one country my country obviously in syria we had this meeting with merkel want putin krohn in istanbul the us wasn't there would you take away from that i think it's very symbolic first of all i mean it says very clearly that the whole political process has moved away from geneva from the united states to sochi to a stand to rusher in the leaves and know the very important symbolic event of two european leaders being present that it participating i don't think much substance came out of this meeting but the importance was that the europeans took part and they're starting to engage with a sad and with president putin and that is very much the key thing and it's really part of what we see happening to

i think also quite striking with the images coming from the u.n. general assembly where we saw. what lead more the foreign minister of syria actually being congratulated by certain arab states that. voiding him like the plague. and sort of congratulating him so i think there is a shift taking place so the shift is in europe finally taking place and a shift also in the g.c.c. . one that is leaving was even at the general assembly leaving thirty arabia and the a slightly isolated and of course they are probably feeling great deal more isolated well then you know exactly where i want to go with the story the saudis change their story a number of times it looks quite obvious to anyone that is following in that area

one is playing a game maker here he's basically determining the cost of what the saudis are going to have to cough up. to keep that audiotape in video from the public and of course we have the united states oscillating not very good optics from donald trump when it comes the story here how does this affect saudi arabia's position in the middle east right now and is the crown prince going to stay i think i think. actually you know it's not just because from saudi arabia. president one is looking for a cost from the united states and i think this is the negotiation the being going on and we don't see all of it and i don't think there's been a strategic deal yet reached. he has called some elements probably that he wants and those are clearly lay off with the tories and yet they are.

released so they can help in the financial continue to support turkey financially and i expect he told the americans an end to the financial war. so perhaps those are already there but it seems that the big thing he is keeping his some of his cause behind away and i think that what. the head of cia who sent in the last days to where the president it seems that she really. gave a counter threat and said well listen you start leaking those and we will leak things about canal project corruption. and then that project was postponed. and then fit into this because you know i've often often said that when you hear about saudi arabia in western mainstream media it is it's the message the saudis

want you to hear this over the last few weeks this is a totally different narrative coming out very harsh of course in the united states is being used for domestic political purposes against donald trump. but there is there is pressure and there's pressure in the american congress for the u.s. to. somehow withdraw itself from its engagement with saudi arabia visa be yemen i think i think you're absolutely right i mean why why did this particular killing because of course this isn't the duction of the princes or rather by saudi arabia but i think it caught the moment and part of that was. you can see in congress in the senate in an incremental souring on saudi arabia really from nine eleven but yemen has really. gathered steam in congress and they are getting very uncomfortable that the country is on the point of starvation half

the country is and a terrible tragedy is happening there and that the the united states whose income is complicit in this along with the u.k. and so they were i think there was a mood to to to look and say well look what is the benefits of this relationship we need really to have a reset of this relationship with saudi arabia because all this stuff and in washington everyone knows you know the one hundred ten billion of them sends most of those. well follow through from the obama time plus a lot of very non-binding right to make it up so i don't think the talk about sort of a million employees sort of going on the dole in america was is taken serious and in washington it's fine for the media but it's also truth takes it seriously in a way i mean it was his first visit to broad and this trip to saudi arabia and it

to israel. and it seems at least up until this affair that a lot of people were were of the in mind that trump was some kind of outsourcing a lot of american policy to the israelis and to the saudis because well donald trump wants to build his wall and he's more worried about tariffs and things like that how does that play into it i mean is there do you think there is a possibility for a real reset if there is a reset what does it look like ok you know i think i think it really was i mean i think he like so many americans falls and his foreign in love with. the monic and saudi arabia i don't know asking why but maybe or maybe. it's only in my mind it's part of it quite clearly but it's more than that they tearfully love it i mean you know. flattery sort of guilt sort of goes dancing around the palace as i've just never understood but you know but then you know being british i have

a sort of different view on it so i think i think it was a part of that he's had a good business relationship but it was all about and here where i do think he's always been serious about helping israel exactly it's been fact it's been been a constant think you know he's always said that he wants jewish tenants in these buildings and that he's employees are like that and when you looked at the ceremony for the handover of jerusalem the embassy mood when it was inaugurated the language. used by the american pastor. was very symbolic and talked about in the thick and in terms of intense religiosity and those was chosen by trump and his family in ivanka so i think very much there is that and that saudi was seen to be special because moment in selma and seemed to be

ready to normalize and recognize israel and they thought this is really embodied in yes and in and in a sense it was to be sort of like a real estate deal in new york that you could i mean you know people joke about it but. one official put it to me and said you know if you have a big real estate deal and you have a problem with you know the tenant that just won't give in and accept the deal and get out of the probity you know what do you do first will you cut off the electricity and then you send in the rats and then you denigrate them publicly in the press so that's what the u.s. policy towards palestine will have. these are the you know all good tenants that need to get to a deal quickly with the the developer but i think now so where are we going with us i think in a sense trump will clearly trying to keep his iran policy he seems to have a thing about in your reading my mind because it's really the the axis of tell of

