hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered peter lavelle describing the trump administration's iran policy as confusing contradictory and even incoherent would be an understatement as members of his administration beat the drums of war the president suddenly inject themselves into the conversation with words to the contrary what is the world to think.

cross talking around i'm joined by my guest mohammad marandi input on he is a professor at the university of tehran in beirut we have come in a was me he is a professor and political analyst and in florida we cross to robert rebel he is a professor of political science at florida atlantic university all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate mohamed let me go to you 1st and to ron give me your side or how iran sees this whole thing playing out because iran's point of view is virtually silent in western media so western audiences don't know the other side of this story or as i would put it a artificially generated impending conflict go ahead mohamed. the most important thing in this story is that the united states is waging economic warfare against iranian women and children the united states is exercising what our foreign minister said economic economic terrorism and that they are trying to make the

iranian people suffer and to force the iranian people to suffer so much that the government will submit to the united states and basically raise the white flag and this is based in my opinion on calculations that are due to these so-called iran experts that we so i call the see in think tanks in the united states in europe and pundits yes exactly they are people who know nothing about iran or very little about iran or if they do know a thing or 2 about the country they really can't say the truth because if they do then they lose their position at their think tanks or their they've ceased to be invited to different organizations or platforms so this is economic warfare everything that comes after it is the foundation of that is is this economic

warfare so the heightened tension in the region in the persian gulf in the strait of hormuz in the sea of oman or the gulf of oman is based upon this economic warfare now there are conflicting. perspectives or conflicting reports as to what is actually happening the iranians are very suspicious about about some of the attacks the attacks of the port of jade in the united arab emirates have to write half happened right after bolton said that he had received intelligence from the israelis their iran is about to carry out that in an attack the one off of the iranian coast is even more suspicious because the americans said mind to use the chinese owner of this. ship the japanese owner of the ship rather said that they were not mines they were they came from the air and also the explosions were above the water drop. put place under

the water and finally that this attack took place as the japanese prime minister was to visit the iranian war that doesn't i just ask that just ask me. but just has to be a coincidence really ok let's go let's go to beirut. if you look at the administration the trump administration you certainly have john bolton in my palm pale beating the drums of war it's really obvious and bolton is want to just for a very very long time and then trump introjects himself this is not the 1st time a dinner jackson says there are reports that he's telling his aides to kind of calm down a little bit i mean is this a plan is this a strategy i mean it's you know kind of a bluffing game here because it looks amazingly unprofessional and quite vulgar in its approach go ahead in beirut well obviously the time but the ministration and the president personally he's he's he's. taken place around the world

he is basically launching. the many country using a weapon of his favorite choice he's imposing. sanctions against country he he has a good relationship with those going to be actually. conflict with but in the end have to remember these these tensions herding the people who are in iran or it's in. north korea or in china or russia and it's actually. international world order basically we. been seeing that the fired line for the united nations and basically it is the of the. minister and his. secretary trying to rule the world there is nobody but you know this in charge of this world

i think this in terms of using economic sanctions and economic function then my athame is harder then a war because. a lot of harm on people especially who are not supposed to be. part of the equation in the end the people who got the harm in this confrontation are the. people the throughout the world that is they've both been almost economic function all over 2000000000 people they haven't really thought well that's the real worry because if the sanctions don't work and they want this they're outcome of regime change they will up the ante here let me go to robert here robert i mean i suppose all of this watching this unfold here is that there is such a possibility of miscalculation in misinterpretation they could bring

a conflict to fruition which are both governments say they don't want but the actions of one government seems to be pushing towards a complex looking for some kind of tripping point tipping point to make the react that's what it looks like it looks like taunting to me go ahead robert. yes i agree with you to some extent i think myself that. our odds and our mistake was each other to have a lot of miscommunication and indeed i believe that the u.s. administration has pursued to a great extent not transparent and. incoherent this. you're on and these are things that are usually and this is an account of this and the administration between the . president and walton and portray your and. what happened on sort of

