem of Fethullah Gülen and the coup [thwarted]. [Gülen was a Turkish Islamic cleric, former imam, and preacher who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States from 1999 until his death in October 2024. He was a pivotal, highly contentious figure in Turkish-US relations, accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the failed July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.]
They [US and Turkey] are together in the NATO, and Turkey is the only NATO member which doesn’t fully respect NATO standards especially with regard to the acquisition of weapons, especially since it buys defense systems from Russia, whereas this doesn’t exist in any other NATO member.
What does this demonstrate to you? It indicates that who deserves to be Iran’s best ally is Turkey.
Mutabaruka: Are Turkish Persians?
KNC: Yes, their bigger number is Persians.
Mutabaruka: They [ Iranians and Turkish] are relatives.
KNC: Yes. They even share culture and other values they comply with. Even their relations weren’t bad. Turkey can even position herself as a mediator. I think that if Iran perpetrates the miscalculation, it can regret it. Yet still, she may not repeat it.
Mutabaruka: She may not repeat it. In fact, when she did so, she just meant to find a pathway for the missiles to get to another place; she didn’t intend to strike that particular country [Turkey].
KNC: But again, trespassing into another country’s sky constitutes a problem.
Mutabaruka: Yes, violating a nation’s airspace forms an issue, but Iran may not do it again.
KNC: Let’s now come back to the point. Both Israel and US don’t boast enough intelligence capacity to exactly know Iran’s capabilities to carry missile strikes on.
Mutabaruka: They don’t, if they had known its capabilities, they could not have struck it. If they had actually known that it would wreck such havoc, they couldn’t have dared to assail it. Moreover, Iran might have not begun firing its intensely powerful missiles.
KNC: Mutabaruka, to convince people, I usually consult history. For Iran as a theocratic state, they (Iranians) didn’t merely regard Ayatollah as a leader; they considered him a person who established a deep communion between them and God. That spirituality, itself, matters immensely. A person could not love Ayatollah, but going and killing him…… By the way, Khamenei died intentionally. They had warned him to quit the place where he was. Even, the Chinese alerted him but he refused, saying “No, I won’t leave here. You, go. But I will remain here. Let me die as a martyr; my blood will leave a colossal mark on history.”
He was assassinated while they had determined how things would be run after his death. What people say, they don’t know it. They had chosen his successors.
Mutabaruka: Have you seen that they [Iran] have already confirmed the new permanent supreme leader? It is his son, Mojtaba Khamenei.
KNC: I heard wrong information. They claimed that they shot at people in a meeting to appoint Ayatollah, but they [Iran] reported “They only fired at a building, none of us was in.” There is another piece of news about Ahmadinejad’s death which is being contradicted; I saw it in Russia media. To those who said Ahmadinejad died, he responded “I am alive”.
Mutabaruka: Eh! Has he not deceased? That’s to verify.
KNC: Verify it, and I think it has been reported by trustworthy sources.
Mutabaruka: Mojtaba Khamenei who has succeeded his father is aged 56.
KNC: It is his ability to lead the country, uniting all the Iranians, that will permit them to emerge victorious.
Mutabaruka: He has been designated under the Revolutionary Guards’ pressure. It is they that have insisted “He has to be selected”. Others felt that they would select the new leader, after the burial of the late Ayatollah Khamenei. However, they’ve found that the burial infrastructure and defense needed for him to be buried have not been ready yet; then, saying “Let’s postpone the burial.” That’s why the Revolutionary Guards have said “Appoint the supreme leader and assign him to massive responsibilities.” The first responsibility is to (1) avenge his father, all Iranians who have died of these current strikes and others who succumbed to other attacks in the past, and (2) beat the enemy. The enemy is the US and the devil/Satan. The devil is Israel.
KNC: But, this leader may die soon.
Mutabaruka: He will be surely killed. Don’t you know what immediately occurred to Hezbollah’s leaders who were appointed, replacing those who had just been killed? When it [Hezbollah] nominated its leader, on the same day he was assassinated.
KNC: Yet still, the case of Hezbollah is different than Iran. He is fully aware that he has to substantially toughen his security and defense.
Mutabaruka: He didn’t normally appear in public, but he served as a close advisor of his father.
KNC: Thus, he understands the situation well.
Mutabaruka: Yes, he actually does. Nevertheless, if he is not tightly protected, he will be sent to death.
KNC: He has to protect himself firmly. Mutabaruka, let me come back to the point. In 2005, a man named Dick Cheney [ Richard Bruce Cheney] who was a vice-president in the US and strong lobbyist in weapon matters had planned that they would assault Iran. Since then up to now, haven’t 21 years passed? From then, Iran undertook to prepare herself for a war with the US. They [Iran] was aware that they didn’t boast air force, strong air defense.
Mutabaruka: Dick Cheney passed away in 2025.
KNC: Yes, he did. He was one of the most insightful thinkers on the Middle East’s issues, including the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war- all this was on Dick Cheney’s head.
Mutabaruka: Yes, because he worked as the Vice-President under George W. Bush.
KNC: Exactly. Then, when they declared Iran as an axis of evil, whereby Bush stated that the first enemy of the US was Iran; they had to utilize the momentum they possessed in Iraq and Afghanistan to instantaneously strike Iran. Iran started getting ready for an attack from the US. What is happening to her right now was strongly believed that it could have occurred then. She even expected that the US would use Israel to hit her. As a result, Iran put considerable effort in the militias that they [Iran] call the Axis of Resistance, including strong militias like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and so numerous other groups not usually talked about.
In this spirit, to prepare for this war, Iran was split into 8 autonomous zones which use strong weapons and they built the underground facilities. I advance back this preparation of 21 years, so as for us not to underestimate Iran’s ability to carry these missile strikes on.
