right if you remove some from funds to punish. these for instance on t.v. don't come. here watching our t.v. line from moscow worth seven thirty pm these are top stories announced is a mouth hundreds of thousands desperately in that greeks built onto the streets venting their anger over a new raft of top posterity a measure of clashes broke out between police and protesters who say they are backed up with attempts to stop the country's financial freefall. strange stand still serves a northern kosovo they will only clear their roadblocks if albanian officials abandon border checkpoints despite nato ultimatum urging them to leave or be forced

out. and serious to a violence with soldiers reportedly turning on each other and being killed during anti-government protests fueling fears of a full fledged civil war. was all honey but no trap russian cocktails i believe after tonight spying allegations in a british court but it meant she had an affair with a married and the. next up here on our team crosstalk examines america's claims that it uncovered an iranian plot to kill the saudi ambassador to the u.s. and whether there's more behind their souring relations. we'll. review the latest science and technology from the realms of what. we've done to the future of coverage. keep

lists. below and welcome the cross talk i'm curious about a hoax or a major security threat for oiled against the us it would reads like a cheap hollywood movie script iran is accused to have been behind a plot to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the us qur'an denies this the washington promise is a strong reaction to our american and iranian relations again on a collision course. can lift start. to cross talk us iranian relations i'm joined by mohamed marandi in beirut he's a professor at the university of toronto in tel aviv we go to michael omar man he is a writer and journalist and in washington we cross to matthew das he's a policy analyst and director of the middle east program for the center of american

progress originally cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want they very much encourage it but first marcia tell us the latest chapter in this troubled relationship that's going to our relationship with hostility for three decades but ross thanks for yet another downturn and us iran ties after washington came out with accusations that iran had been plotting to assassinate saudi arabia's ambassador to the us it is outrageous that where they are really they're going to have to be held accountable i think when you see the case presented you're going to find there is compelling evidence. which few have found the evidence compelling enough to think the allegations are not part of a larger effort to further isolate iran and pursue tougher sanctions against it and these sanctions already up for discussion in congress could include a ban on financial transactions with iran central bank as well as a ban on petroleum products sold by companies controlled by the country's elite

military force islamic revolutionary guard corps said to be involved in a plot meanwhile iran has continued to dismiss the accusations as a us conspiracy threatening to retaliate. they conduct such conspiracies against us frequently they are old useless and ineffective they say that they want to isolate iran but they have become isolated themselves but u.s. officials say the case stands on its merits pointing to the long term animosity between iran and saudi arabia driven by a power struggle between the shia and the sunni as one of the reasons to ron may have wanted the saudi a diplomat. here dead this alleged plot has been tied to previous accusations of iran's involvement in the murder of lebanon's prime minister rafiq hariri on top of that some see this is a continuation over iran's terrorism in against well the u.s. itself previously conducted acts of terrorism against america killed americans but not in the u.s.

not in the nation's capital this is a real escalation just to me if they do still feel any fear that we will come back. and so this poses a question why would iran want to risk provoking u.s. military reaction against itself by carrying out the alleged attacks also and i'm going to ask you this peter what can the u.s. hope to do right now especially given the fact that many believe the evidence to be trumped up well much alyssa look at the merits of this case that i first go to prove it professor marandi in beirut i mean how do you make this because they make this story out to be because even i have found it quite interesting even kind of humorous that the usual cheerleaders of american foreign policy or fair the new at the new york times find the story to be comical in many ways and quite game dressed in other ways. well yes it is it's it's absurd and there's absolutely no motive the iranians have no reason whatsoever why they would wish to assassinate the saudi ambassador. if they hypothetically wanted to do it why would they do it in the

united states which is specially d.c. which is one of the most well protected places in the world they could do it in the middle east somewhere they could find a much higher profile target that's a much more high profile the bastard or the saudi ambassador isn't a very important person at all so why would you run wish to pro provoke the united states and of course saudi arabia despite three decades of very poor relations with iran more or less. iran is number heard a single saudi anywhere at any time if you recall a saudi arabia funded saddam hussein's war along with the americans and the europeans they funded the weapons of mass destruction program in the europeans americans helped them develop it. killing many thousands of iranians but the iranians never retaliated so why would the iranians do such a thing now so the then of course their balance is pretty bogus as well but i guess