the at 730 eastern time in united states where iran shut down drone now this is a very serious story measure that has been taken by the iranians the united states said well it was the wrong was in international waters the iranian said it was in iranian airspace the point is yes indeed. if you don't have some kind of common equation between the 2 if you're going to have the medium so as your body. they have to speak with each other yes you are going to have you know well in the last i agree with you on that point about communication let me go back to turn but mohamed i mean why would the iranian leadership want to engage in a conversation with the trumpet ministration when the trumpet ministration walked away from the nuclear deal is very very provocative scored a quote sending more troops to the region i mean where is diplomacy in all of that

ok this is what i don't get i mean here you have the president the united states tearing up an international agreement and then saying that you know iran has to adhere to the agreement that it no longer adheres to go ahead mohammed. well this maximum pressure on iranian women and children leaves the united states with no exit strategy and while. the head of conflicts forum wrote a very good piece explaining this so the americans have put themselves in a very tight spot on the one hand they have no exit strategy they've declared the iranian armed forces as a terrorist organization so they can no longer communicate with them see or anywhere. on the other hand the united states has left the nuclear agreement the iranians and the americans were negotiating with each other within the framework of the. iranian nuclear deal the j c p o a and even under trumpet his 1st

secretary of state tillerson did participate in talks with the iranian so it is the americans who've left the negotiating table not the iranians and it's the americans who basically created a dead end by declaring iran's armed forces a terrorist organization which is unprecedented in human history so right now the americans have put us in a position where there is no exit strategy there's no way for either the americans are going to continue to escalate and create greater danger and if that's the case and i if i were in the united arab emirates or saudi arabia i'd leave or i'd be pulled my money out of the country immediately or the united states is going to have to find a way to back down because for iran there is no where to go except defend its sovereignty right now that's a really good point and come on let's go back to beirut here i mean mohamed brings up an excellent point here is that they are trying to ministration has done a lot it's an exit strategy for itself i mean that's why i worry because if they

don't get the results they want they're discounting to up the ante in the next stage obviously is some kind of military conflict limited or very expansive go ahead in beirut. i think this is a more. administration at least for. mr. bolton they actually want to change in iran they want the human change somewhere in china they want to regime change and in and russia they want to know this human change in bonds where love basically they're just one hijacked the international order this is does not work the way they see it they failed. miserably they tried to do it cool didn't work they tried to bully china and russia it's not working it's backfiring on them basically on them and i think if they push

too hard i think this is will lead to a war and that my ass the minute there is a war i think basically it's going to be shaping for political geography all of the well you know i call it all i call. gentlemen and we have to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on the round stage with our. the world if you will so. hard. as it is that. it is america.

should not be a. possibility that we waited. don't hate. the skin or. any. kind of system definition in the head in a 7 hour news. quick note for those italian the sad want to keep their savings or put it into a big client you can escape to confiscation of the government or the vatican whoever runs the country over there and you'll preserve your wealth and jurisdiction that respects your sovereignty as an individual and respects your wealth don't live in

a country that's just going to rip you off blindly. paradise with some ground turned into a round the experimentation field for agricultural chemicals we know that these chemicals have consequences they are major irritants there's no question otherwise why would that the chemical company workers themselves be geared up that suited up locals attempt to combat the on regulated experiments that often in day you have many of these people one foot into the biotech pharma and the other foot in the government regulatory bodies this kind of collusion is reprehensible while the battle goes on the chemicals continue to poison hawaii and its people so one has to ask the question whether there is a form of environmental research going on in hawaii whether these companies feel they can get away with this because the people have less political power.