Mutabaruka: Yes. You can even detect their ability through their intensity. If these missiles are succeeding in hitting the targets, though others are being intercepted; that’s not what they [US and Israel] were anticipating.
KNC: Another question: if they possess such strong missiles and effective but less expensive drones, [doesn’t it affect the US’ production capacity?].
Mutabaruka: Even while Netanyahu was standing up in the annihilated locality, they asked him “Why are the explosions happening like this” and he answered “Be careful, there are certain missiles that we let fall to the ground, only when we confirm that they won’t hit civilians.” That’s what he said. They again queried “Why are there those which are dropped to inhabited places?” He responded “Maybe, there are those which escape our control, but when we observe that the missiles will land in an uninhabited place, we allow them to fall there.” It is clear that they [Israel and US] don’t carry the capacity to intercept them.
KNC: They [US] are serving neighbor countries [the nations where the US holds military bases and being attacked by Iran], they have used extremely numerous interceptors. They have employed them in Ukraine to an extent you can hardly imagine. In fact, this man- Trump, when he said that he wanted to end the Ukraine war, that was not his genuine intention. It was because he felt they no longer possessed the ability to continue providing Ukraine with interceptors while he knew they were going to engage in a war with Iran.
Mutabaruka: Reportedly, when Iran launches a wave of missiles, it fires such a lot of them…
KNC: Yes, it does so; some of the missiles not being really genuine missiles but decoy ones.
Mutabaruka: Yes, with so many decoy missiles. The missiles are so several that even if they [Israel and US] downed a hundred of them, at least one would elude their interceptors and cause great damage. This saturates airspace.
KNC: What does airspace saturation mean? It means that they will be forced to fire a lot of interceptors to neutralize them; which depletes them and when they are depleted, the space stays defenseless. That [missile depletion and sky defenselessness] is the real equation. They initially thought that killing Iran’s leadership was equated with killing the command structure. Yet, these people were prepared to die. They created an independent command structure. The leaders of the military zones are permitted to adopt and implement decisions independently of the Supreme Leader, and guidelines governing the decision-making has been officially recorded. These leaders don’t wait for the Supreme Leader to give them instructions and orders, they act autonomously.
That is why his death didn’t hamper the command structure. Instead, the death constituted the trigger to suddenly execute.
KNC: This war is going to engender an economic crisis that the world has never experienced. The effects of the war are going to batter all of us in the world- all of us! The price of gas will be hiked. Will the European stand this problem of energy- a crisis created by this war? Will they deploy forces and warships, to forcibly liberate the Strait of Hormuz?
Mutabaruka: Iran has performed a surprising act. It has allowed Chinese vessels, only, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
KNC: What does that signify?
Mutabaruka: It signifies a substantial development.
KNC: Because, there transit petrol products which are transported to China- approximately 30% [of the products which go to China. The quantity is huge!
Mutabaruka: They have also explained the reason why they are working with China significantly. Reportedly, a bit after the last 12-day war, there is military equipment which Iran had bought from China. They [China] had delivered to them [Iran] a little of it, while the entire cargo has to get to Iran. They have therefore authorized China to pursue its business, since they are already involved in the deal.
KNC: Will China deploy warships to protect their civilian ships?
Mutabaruka: No matter what happens, China will. They will do what I can describe as a preventive measure, telling the US “If you strike our vessels, we will retaliate.”
KNC: The US can’t dare to draw China into this war. In that case, it could be a global war. In the meantime, several messages are coming from the White House. Imagine, the US Vice President [James David] Vance has not commented on the war yet; which substantiates that Trump is experiencing a big problem. Have you ever heard him speak about it? This suggests that he, like the General sacked, has not agreed with Trump on the war. It is conspicuous that they didn’t Trump would do this. But finally, Trump implemented it. The issue is its impact. Perhaps, it will transform him into a hero so that people will always remember him.
Mutabaruka: Trump? Hah! Or He will be laughed at.
KNC: Netanyahu has achieved his objectives since he had long dreamed of firing at Iran.
Mutabaruka: Isn’t they [Israel and US] that have requested for the 12-day war to stop, since they were encountering extraordinary things? Imagine if they now asked for this war to stop.
KNC: But, they have already done it.
Mutabaruka: Have they already started asking for it?
KNC: They have done so through the mediator, Italy; nonetheless, Iran answered her “We are in the defensive position, we want nobody else to confuse us. For the first time, these people requested for the stop of the war but they were deceiving us, they struck us twice while we were engaging in talks. Now, let’s fight; we won’t stop it.” Didn’t you know it?
Mutabaruka: [Laughing] This war is… I just learned that Trump had said “Iran has requested for negotiations.”
KNC: No. They [Iran] said “No, no, we can’t negotiate.” They [US] has known that Italy enjoys good relations with Iran and then asked it to tell Iran that they want talks but Iran vehemently refused it. According to information that I hold, they have attempted but Iran told them “We don’t want any negotiations. Let’s confront each other; if we are to die, let’s die, if we are to survive, we will, but we won’t abandon the war.” I heard their [Iran] Minister of Foreign Affairs say… Is it the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Vice-Prime Minister?
I heard him say “There exist so numerous countries with which you bear diplomatic ties but which used to fear you, yet we are going to strip you naked, exposing your vulnerabilities and weaknesses so that they will all notice that you are meaningless-just a pittance.” But there occurs another point that frightens me. Trump has always said “You all know that the US army is the strongest one in the world!” Why does he remind of that?
Mutabaruka: I have heard French parliamentarian highlight that France does not have to embroil herself in that unjustified war.
KNC: Nevertheless, as the US lawmakers from the briefing have pointed it out, the information we obtain [about the war] is likely [to be a pure lie].