what they're for their later years ok michael finally you tell me what do you think of the merits of this case because it looks like a lot of legal people are looking at it is an obvious case of entrapment of a buffoon. i don't know about entrapment i have to say the case itself works strange to say the least. but let's not forget that there is between iran and saudi arabia. to go. wiki leaks really is. saying that the head needs to be cut off the snake of iran. not to mention that iran has. been very pleased with saudi involvement in bahrain and there have been clashes recently in between shiites saudi forces you had iraq to that and there's obviously animosity between that. whether that is a motive enough to carry out an attack in the united states i have to say it sounds

strange already matthew and you actually ask you your opinion about this case because the more we look at it the more comical it appears i mean this is a gentleman even his best closest friends said he couldn't walk in chew gum in think at the same time when he's making these really get involved in things that can be so easily traceable i mean he seems like the most unlikely person to be carrying off his high level care as to character assassination you could actually prompt a war between two countries i mean when you think of the merits of the case. on its face the facts of the case as described by the attorney general eric holder seem very very strange they seemed you know good because force has carried out various acts of terrorism over the past decades but this seems a very very sloppy i think there's a real question here if the case if the allegations are in fact true where where does this lead within the iranian regime but i have to say i do it does seem to me

that they've done here they should be shared as much of the evidence with the public as i would like to see but they have shared the evidence with members of congress including senator dianne feinstein the head of the senate intelligence committee who has said that the evidence she was shown was very very compelling so i'm not inclined at all to just dismiss this plot already mohamed if i'm going to you i mean when i look at this time in my opinion here and so this is really eerie it's i feel like it's two thousand three right now and colin powell is addressing the security council and to go to war against iraq i mean flimsy stuff to say the least i mean it expects lee the cast of characters involved i mean how is it what's your reaction to this i mean and we have to remember this is an election year and i want to go into that dimension as well. well first of all i'd like to add to this recently the iranians released to the two supposed hikers who entered iranian territory through iraq a military zone in an area where terrorists were active and american forces were

also stationed in enter the country illegally one of them's father was was was an israeli army. the iranians released them and that was a goodwill gesture so why would the iranians want to do this terry are such an entire. lot of really held the law in the first place treating this as an act of you know open if a sense on the part of iran no no they're absolutely they entered iranian legally they entered iran through a highly military zone and it was absolutely absurd for any ordinary person to even be anywhere near that area let alone someone people with such a background but in any case. it was only reminds one. the fact that they're both americans and three of them were americans and one of them is father worked in israeli army so the fact that. all israel reserve in the army i mean that's. doesn't make it any easier the fact is that they entered the country

illegally the father of one of them was an israeli army soldier they were there was a military zone and terrorists and the american forces were active in that area i think it's very clear if he writes to iranians and enter the united states illegally through the mexican border i don't think americans would release them out very easily even if the iranians demanded them to ok so let's in fact i think this is an interesting point let's look at how the western media and western congressmen and women feel when the american government makes accusations it is immediately accepted to be true there are no questions when you i was watching c.n.n. right after the allegations were made and it wasn't why how do we know this is true it was why did the iranians do it so it does remind us that since we know there's a military through there's been a. story that's simply. been raining i have been. out in the mainstream really or this latest plot it's all over the internet it's all over the blogs it's all. the

same. i just did and i think you gentlemen i can hear you with michael here michael would say it's all true ok i mean are they trying to pick a war with the united states and if they are why. i don't think they're trying to start a war with you know. if you watched from the interview with al jazeera last night he actually took what i consider to be an almost conciliatory. deescalating tone. talked. you know he said you know we don't hate the american people although the american policies are making the iranian nation just like the americans i don't think they're trying to. start a war of the united states and to be honest i think the united states government is also trying to back down a little bit from the accusations directly against iran if you listen to feinstein's and if you believe it was on a sunday she said point blank i have not seen any evidence that this goes to the

higher echelons of the israeli government she only said within the quds force implying that there is a rogue elements within it now. if they were if they're sort of more like the two thousand and three buildup to the iraq war you would see a lot more accusations that they really in government i don't think are saying that what do you think about that matthew i mean it is. broke out of the ranch let's see if it is even worse isn't it. right now i think as i said earlier i think that so that's my real question is if this if this happened as described where does it land within the iranian government is this going to be so starting a member of the kurds force but i also have to respond to the allegation that this is somehow like the build up to iraq i think the obama administration has made clear in numerable ways that it does not desire a military confrontation with iran the milliken the us military has made clear that it feels that a military intervention in iran would be disastrous for the real intent for you the

same time and tell you hey i'm just here but it has to go to a break here and i think we have to have recall you know everything is still on table john gentlemen we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on around the state party. taking. the lead it's to life long dream for many many. leads one brave real loan is not enough to steer the ship. only. endures. and genuine love to the motherland history are required. people who revive the interim craft are sailing through the centuries on our key.