welcome back across the uk where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're discussing iraq. ok let's go back to robert in florida here well let's talk about mike pompei oh he's saying that the reason why troops need to be sent to the gulf is entirely for deterrence sake what is he talking about it's how can it be deterrence when it's all fence of go ahead robert well you have a point here. my point pedro. has been really issuing mixed messages and to the rest of the wall and i am what it is about him really and i'm worried that he is more leaning toward york but something happened today as a day or on the daily beast and all that a statement by the president he mentioned you know through his. administration to

his people in the administration that they have to tone down all kind of all kind of you know statements that good increase tension and i believe that the president of united states might send troops or but the and even let me add this on account what happened. you might even order to some kind of calibrated response to what happened to the u.s. strong not necessary and you're on probably in syria or iran but the fact remains that i think that given the qualities nation and his administration given the election but they are coming in united states and i seem to find a united states going to do it's going to be calibrated and hopefully it's going to it's not going to lead to war ok well you know mohamed you know they say they want to send troops to the region a lot of troops in the region there's a lot of there's a lot of material there i mean i'm astounded will not i'm not

a founded you know the western media makes it sound like no one's there i mean iran is completely surrounded by. friendly forces either united states or friendly to the united states i mean it's a country under siege i want to stay with my palm pale mohamed because he seems to have this kind of weird kind of psychological kick because when he hears iran he hears the echo of al qaeda after all these years he's still playing that that somehow there is a connection between iran and al qaida it's an extraordinary and very few in the media push back on it. yes and the fact is that there is a direct link between the united states and yeah right now in syria the last stronghold of al qaeda the united states is preventing the syrian government the syrian armed forces from getting rid of this major occupation this occupation of

this this horrific terrorist organization so it's ironic that after less than today decades after september the 11th and subsequently this whole war on terrorism 3 which was as a result of september the 11th since 2011 the united states has been supporting al qaeda and we have to remember that isis was al qaida us which broke away and became isis or i.a.s. so but in addition to that i'd like to point out that the downing of the drone which was a very sophisticated and expensive drone with stealth technology by the iranians show that the united states is really misleading itself if it thinks that it can engage in conflict with iran without major consequences and it is interesting that the drone was downed by an iranian made surface to air missile called the

core 3 missile so i think this is important for americans and europeans to recognize that if there is military conflict in this region the iranians will strike back disproportionately even if it's a small attack and they will be relentless because they know that they have to make sure that americans understand that war is not an option and if there is a major conflict between the 2 sides there is no doubt that the whole of the persian gulf will be on fire there will be no oil and gas exports from the persian gulf anymore and the united states will be driven out of the region and millions of people from the arabian peninsula arabian peninsula. beyond the move toward europe the global economy will collapse and so the saudi regime and their morality regime will not last very long so there are huge implications and it is very important for europeans and americans to push back against the more foolish elements in the political political order whether in the united states or in countries like britain

or saudi arabia or the emirates or israel you know. go back to debate root professor marandi is absolutely correct here the problem with all of this is that the there's no real political debate in particularly the united states on these issues here i think 11 hopeful thought in all of this is that donald trump wants to be reelected and he knows he knows very very well that his base elected him in 2016 do not want another foreign adventure and it's very very clear from the polling results here i think this is the thing that's going to maybe to hold him back my working theory about all of this is it is given pale when bolton a very wide berth and he said to them do whatever you want just don't get me into a war that will be called trumps war months before the next election what do you think go ahead in beirut. obviously the military the go on the senior

adviser to the president or very well they come out when a war in the middle east the war in iraq but almost a 1000000 soldiers on the ground and what happened even the president. and the. night that leave in the night so obviously they were not successful in their operation in iraq they're not going to be successful in any operation in any place again because this is this is obviously will lead to a regional war and it's. now we can there are allies in the region and they will have an impact on the economy of the united states and the national economy i don't think the president he wanted to jeopardize any and the and the war at this point but we have to be very mindful there could be some miscalculation example in the

