from atlanta. from. the from atlanta. north korea casts doubt over kim jong un's upcoming meeting with donald trump after the u.s. carries out large scale military drills with the. u.s. claims that the relocation of its embassy in israel to jerusalem was not the cause of monday's deadly unrest on the israel gaza border. european leaders speak out in defense of the iran nuclear deal saying it could and should not be changed despite the u.s. pulling out. the latest on these stories head to our team dot com coming up now crosstalk asks whether u.s.

policy on iran could trigger a new war in the middle east. hello and welcome to cross as we consider. is the middle east stumbling towards a region wide war it sure looks like it trumps decision to withdraw from the. station to play a cascade of events difficult to manage and control any one game from this impending cataclysm. crosstalk in the middle east i'm joined by my guest joe laurie in washington he's the editor in chief of consortium news dot com and author of how i lost my hillary

clinton with the forward by julian assange also in washington we have joe he is a fellow at the arab center washington d.c. and in london we have jonathan steele he's an international affairs commentator. originally crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate joe lauria let me go to you first in washington i'm titling this program stumbling into war you know the more i think about that the events that are unfolding in front of us are so many different angles to look at how a possible conflict could come about what worries you the most in the wake of this from sensation to walk away from the nuclear deal with iran go ahead joe lauria in washington what worries me most to two words john and bolton yes john bolton the national security adviser has been he's been making speeches and writing articles for years about regime change in iran he backs this group which was on the terrorism list state department's terrorism list he now is in the passenger seat

with a very unsteady driver and netanyahu was one hand on the wheel netanyahu has been able to manipulate trump very easily i think like taking candy from a baby what that ridiculous stage performance where he claimed iran was restarting their nuclear weapons program they all know except maybe trump that that's all rubbish that the i.a.e.a. has certified that they were they were complying with the deal this is why there's been so much hysteria in europe and they tried mike carona came to washington merkel they all failed he pulled out why did he pull out one can only imagine it's because they are planning a regime change in iran and i think we're seeing all the signs of that you know one hour after trump made that speech in which he said he was getting out of the deal the israelis massively bombed uranium targets inside syria according to time magazine one hour later that's the message that was sent so while the attacks made against iran maybe just in syria now there's no question in my mind that when the military directive that trump also gave to the defense department to prepare

against any threat by iran they were going down a very very dangerous road here. it's go to their second joe and why he didn't how do you assess what. joe laurie i just said right there because it all of the hallmarks you know i feel like we're back in two thousand and three looking at the how the media is dealing with this here i mean the massacre of palestinians of the last few days and the way the media describe it it was a conflict is it was some kind it was equal to equal sides i mean joe wrote a great article it's called consorting don't use us media white washes gaza gaza massacre it's perfect title because that's exactly what happened so joe what do you think that this is a preamble to some form of regime change. in turan go ahead joe. i mean i get it i get it with the other that says but i don't agree that we are both to have a regime change in the regime change in iran or

a wider regional confrontation yes there are some civilians the old trial they're trying basically to accelerate the detection of the iran or the pressure on iran basically to create this alliance between with the between netanyahu and some of the arab states basically to put pressure on the that's the series of steps taken in the past few weeks between the strikes in syria the nuclear deal the sanctions. possible something in yemen. you have elections also in lebanon who allowed iran also to flex its muscle somehow in other countries but i don't think that our boat we are in two thousand and six we had nothing in this the higher the total. coming from the top of the spaciousness over you know but the posture on the ground didn't change we didn't see him well at all i think i think but i think things are changing and i think they're changing very rapidly we have to withdraw

the us rejoining for the the nuclear deal we have has a ball coming out very well in lebanon we have a surprise in iraq in iraq which will we could see seeing a lot of iraq from the united states and. possibly iran as well but it's a lot more complicated than the media is portraying it a lot of things are happening on the ground let me go to jonathan steele in london also i really like the analogy that joe lauria gave you know how who's got their hand on the driver's sering wheel because we do have it seems patently clear to me that israel and saudi arabia in tandem would really like to see do something about and against iran i mean they may not do it themselves but they're certainly egging on the president to do it in the rhetoric that's coming out of his administration is just unbelievable i mean it it really it's two thousand and three on steroids to answer our second show and watch it and i'm not saying it's going to happen next week or next month ok but it's they're building towards it jonathan in london go ahead and say well i think to try and pull it out of the nuclear deal for two

reasons one was to we impose sanctions that gave him the excuse to ramp up sanctions not only u.s. sanctions but intimidating the europeans to cut their dealings with iran to syria's kind of slow motion. color revolution they want to have they voted to have their big demonstrations earlier in the year in iran are very economic issues mainly and then if they want to you know if they want more demonstrations like that. in an economy and get people out into the street they think there's a chance that they can topple iran through a sort of color revolution the second reason was to provoke if you like the hawks in turn around in the course there are who never liked the nuclear deal to do something stupid which would give a kind of phony justification for his role to bomb well the nuclear sites in iran so i think there's no danger of a u.s. ground invasion of iran right i think it's kind of color revolution provocation and allowing the israelis to find an excuse to bomb ok joe lauria it seems to me that