the in riyadh is the two most important pieces and particularly for a man that's very close to don't run no john bolton exert has always found a ransom yes it's always about iran and i think they're trying to going to try and keep it about iran and i think this is a real danger in this period ahead because once we go through the mid-term elections until we start the presidential kind campaigning there's only twelve months and really i think you know. prime minister netanyahu will be quite uncomfortable that all this attention is on saudi arabia when he would like it on iran iraq and so how do you get it back on iran and i suspect that the gateway to doing that is through syria and the so-called iranian forces there in syria and when i say that just let me be clear i want to of course through

iranian advices but i don't believe there are any formal arraignment units as military formations. evidence of it's gone they've gone they're not. they've even left t. for the airport israel how much of the russian term to deal with that you think the russians here is because they then put in there is three hundred the next day so there was clearly an attempt by iran to help russia or if you like in its discussions with the united states. and with israel and with israel but i do think that what's going to happen i think that. will try and is succeeding to keep m.b.'s in place moment been selma. and one of the reasons probably is because there's actually no more any effective rival or challenger all candidate who could take any major you make sure of that

so there isn't any very obvious and i think the family is in disarray but the other reason is i think now when we see what's happening in the financial markets markets the united states doesn't want any more instability turnip financial instability in saudi arabia could just be enough to tip the markets into something more serious so i think we will see. a gathering around washington sort of so-called wise heads saying. but what we need to do is put some breaks in the system because what we've seen the so clearly in this period is you know serial stupidity and there's no one there to say stall think you know is this a sensible way and maybe even before we go to the breaker maybe but on top of it i'm president it is generally disinterested these actually outsource

a lot of this here ok i want to jump in here we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion with alister state party. in twenty four to you know bloody revolution to. the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it you know here i mean you put me in the. school and you go to the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty four. those who took part in this today over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these an article that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. goal

make this manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final. week in all middle of the room. join me. every day on the alex salmond and i'll be speaking to the world of politics. i'm sure. i'll see you then. just by the natural survival. you are just. now

well reduce the hour. that's undercutting what's good for markets it's not good for the global economy. ok let's continue our discussion with let's switch gears here and be a lot more broad brush here what is the relative standing of the united states in the middle east now because i think most people in the region see the war in syria being wound down although there are some threads out there that definitely have to be dealt with the kurds with turkey's position is going to be moving forward and of course we have the presence of american troops even legally in syria but for the most part i think the perception is that complex is wound down it doesn't mean it can't be blown up again. overruled there's been a huge shift in pa in the spirit we've seen contiguity that is both physical but also political and agility goings through from iraq to iran syria to

lebanon big change taking place politically the balance of power is moving away from the gulf the south and to the north the water is absolutely crucial in the question of the united states is the question of does israel in the west retain superiority of the no he's already heard in a previous interview and the exact changed things have changed and now it's quite clearly that they certainly they may have some maybe they don't know how much superior to see if any they have all the ability to operate but that's changed and without superiority israel come on in snow it's not the army of forty eight it's a different on the it can't operate so this is a really point of inflection for the whole for israel for the united states there they are they're facing

a different northern the gulf is weakening and being weakened more by what's happened with. you would have made it even more isolated within that and we've seen that from the changes taking place we just spoke about so what. is israel going to do either going to go for broke and try and change the situation in its favor through some military action or are they going to try and come to terms with the situation. in the in the region and i think that much of this hinges of course on iran and in a sense why is america come back to the middle east this time well in the sixty's and seventy's it was here. security of energy supply of oil supply actually they've come back this time for energy insecurity. sanctioning iran putting the

squeeze on iraq trying to please me so anybody else is wiser while in order to try and say to everyone look energy insecurity whereas liquefied natural gas from america so yes it's more expensive but then there's a premium on the middle east because of its insecurity. to balance it all off and i don't think this is going to work i don't think it's going to work with russia so i think overall we're going to see a much weakened american position in terms i don't believe that iran. production will go to zero i think it will it may differ a little bit but they will sell one way or another through various means most of their oil because the iranians are traitors and they will do it in their very experienced being sanctioned for so many years. and i was meeting those in london

where all the big oil traders were and they were well on you going to do a back deal with iran and they said no no no we were doing that and someone got up and said but you know but you know there are going to a lot of be a lot of asian trade is a going to get very rich. so i'm sure it will happen so i think the balance is has already changed it in the region and what is happening now is trying to. trump continues and then congress starts putting sanctions and actually paradoxically magnitsky sanctions are likely to be applied only a u.s. ally in this case or even notice a thing to say the same with energy here is that the u.s. is essentially. destroying its own turf. z.-y. weaponized thing it i mean we have again going back to that picture and in istanbul when you have europeans and russians chinese others getting involved in creating an alternative to swift i mean then the dollars dollar is something that will be sort