missions. could you take three years for charges three. majors three. three stooges three. old free broncos p.t.o.'s for your media project c.d.o. don carty dot com. you can still. continue to want to play. welcome back to cross talk to people about to mind you we're talking about iran u.s. relations. and you can say. ok i'm a ham and you want to say something before we go into the break but i'd like to point out this is that and i want to talk about the israeli angle here is that israel for a long time has been calling for

a military strike against iran ok but first some ahamed go ahead you want to finish up what we had to say in the first part. yes if i could mention a couple of things without being interrupted i'd be grateful one is that it does remind one of two thousand and three in the sense that the united states is being just as the sun as. the facts are clear. there is no motive the this story itself is completely bogus this this person who seems to be mad goes to mexico he said he. too a drug runner that i have a cousin who is a high general in the iranian armed forces which in no one in the world would give that sort of information to a mercenary after all he went to mexico for a ticket to give a deniability and then he he he send a wire one hundred thousand dollars i mean even if the people who made up the story had read a couple of spying novels they know that they don't wire money because specially from iran and to mexican drug dealers they would do it in cash then he when he

is in prison he calls this supposedly iranian general and he tells them on the phone to carry out the operation i mean come on the phone a senior iranian commander on an international line to the united states it's completely unbelievable and of course the iranians would know quite well that a drug cartel as huge as that which makes tens of billions of dollars they wouldn't risk themselves to carry out an attack on the united states to bring down the wrath of the united states but the problem is is that the united states is deals irrationally with iran it's not a rational player when it comes to iran and this is this is just a part of that no one in iran believes this story i don't believe that many people in the united states believe the story but the fact that the u.s. government pushes such an absurd story i think it just shows that there's a little hope for for

a rational approach in any time in the future with iran in the near future at least we think about grandma. i mean because again i mean professor marandi gave a pretty good detailed account of the story to date again you know what does the rand benefit from all of this i mean and the absurdity of it all unless more evidence comes out and ties it it makes a tighter case it looks like utter nonsense. as i said i think there's a lot about this case that does not smell right to me. but i think the point about reading spy novels i think that goes both ways i think if the claim that mr marandi seems to be making the obama administration simply invented this plot out of whole cloth well you know they've read spy novels too so you might think they would do a better more convincing job if they were just simply trying to snow the rest of the world i'm not saying i doing said administration itself that it necessarily but what would it mean eating them so that sort of information it could be and how

terrorist organization it could be other i. understand there is a conspiracy theory you have about who is driving this i said i i think i tend to be a secondary but at the bottom line is we have in iran we have a regime that has regularly used terrorism regular use assassination i was responding that i just you know all right michael i'd like to go to you gentlemen gentlemen please michael i'd like to go to you i mean over the years there have been many people in the israeli political and military establishment that if called for a military strike against iran i mean how does this is settled now in the environment that we have in the arab spring and what not and we have the the the shia sunni divide when we're looking at rain in these other issues which of course saudi arabia and iran are are looking at very very closely how does this all play into the mix for you because we have heard this before coming out of israel and some supporters of israel the united states in a military strike against iran is necessary. well this

this incident would be very good for those calling for a strike against iran by israel or america because. the strongest ally obviously not an open ally israel could have for such a strike would be saudi arabia they need saudi air space to reach iran and they need the support of the arab world to do it but you know even though we have we've seen the strongest rhetoric in recent years in this under the partnership of prime minister netanyahu and even though they have all the military. preparations ready for such a thing but they're not prepared politically to do such a thing they don't have the support of the united states they don't have the support of anybody really and at a time when israel is going under for the isolation this would just make it more isolated than iran is because you have it makes it more convenient though doesn't it i mean it makes it more convenient doesn't it i mean it does create the political atmosphere for that kind of attack i mean listening to vice president

