i have the honor to once again the interview alister croaky is a former e.u. diplomat and founder and director of conflicts forums and of course we're going to discuss the little leagues. it's great to have you back in moscow and i think continued the conversation we had about seven months ago because everything we talked about a month ago and still going on now i want to i want to mention istanbul for politicians and one country my country obviously is syria we had this meeting with oracle want putin krohn in istanbul the us wasn't there what do you take away from the 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 new united states. to sochi to have. to rush or the leave and no the very important symbolic event all to europe and leave the news being present patted participating

i don't think much substance came out of this meeting but the importance was that the europeans took part in this 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 too i think also quite striking with the images coming from the u.n. general assembly where we saw. while leading while i am 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 in great deal more isolated well than you would be observed exactly where i want to go with the question 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. the fake saudi arabia's position in the middle east right now and is the crown prince is going to stay i think i think. it's 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 yet reached i think he has called some elements probably that he wants and those are clearly lay off with the tories and yet they're. released so they can help in the financial continue to support financially and i expect he told the americans and then 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 very high and away and i think that what. the head of cia who was 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. project corruption. and then that project was postponed is what is really all that is human 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. it's a gauge with saudi arabia these m b m and 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 other by saudi arabia but i think they caught the moment and part of that was. you can see in the in congress and in the senate has been an incremental soldering on saudi arabia really from nine eleven but with yemen has really. gathered steam in congress and they are getting very uncomfortable 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 look and say well look what is the benefits of this relationship we need really to have a reset relationship with saudi arabia because all this stuff and in washington everyone knows you know the one hundred ten billion of them stands most of those

follow through from the obama time plus a lot of very nonbinding right then returned 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 aware of the 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. 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 there really was i mean

i think he like so many americans falls and has foreign and love with. the monarchy and saudi arabia don't ask me why because maybe or maybe money making money money part of it of quite clearly but it's more than that they just love it i mean you know all the flattery the sort of guilt the sort of girls dancing around in the palaces i've just never understood that 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 that is been been a constant thing you know he's always said that he wants jewish tenants in these buildings and that his employees are like that and when you looked at the ceremony for the handover of jerusalem. the embassy moved when it was inaugurated the

language used by the american pastor. was very symbolic and talked about it in apocalyptic terms and in terms of intense religiosity and those was chosen by trump and his family in cushion ivanka so i think very much there is that and the saudi was seen to be special because moment bin selman seemed to be ready to normalize and recognize israel and they thought it was brilliant. and in an inner sense it was to be sort of right rather like a real estate deal in new york that you could i mean you know people joke about it but. one of vishal 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 the u.s. policy towards palestine you have. these are you know all tenants that need to get to a deal quickly with the the developer but i think now so what are we going with us i think in a sense trump will. be 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 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 he ran some 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 that 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 the iran and i suspect that the gateway to doing that is through syria and the so-called iranian forces that are in syria and when i say that just let me be clear i would of course through iranian advice if but i don't believe there are any formal arabian units as military formations of. evidence have been is gone they've gone they're not there and they've even left the for the airport that in israel how much of the russians have to do with that do you think are likely and the russians here to speak. they then put in their us three hundreds and the next day so there was clearly an attempt by iran to help pressure if you like in its discussions with the united

states they were in with israel and we have this room but i do think that what's going to happen i think that trump will try and is succeeding to keep m.b.'s in place moment in soma. and one of the reasons probably is because there's actually no more any effective rival or challenger all candidates that could take. that you make sure of that so there isn't any varial of it 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 the united states doesn't want any more instability in terms of financial instability in saudi arabia could just be enough to tip the markets into something more more serious so i think we will see. a gathering around washington sort of so-called wise heads

saying ok well what we need to do is put some breaks in the system because what we've seen so clearly in this period is you know serial stupidity and there's no one there to say stop 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 forty you know bloody revolution. the demonstrations went from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is

always spontaneous or is it you know we're here. with video it's really in the neighborly is that i'm spoiling you to the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty fourteen. those who took part in this today over five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. women all make this manufactured consensus consistent of public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. when the final merry go round be the one percent. we can all middle of the room signals. doing.

ok let's continue our discussion with alastair cook 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 now 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 conflict 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 south and to the north of what is absolutely crucial in the question of the united states is the question of does israel and the west retain superiority over 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 purity if any they have all the have been a t. 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 israel for the united states there they are facing a different northern the goethe 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 to stop well in the sixty's and seventy's it was here. security of energy supply avoidance actually they've come

back this time for energy insecurity. sanctioning iran putting the squeeze on iraq trying to please me so anybody else's eyes are on oil 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 with good trade is and there's

a lot in there they're 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 one of these of the interesting 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 the europeans and russians chinese others getting involved in creating an alternative to swift i mean then the dollar position allor 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 august when i actually when the total of interest payments on american debt that the treasury was having to pay plus entitle me to the automatic payments that you have pensions exceeded

the all the revenue from taxation for that month one tipping point 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 start 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 be coming is going to take the whole market is going to be in the you'll find actually nineteen twenty nineteen a diminished u.s. because you want you want to have the chinese there being the military. america needs equivalent of three china's one china because china has about. one point

one trillion treasuries and that's more than that the 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 i want to take a look at him 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 well implicit does relationships with everybody virtually everyone else in the middle east is russia replacing or is it becoming a key player in the middle east as the u.s. somehow in some way withdraw its 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 so i don't think there's any question of any sort of you know that they're going to fill a vacuum and maybe play the roles of whoever exactly they are doing you know 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 diplomatic service that exists in the classic sense of having a diplomatic service that actually does diplomacy no one else does all roads lead in this sort of. lead but i think it's more than those. i think this will probably

be a surprise some of you will russian view us but i think you know there are there is a shift in values taking place more white not just the sense of. community coming back the sense that a state needs to be in charge of community but different sense of sort of so for being so routine. is not just about borders and border police so over and t. is is about thinking so for and being so 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 doors rich as its opponent can still prevail because its people are robust 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 it is composed 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. well without that you are

just a global nothing and so i think these things all going to change and now having an impact in europe as well where we see the sense the way 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 act and in us 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 you have. some sort of money to these part of iran and a very popular part of iran but russia is able to sort of say you know well we can

deal with this aspect with iran the that we may disagree with them on their relationship with israel i don't know but that's not a missing to russia 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 lead culture it's not just a single in westernized idea of mana valence of a single value that you give to here you see it in the western one of these is always is the one liner here of north korea or iran for china in the us 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 well it's got its sovereignty back and its

aim is keep it always true this is all the time we have here went way too fast i was too quick thank you very much for talking to r.t. thank you. this is says holland kentucky. this group the voices of people were very funny. a co money city with almost no coal mines left. the jobs are gone all the coal mines are said i'd. love to have these people the survivors of disappearing before their eyes. i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever

happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in a million years i would see that and it's happening it's happened. in a world of big partisan new things a lot of things and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. sit on. their. mouse another. while

give easy vasan this us. war union said yeah yeah. rational. desire for love need the. zuma. sought. for. fortune for the op maybe a lot about it. more than just financial.

i got. my. i did. i. i thought. i thought i'd. yemen's plight in the spotlight of washington issues a carefully worded call urging the saudis to stop bombing populated areas parallel to this in the u.k. employees in westminster left incredulous as the british government tries to defend themselves. which is under threat and so engaged.