the europeans are beating their chests and making a lot of statements that we have to go on our own and we don't. we can't merkel says we can't look to washington protect us that's really bluster because they've painted themselves in the corner since the end of the cold war they've basically defanged themselves castrated themselves they're going to have to do what the trumpet ministration wants here what's really interesting to me is what coming out of the white house is that even though the u.s. is withdrawn they demand that iran honor the nuclear deal this is really quite amazing well if the europeans are going to and being spineless as we i predict that they will be iran is going to start thinking about other options here maybe going back to starting its program but it has assets in the region that they can use a and they can show that they can push back against the united states in an asymmetrical way this is something i worry about go ahead joe laurie in washington

. first i agree with jonathan said i think they would prefer a regime change through a color revolution and not war but that that's on the cards if necessary as far as the europeans go if so or twice since the cold war since the on the second world war a once in one thousand sixty seven hundred goal pulled out of nato and then of course in two thousand and three as you were bringing up peter the europeans and not vote the germans and the french or on the security council of course the french are always on the security council they didn't vote for bush is a resolution to invade iraq and that became a big crisis those are the two main times when europe showed some independence against united states this is the third opportunity and unfortunately i agree with you and with alexander mccurry as road in the durand that i republished it's sort of news that the market the iranian market is much smaller than the u.s. market and the economics of it are going to determine that europe will go along with the us unfortunately although this is an opportunity for europe in my view which has had until recently anyway the best social system probably ever devised

but now it's been under the pressure of neoliberal economics particularly with a guy like emmanuel macron in france but that this is a chance for europe to be. neutral to be independent to be neutral from both nonaligned if you will between russia and the us and to lead the way but it's just that the will is not there you know they've made a lot of noises about standing up to the u.s. one push comes to shove i think they will cave and it's going to be because of economic reasons and that's very unfortunate ok let's go to a second show in washington i'm going to stand in the position that they will cave so that essentially means they're going to abstain ok. how is iran going to react to all this because joe was already pointed out is and i'm in jonathan that the hardliners in turan are quite probably happy there this is something they didn't like the deal in the first place and they're going to have to start thinking in terms of defending themselves because we do have american troops in iraq in syria

supporting the saudis in yemen and we have i pointed out also has flaws come out on top here in lebanon that it's a powder keg here so how do you think iran's going to react to all of this it does have some strong cards in its hand it has some cards go ahead joe. i mean it has a strong goods but i know that a whole load of them in iran and the blood and the loss of her we don't see i mean eve basically came out very strong against against the u.s. we didn't see a two thousand and six kind of authority so what's happening is there is some kind of iran. u.s. deal still the fourteen in both iraq and libya or those these loves for the still in the police the local flotation of this going to basically push to share power so for the two the two sides to change what thrown the change the fuse what changed. i don't want this. as the cornerstone of protests at the stand with with iran if

iran doesn't change her regional behavior so i'm going to basically go back to the previous order but does that mean the. kind of sharing power between between the two is not. obvious and beirut in and but the other places so as this one i don't see the toric as very we are on the verge of world think big but i think iran yes but it has on one side it's still early days and we do have the iranians on a charmed a tour around the world with the chinese with the russians and the europeans that isn't done yet so we don't know what you are going to go go ahead finish your point . i know but i mean the issue now is the americans of the iranians are not talking to each other so they are talking to each other through the europeans so both the americans and the iranians out of pressure to the europeans know this is what about in a very crucial weeks now but that doesn't mean that if it's fatal the europeans are

going to go down the confrontation war i think in the u.s. the mood in the me in the public they don't want confrontation now but there's ok. joe joe johns to the president on the floor said we go to the break here the u.s. is already threatening european companies with sanctions ok i don't see any dodgy law going on there ok all right gentlemen i'm going to jump in here but we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on the middle east state with our team. i'm max keiser with more of my guide to financial survival this is on a device used by professional scallywags to earn money. that's right these hedge funds are simply not accountable and we're just getting more and more to that.

totally destabilize the global economy you need to protect yourself and get informed as we. apply to many clubs over the years so i know the game and so i got. the ball isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money. to spend spend to twenty million. books it's an experience like nothing else because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful game great so what more chance for. peace. welcome back to crossfire where all things considered i'm peter lavelle remind you we're discussing the middle east.