process of alteration that as they come to place and he is a miscalculation this will lead to a confrontation there they are in declared very well very well they don't want war but they are ready for a war and them i asked them at their act they are a me and they would love to have that confrontation in the end these economic sanction it is really a war yes it is really difficult a war and i don't think the iranian can ask for a wait and see until that economy get hurt more than what it is a wrench really they cannot take some measurement that cannot stop these economic sanctions because what we know about the american administration they don't stop until you do any major shock and that's what probably the iranians are going to do to them they can i give them some shock some something that the american will think

very hard that going and raising that rhetoric is something that's not a picnic they can take it at any time they wish to right let me go it's go back to ciaran here i think we've lost robert in florida here mohammed it's very interesting that this time around because he does it iran has been a target of the united states for a very a my entire adult life and i think that's very clear and ran has been treated as a pariah in western media for decades now but this time around the united states is . much isolated itself it doesn't have the this coalition of the willing around it it's very unilateral and maybe that's what trump wants he wants that's what america 1st means to him is unilateralism i don't see it ends very well but only to explain to our viewers again the as i started out the program getting the point of view from tehran what is the sentiment if you can talk about it general sentiment for

a country as long as large as around and with such a large population that you know the whole thing is the plan is to undermine the government so the government and government be overthrown i mean is that just sky tell us what's going on on the ground go ahead. well there are enormously grievances among iranians americans ever since 953 when they overthrew the government they installed the shah they helped the shah imposes dictatorial regime over the public to help create the secret police that killed thousands of iranians they supported the shah during the revolution when massacred people on the streets of tehran on black friday carter immediately afterwards declared his support for the shah after the revolution the americans tried to undermine it they supported saddam hussein gave him chemical weapons i personally survived 2 of those chemical attacks and then of course the sanctions which have been brutal and directed towards ordinary people so you iranians have

a deep dislike and especially someone like trump who is more crude i mean he's not really all that different from previous american presidents but he's more crude but i think the difference between now in the past is that iran is much more militarily advanced as we've seen in the recent downing of the drone iran position in the region is iran has a commanding position its allies across the region are very powerful in iraq in yemen in syria and lebanon in afghanistan and iran's untag in this are increasingly weak and the weakest link here is of course the united arab emirates and saudi arabia and the iranians who will not tolerate this economic warfare to continue and since these 2 regimes are part of this economic warfare i think that iran will put increasing pressure on these 2 regimes but in addition to iran strengthen regional position and its unity at home thanks to trump because iranians see the trump as as

an aggressor and the the different political parties are more united today but also there's a greater convergence among major powers like russia exonerating with iran and therefore the united states is basically a lie a lie in all these different forces both globally and regionally with one in. i mean things mitt let me jump in here let me get some on the united states and its allies regimes let me give a come on the last 30 seconds of the program go ahead jump in beirut. well well. this is this is the way they are trying but the motivation is there declaring war in the world that he was declaring war and everybody is not. actually believe the united states it's wrong it's weekend. morally the world is watching and probably we're going to be in new economic order different from the one was 1944 in britain would i think everybody is looking for if if them where the united states

would not lead i think that china will have sort of fell russia. also worked very hard i have been i've been here i go i call it the paradigm shift america cannot house jack i mean one thing if they're listening all the time we have gentlemen thank you very much many thanks to my guests and to around beirut and in florida and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at r.t.c. next time and remember. we came here where did you work before you came here when you live well death row in many u.s. states capital punishment is still practiced convicted prisoners can spend years waiting for execution but most of the time the victims' families they are very much in favor of the death penalty there are some people because of what they do have

given up the right to live among us somebody even proven innocent years on death row and how many more exonerations is it going to take before we as a society realize that this is not working and we actually do something about.

oh. just slow. and very well might continue watching us in such.

u.s. president donald trump says he called off a strike on iran in the last moments after he found out the number of possible casualties. said i want to know something before you go how many people will be killed came back sure approximately 150 and i didn't like it. anti-government protests continue in georgia due to anger at the visit of a russian m.p. was a lot of if you timbaland's russian airlines from flying to the country in response . a scottish student claims he was kicked out of class after saying there are only 2 genders he.