Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00What's your take on this? Do you think Iran does pose a serious threat? I mean, you've had a close working relationship with the Pentagon. Do you think that we are on the cusp now and that perhaps a war between these two powers is inevitable?
00:18Well, look, no war is inevitable. Let me just start with that. I worked in the Obama administration and I was in the Obama administration at the Pentagon when Obama negotiated the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal. And certainly the deal has had its critics and it did fall short in some areas. It didn't address Iran's malign influence in the region.
00:41It didn't address Iran's support for organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas and so on. But it did actually make some progress in getting these, you know, all European countries, getting a consensus, getting a diplomatic solution to what everyone agreed was a risk and a problem.
00:59And so what I want to just bring here, I want us to just look at the strategic picture in the region, because I think what everyone agrees on on this panel is that no one wants war.
01:09What we're disagreeing on, I imagine, is whether striking Iran is going to prevent a war or is going to bring us even closer to an all out regional war, because Melinda, you said at the beginning of the program that we're one miscalculation away.
01:24And we have been for almost two years now and in the past, many times, one miscalculation away from war.
01:32Now, if you look at the broader strategic picture in the region, as Anna just mentioned, there is what by far a wall to wall consensus of genocide experts who are saying that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.
01:47That is not true.
01:48Ilan, I'm counting. We'll come to that in a moment, Ilan.
01:50I'm not even going to go into my opinion here, but let me just finish, because I did let you guys both talk for quite a bit without interrupting.
01:58So the regional picture is that Israel is mired in Gaza and what international human rights experts are agreeing is a genocide now.
02:07It has huge troubles at home. You've had Israelis protesting for almost two years now.
02:13And before that, let's remember, against Prime Minister Netanyahu's overreach and his attempts to meddle with the judiciary.
02:20So Israel is already isolated. It's already under pressure and it can ill afford to be dragged into another war.
02:29But more important than that, for the first time in as long as I can remember or as long as I've even been alive, Israel is surrounded by countries, states that want to work with it to work towards a better future for the Middle East.
02:44For the first time, you have a government in Lebanon that is against Hezbollah and that is trying to do its part, according to the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, to make sure that Hezbollah's weapons in the south are brought in under the control of the state.
03:01You have a government in Syria that also, for the first time in decades, is saying loud and clear again and again, we don't want war with Israel.
03:10We want a peaceful region. We want to have talks with the Israelis. And indeed, some of those talks are ongoing.
03:17You have Egypt and Jordan and UAE and Bahrain who are actually in peace treaties with Israel and want to help move it forward to a place of peace and security.
03:27Now, the only person in this picture that I'm painting that continues to insist on using war and violent force and unilateral cross-border attacks in sovereign countries is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
03:42And he is placing the entire region at risk because of his unwillingness to engage in diplomatic talks with people who are willing across the board to do so.
03:54So I just wanted to paint that broad strategic picture of what the region looks like right now and why choosing to reject diplomacy at this point,
04:05when so many opportunities are available for it, is putting not just Israelis and people in the region at danger, but as Anna said, US lives as well.
04:14And that's not acceptable.
04:16OK, Ilan, I want you to respond particularly to the comments that Jasmine's made about the fact that is this a deflection tactic from Prime Minister Netanyahu?
04:27And your reaction to the fact that this is a time where perhaps Israel is surrounded by neighbours, some neighbours who do want to work with it.
04:38Why not exploit that positive aspect?
04:41That positive dynamic of neighbours who want to work with Israel is thanks to Israel decapitating Hezbollah in Lebanon,
04:49paving the way for the fall of the Assad regime for the first time, allowing Lebanese and Syrian people to take back control of their country.
04:56And we desperately hope that they choose to make peace with Israel because wars should end with peace, not a piece of paper.
05:04But Ilan, Ilan, I'm sorry, but you keep attacking them as they're trying to help you do that.
05:10You attack Lebanon.
05:11Israel is still surrounded.
05:12You attack Syria.
05:13Israel is still surrounded by countries and militias that do not accept that Israel has a right to exist at all.
05:21The positive voices that we have been hearing from Lebanon and Syria, very cautious,
05:25none of them have said outright they're willing to recognise the state of Israel, are positive.
05:30But you know what would undermine any movement towards regional peace in the Middle East?
05:35A nuclear Iran.
05:37Because if Tehran is able to build nuclear weapons, it will be able to bully the region,
05:43to rebuild Hezbollah, to re-establish an influence in Syria,
05:46to embolden the Houthi pirates in Yemen who have been firing ballistic missiles at Israel every single day.
05:54And smaller countries like Bahrain, like the UAE, instead of being able to move towards greater peace and integration,
06:01are going to be looking over their shoulder at the nuclear bully in Tehran.
06:05And that is why a nuclear Iran is a threat to Middle East peace.
06:09And if we want to see a future of regional integration, like I do, of peace with Lebanon and Syria,
06:15they have to be freed once and for all from the clutches of the Iranian regime.
06:20And if Iran gets nuclear weapons, it will keep them under its claws.