ok let's go back to jonathan in london and quite sadly as the proxy civil war in syria is winding down we have more. growing passions in the middle east here with decision here how what role do you think syria is going to play in all of this because syria is a sovereign government a sovereign state a member of the united nations has invited russia and the iranians in his advisors and more to protect their sovereignty here is this going to be the epicenter here because this is where the israelis can snipe at the iranians and they already are doing it and if we have this cooling off period from this decision that's made because like i pointed out the iranians are on a charm offensive if they don't get anything out of that charm offensive they may

decide to do other things do you think that syria is going to be the epicenter where we could see a simmering conflict get warmer and until it gets hot go ahead jonathan. well i want to talk about iraq in a minute but let me first mention your central question was about syria i think this is the danger is that if something happens on the golan heights area in southwestern syria as we've already seen that could escalate and then has been or could come in with its right massive amount of rockets in southern lebanon if that is the big danger if israel provokes and gets the response that it may in fact want to have if it wants war with lebanon that could be very dangerous for the region but i think it's important to talk about iraq because you can't really very important developments have happened that's one of the best pieces of good news for iraq in several years is the victory of mocked outside in the election i mean here's a nationalist he's very anti iran he's very anti the u.s. he stands for non intervention by either of those two countries in his country iraq

that's really important and the paradox is that you may actually get secret talks between the iranians and the americans to try and prevent. having the real choice of who becomes the next iraqi prime minister i think both turn around and washington would like. the present prime minister to carry on and they will work their way through these back door negotiations to form a new cabinet so you could actually have cooperation it won't be admitted publicly between turning around and washington over the future of iraq that's a very good point john when we go to joe lauria here nor nominally and under normal circumstances i would completely agree with jonathan but i think in the wake of trumps decision there is a trust deficit and that's saying something because the united states and iran have had enormous amounts of distress ever since the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution here but i don't see the iranians want to doing the americans any favors right now the americans have dug themselves the deepest possible holes when it

comes to iraq and afghanistan here so this could be more of a bargaining chip with the iranians and in some fashion or another go ahead joe laurie in washington. first to put it on the record neither peter nor i said we're on the verge of a war no yes i'm not saying that i'm not saying the us or that you're right no no i'm just going back to we talked before and also you your question was never answer about what iran might do the head of the answer to this nuclear program still a said that today i'm sorry on tuesday he said that they would start to enrich again stronger than before was the words he used now as far as whether the iranians i think johnson has a point there because it's not just doing the americans a favor they don't want. to have power in iran and iraq either because that would. possibly diminish iran's influence in iraq so they do they would have a common ground to work and to forget even but after the ninety seven revolution in iran ronald reagan worked with iran in the iran contra scandal so there's nothing

just precluded in real politic though we have john bolton who's an idealogue of course and you know con so that may or may not happen but it's something to consider that iraq would be a problem for both countries but that would not stop. them to drive towards regime change in iran even if they cooperate on iraq and it's going to the second job in washington you know what the the paradox here is that there is no evidence that the iranians really had a serious nuclear weapons program but they signed the deal for for sanctions relief the i.a.e.a. certified that they were in compliance of course and then we have trumpets as it was the worst deal in history and they withdraw from it and now it looks like the iranians may possibly return to firing up their centrifuges i mean the then they'll say look they're going after the bomb i mean you can't win for losing in this type

of logic here and then throw in the saudis saying well we'll go for the bomb too i mean the the administration did not and i used the word cascade effect in my introduction. this is what's happening we could have an arms race here and then we already have a nuclear power in the middle east and that's named israel here i mean before we didn't have it we weeks or a week ago two weeks ago we didn't see the possibility of an arms race now we do go ahead joe in washington i mean i know we are caught up in the moment now with the with all of the don't see we're going to build this structure that iran is has has doesn't need a nuclear weapon at this point it never asked for it this was part of the action to be on the table with the with the international powers know that's an attempt to change the dynamic but iran is basically cough the bullet with where they are now in syria and iraq and libya and they don't need to go into restricted from station or. to the. race as your mission yes

make sure the you know they make sure that if it's you know i agree with joe. hang on for say i agree with you i mean i think the ratings are happy with the status quo it's the rhetoric that's coming out of washington that threatens that status quo and if i were in the interim i would start reacting to this kind of bombastic ideologically driven. aggression you know you have people like bolton ok i'm not worried about what the iranian you know the revolutionary guards are saying i'm more worried about what john bolton is saying go ahead joe. it's. this one you have like a little of the of the board you'll think we put it on or not this oh this. will for the day and then make you the u.s. french american the british like that if it gets close to the if it gets close to i think that's a movie. i don't really know know if this is this i'm sorry i mean remember the