biden president obama hillary clinton you know it will be a strong reaction i mean what else can you do it what else can the united states do against iran that it hasn't done already except to go to war. president obama basically spelled out sanctions and isolation he pretty much made it clear was saying well repeating the same wind all options are still on the table he basically said we're not going to war over this. so you're right it does make it easier. it does help with the argument of a strike against iran. but. i don't think it actually advances such a possibility of it ok matthew it's very interesting here i mean we have the election cycle in the united states and just recently iran also talked about restarting negotiations with the west over its nuclear program now with this story this bizarre cockeyed story all of that seems to be gone away and now mr obama is

running for election and he needs maybe foreign policy credentials because the economy is in a in a in a rut i mean i'm this is not a conspiracy theory this is called politicking. i understand what i mean if there's one area in which president obama is doing very very well among american voters it's foreign policy it's national security so it's unclear to me why he would think that he just needs this this other point on iran in order to bolster his credentials he's the guy who got bin laden he's been very very successful in a new arranging cultivating and bolstering an international coalition to isolate iran over its nuclear program the american people according to the polls approve of his performance on foreign policy and national security ok when you think about that professor marandi i mean is this all tala taking d.c. puzzle pieces coming together without being called a conspiracy theorist. it's obvious that the united states is doing very poorly in the middle east it's losing its influence with the with the weight innings rising the economy is doing very poorly israel is in isolation and saudi arabia is not

doing well at all it's fearful of its borders with yamin inside saudi arabia so it would be useful to sort of make the saudi ruling family the victim here so it does benefit the united states in many ways but there's another point that i'd like to mention and that is the the repetition of the claim that iran is behind terrorism. the americans have made these claims in iraq and afghanistan many times both iraqi government and the afghan government have denied them time after time after time and also importantly it's the irony is that it's the united states that regularly carries out terrorist attacks a use that uses drones to kill thousands of people it's occupied numerous countries and iranian scientists have been put on sanctions list and the same people who have been who are put on those there's a greater assassinated and of course the western media shows absolutely no sympathy

whatsoever for their families for their children because they assume that iran is developing a nuclear weapon despite the fact that there's never been any evidence evidence to show that so in the west the problem is the corporate the corporate media is more or less on the side of what the american government does and i think that americans do have an interest in pushing this case for for many reasons for the saudi family for israel and for itself that you're trying to you with which bush is so the angle because i think it is very interesting because there was the victim of this alleged plot was really a saudi citizen do you think that maybe this is something that you know not only israel and probably in the united states to attack iran it's on at some point in time because of its nuclear program the sa. these are saying now and i'm kind of echoing what professor marandi had to say is that the saudis feel enormous amount of pressure because of bahrain and because of its very troubled relationship with her around so this would be

a nice card for them to play and get the americans to back them up on it. no i agree i think there are you can come up with a reason and justification for how this might benefit the u.s. saudi relationship and again i do i will i will admit that is one of the points that actually makes me more skeptical of the plot as described because he ran on which it clearly like the united states iran has also suffered from the arab spring from the arab awakening but iran is seems to be very pleased with the ongoing tension in the us saudi relationship so it's unclear to me why they should want to carry out a plot like this which seems to me to have kind of papered over those tensions for the time being so yes one can develop i think the reasons for how this might benefit the saudis but to go back to president obama i think he came into office having argued strenuously for his effort his engagement effort with iran an effort to change the the u.s. iran relationship he tried that we met with with the iranians to try to hammer out

some nuclear agreement this plot as described really does damage to that part of his agenda so in coming out in rolling out this the evidence as they have he seems to be going against his own stated efforts and desires to change the u.s. around relationship so again it's not clear to me why he would want to do that. michael fine going to have various marandi go ahead jump in. i just want to make two points one is that i think the iranians feel pretty happy about the of the uprisings and the waking or the arab spring or whatever you like to call it because almost all of the regimes are more pro-american dictatorships that are relations with iran so on the whole iran benefits but with regard to the nuclear program obama never did any good at all in fact when the iranians along with the brazilians and the turks if you recall work came to an agreement and obama promised to support it he wrote a letter to the brazilian president saying that he will back to agreement when the

agreement was made he he quickly rejected it condemn the brazilians and the turks and then went for a new sanctions in the u.n. security council so you know obama has has not been as he lied effectively very blatantly but again here despite that i think we've written live the american media and that is there and you can search it on the internet the american media never pursued this all right surely move around a time very interesting discussion many thanks my guest today in beirut to live even and in washington thanks to our viewers for watching as you are to see you next time and remember crosstalk rules.

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