Israel-Iran conflict: "Diplomacy is seen as a potential step toward a solution"

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Professor Maziyar Ghiabi, Director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), University of Exeter

Transcript

00:00Professor Maziar Qiyabi is director of the Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies at Exeter University in the UK.

00:08Erdogan has in the past used quite a strong rhetoric.

00:12I don't think this is going to lead to any practical steps,

00:16but it means that there is a certain discontent among a variety of Muslim-majority countries

00:22with what's happening in the context of repeated Israeli attacks

00:28against countries in the Middle East, starting from, of course, the question of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and now Iran.

00:36Erdogan is posturing himself as a leader of the Islamic world, and he's expressing solidarity with Iran.

00:44I don't think this is going to lead to any practical change on the ground,

00:50Turkey being a NATO country and an ally of Western countries, which are on the side of Israel.

00:56So, lots of complex relationships in this region.

01:00What role are regional powers like Turkey, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, playing in this complex?

01:07I think what is happening at the moment is that Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia

01:12are probably liaising with European and American partners

01:15trying to persuade Donald Trump and the U.S. establishment overall

01:20to put pressure on Israel.

01:24Pressure on Israel has systematically failed on Iran, but even before that on the question of Palestine.

01:32But remains probably the only way out that we have from a current escalatory moment.

01:40So, countries such as Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, which enjoy a very important strategic relationship

01:47with Europe and the United States, both economically and as well as in terms of military and strategic partnership,

01:54do not want to see another war.

01:57And this war, the war with Iran, might be the biggest that the region has seen

02:02since the 2003 Iraq invasion, and probably bigger than that,

02:08given that Iran is a much bigger country, better armed with partners globally,

02:13although not strategic allies, which are Russia and China.

02:17We've also had, haven't we, these talks between Iran's foreign minister

02:21and some of his European counterparts, those talks happening in Geneva.

02:25Do you see any realistic path back to talks between Iran and the West in the near term?

02:33So, I think pursuing diplomacy remains one of the options that Iran has

02:39in the absence of massive military capacity to retaliate against Israel.

02:46So, Iran was attacked on eight days ago and pursued a response to Israel,

02:53but this response, to be credible, needs to be very strong.

02:58And in the absence of an adequately strong response,

03:02diplomacy with whoever is willing to participate, in this case Europeans,

03:06is seen as a potential, you know, step towards a solution.

03:12I mean, to what extent European partners can persuade, again, or put pressure on Israel,

03:17I remain very doubtful about it.

03:19I mean, from the very beginning of this war, about eight, nine days ago now,

03:24European countries sided with Israel immediately by saying that Israel has the right to defend itself,

03:31that mantra that we've heard over and over over the past two years.

03:35The fact being that, according to all observers, that Israel acted preventively.

03:43So, that means that there was no attack by Iran towards Israel,

03:47but it was an Israeli attack to fundamentally take out Iran's nuclear program

03:54and the alleged weaponization program.

03:56But it seems, from what we are observing now on the ground and the scope and depth of Israeli intervention,

04:04this is occurring at the infrastructural level, at the industrial level, at the logistical level,

04:10as well as taking out scientists and military commanders.

04:15So, it seems that Israel's war objectives were not, as stated, the nuclear program on its own,

04:24but Iran's power projection overall in the region.

Category

Transcript

Recommended