rhetoric of two thousand and three joe it was that this words and guess who was around joke john bolton was around so i tend to have a memory here and so does that leave me at the foot of the road changes the u.s. changed. that mindset as you are going to vote in this mindset change no it hasn't i'll agree with the what's important i don't think. it's not that important it's better not it's better not to underestimate people like that in the other people might pompei oh these other people that are surrounding trump here. you know let me go to jonathan here go you want to react to this here go ahead. well i think i turned to other to agree that one shouldn't overdo the rhetoric thing there's a big step between rhetoric and action and of course these are hardliners they would love to see a different regime in tehran but the question is how we're going to achieve it so i come back to my first point i think they're in a slow motion regime change agenda not

a fast motion one they want color volution they want a collapse of the economy they want sanctions to bite and they wanted to keep putting the military pressure on the table but they're willing to wait two three five years maybe they're not coming in tomorrow joe you were disagreeing earlier i'd like to put in a cab here is it. we're after this charm offensive that i've mentioned already twice i don't think it's going to come to anything here but the iranians do have the opportunity to turn to china and russia and russia has certainly been interested in that the chinese is well i mean. iran will do is just going to have to completely give up on the west we i'd like to remind our viewers you know opinion polls global opinion polls year after year iranians are quite pro-american that is changing right now as the population go ahead joe. well first of all i think we're not just seeing rhetoric missing action here and out of this nuclear deal which is the absolutely absolutely worst thing that trump has done is done

many stupid things this is by far the worst the most dangerous thing he did this is action i agree with jonathan that they prefer a regime change by overthrowing the government but with some groups on the ground that they could control or influence rather than going to war it is no doubt about that but they are not taking i think war off the table there's no timetable here of three to five years maybe too long truck may be gone in two years is going to be an election so this is a dangerous situation right here as far as china goes there's an interesting article in the washington post you know they rarely interesting the way it ended it's explained our china is just ignoring all these threats from the u.s. and they're going to continue of course to trade with iran because they don't trade in dollars for one thing and they're going to avoid american financial institutions to try to evade some kind of sanctions in that europe in fact may want to work with china as a middleman to continue to work with iran i'm not sure that would would work or how would work but the article ended by saying the u.s. may be the country that finds itself being isolated itself rather than actually

eating iran so. china does play a huge role in this and i think we have to look at that in terms of how these sanctions might be evaded and the penalties that the u.s. might try to put on europe i think still think that could happen even if the traits were china they might find say air bus or other companies right if they continue to sell their wares through to iran germany siemens is already come out they've caved they're afraid of the u.s. treasury here let me let me go to our second joe here. how much does riyadh in tel aviv drive all of this i mean you know i've used the word char many times in this program but i mean trump seems so very charmed by the saudis and by bibi netanyahu go ahead joe. i mean what is there that is the nothing to do with the lies between the between the u.s. and israel and saudi arabia. the u.s. goes back to allies the interesting part is the saudis in this radio doesn't care

much about the declared to give the they care about deterring iran and they want the us to do it not themselves mostly but the us is mostly focused on of the deal at this point not on you who is using this the score basically to take a green light to a lot of the from the as a basically do. strike against against israel which is by the way approved by both the us and russia was a stroke because that happened and following up on yahoo visit to one of the three i don't know i don't know i went i wouldn't say russia agreed russia might not be able to do anything about it there's a big difference between the two ok last word here ten second show last word for you. no i mean of the the point is i don't think we're going to go from station no this to let them put it or already a way level ok might be at that speed for the coming weeks but i don't i think it

is a very tense period and i think it's only going to get worse because we don't have leadership in the world right now in either real leadership in the u.s. or in europe it's going to fall in the model middle east that's it gentlemen many thanks to my guests in washington in london and thanks to our viewers for watching us here darkie see you next time and remember. when elvis chose seemed wrong. but all wrong just don't call. me. yet to shape out to stay active. and engaged equals betrayal. when something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

seventy four design submissions. seven thousand pilings. to join judges. and eight hundred sixty nonstop days of work. a russian w.b. . and a russian pop stuff. show you how and why the crimean bridge was built. witnessed the construction of a unique transport artery that will help out of crimea. faster most of those you know won't go for more snow yet it abuts. the united states can always had the right tools to use its tax on other

countries. economic sanctions or are often just the beginning another thing you like to do is place some military pressure on the country's attorney talking about it. and there has to be an effort to demonize that country and the leader of that country. we have a responsibility for the hate. and so we need to make rules for the rest of. us without us there will be change.

this is boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. i'm part and today coming up as the lambo as the sand on manhattan for a crypto event we go to a big name in the space our friend geoffrey talker to discuss the latest in cryptocurrency and walked chain news and health conscious consumers and others will be interested in the state of the allman industry the touch a sweet report from california plus a ruling today by the world trade organization related to the largest claims producers in the world as explained by our she's eligible hyla bitch what will be a longer lasting implications of the w t o decision will tell you there's a giant sucking sound in the airline industry and if it isn't good plumber national transportation safety board director jamie bridge joins us to talk about southwest airlines continuing troubles when war all that ahead but first let's have some

headlines the united states has said that iran central bank.