slowly turned into an artifact. actually coming to it in a different way in the sense that central banks have stopped buying u.s. debt. europeans count afford it because of certain technical reasons that have made buying u.s. treasuries too expensive compared by buying german debt and only americans of that pick up the debt and the oceans are going well and we had a really significant event that was not much noticed in orcus when i actually when the total of interest payments on american debt that the treasury was having to pay plus entitle me to pay the automatic payments that you have pensions exceeded the all the revenue from taxation for that month to point a tipping point and this year the treasury has to sell more than one point two

trillion of debt new debt and rollover perhaps over the next couple of years seven hundred seventy of short term debt and this is at a time countries like russia getting rid of all of their treasuries is coming in a time when trump is suggesting he's ready to stop an alms war with russia or in china but the reality is you know i think the the federal reserve increase in interest rates which are likely to become it is going to take the whole market is going to be in the you'll find actually twenty nine thousand a diminished u.s. because you want you want to have the chinese there are running the military. america needs equivalent of three china's one china because china has about. one point one trillion treasuries and there's more than that financing requirement of the u.s. for the next three years each year the same more than a trillion every year so i think we are reaching

a certain different sort of limitations to. us our inability maybe that's why they're in such a hurry when it was take a look at nine we talked about. the u.s. is relative position in the middle east but again going to back to the photo op in istanbul the russians have come back in in a i would say to relatively big way here i mean when we look at the relationship the russia has with obviously with syria but with iran implicitly does have relationships with everybody virtually everyone else in the middle east is russia replacing or is becoming a key player in the middle east as the us somehow in some way withdraws yes but in a very different way to the to the united states and also you know i think that because i was in afghanistan in the early period i know that russians have no

intention of getting over overreaching in the middle east because they're getting their food put through print is syria was very very small and so i don't think there's any question of any sort of you know that they are going to fill a vacuum and maybe play the roles of whoever they exactly they are doing they are becoming the diplomatic center of that everyone comes to the russians are playing this very cleverly they have relations with everybody and everyone comes and sees them and it's true that they only pramanik. there exists in the classic sense of having a diplomatic service that actually goes to promising no one else all roads lead in this sort of these roads lead leads but i think it's more than those. i think this would probably be a surprise some of your russian view is but i think you know there are there is a state needs to be in charge of community but different sense of sort of so verty

so violently. is not just about borders and border police so over and t. is is about thinking so foreign and being sold from and when i heard mr putin talk about you know we are robust we will not give in it's the difference between the even a state which is not as well on door as rich as its opponent can still prevail because its people all rebuffed and alert and thinking as opposed to a state that may be richer but who sent its people to sleep a long time ago and that makes a difference it's a different sort of self and a different sort of idea in the winds up with the region is an important change you know this can post modernist thought is really invaded in the even into an international relations because of the there there are those who believe in borders and those that don't believe in borders and we have political elites that are not

thinking in terms of borders and when you don't think in terms of borders you don't think in terms of sovereignty either and and that's why i say that you know in the west they have a post-modernist foreign policy or postmodernist view of the international system but russia is very very modern ok this is where russia gets it exactly right because you can't think so over and over and unless you have the backing of a history culture a sense of a legacy of and of an intellectual depth to which you wouldn't. have even if it's you know it's not all good you know it's a mix of this and it may involve other people as well but without that you are just a brutal nothing and so i think these things all going to change and having an impact in europe as well. we see the sense the way all of the need to go back to having some sort of cultural basis to sovereignty and that without that you come to really be so over an active in

a so over way so these ideas and the eurasian one way you don't view the world simply as having a single meaning that iran is a terrorist bad act and nothing else you see you know you look at room a look at it philosophically the international the intellectual tradition has been sin. all of these philosophers and of course who have. some sort of money to these part of iran and a very popular pot of iran but russia is able to sort of say you know well we can deal with the suspect with iran the that we may disagree with them on their relationship with israel i don't know over this one is going to russian relationship with turkey for example exactly exactly but that's the sort of essence of eurasian ism as i understand it is that you know you respect the people have different cultures but you also understand it's multi led culture it's not just

a single in westernized idea of mono valence of a single value that you give to here you see it in the western one of these always is the one liner here of north korea for aggressive towards china. or against us and so those ideas which i think are emanating out of russia and because russia had a particular experience of you know the worst of all worlds in the recent history i mean of total liberalism economic new liberalism. stalin ism before that is really quite was going sovereignty back in its aim is keep it always through this is all the time we have here and went way too fast to prevent. very very much for talking to r.t. thank you.

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