hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle with the so-called afghan peace process in tatters u.s. troops still in syria iraq more times than not agreeing with the rand maximum pressure on to rend failing and america's allies in the middle east at odds over yemen can anyone make heads or tails out of trumps foreign policy in the middle east it seems to be going from bad to worse. cross talking trumps middle east policies i'm joined by my guest sharmeen no one

the in beirut journalist as well as a middle east geo political analyst in los angeles we have he is an independent economic and geo political analyst former commodities trader and strategic planning advisor and in buenos aires we crossed through shah he he is a senior lecturer in middle east studies at the university of bradford u.k. or across the uk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate a show me let me go to you i mean you heard my introduction let me add some seasoning to that introduction we have this. point person for the trumpet ministration on. this brian hoke writing emails trying to bribe the captain of one of those tankers that we have mike pump aoe saying afghanistan was a success after 18 years and then we have a 30 year old taking over the helm izmit is the middle east envoy for the united states i mean this program is titled vaudeville politics is that an appropriate title. ahead in beirut. i mean it sounds like it has really is

a comedy of errors i mean i think part of the reason for this though is. the trump himself is not particularly interested in the middle east except in the sense that he would like to support israel as best he can and he would like to make money so sell weapons to. gulf countries he's not particularly vested in the long term or middle term strategic objective you know the deep state. in terms of you know keeping troops in the region and so that the u.s. maintains her germany those are not his priorities so. i would say that the u.s. government is that odds with itself in terms of middle east policy on one hand you have the deep state that worked you know consistently over the last few decades on its gemini goals in the region and on the other hand you have trump who works entirely on instinct and what he thinks will benefit him most ok that's

a very good analysis i think i mean i've seen i mean it would seem like the art of the deal just doesn't have any mojo in the region here because you know we have we could counterpoint juxtapose it to what happened in singapore and in in vietnam when it came to north korea he seems to kind of shaken that off and now he's talking about well he's open to meeting with the iranian leaders i mean it's like showmen politics again the vaudeville motif appears to be appropriate go ahead in-born and. i think sean politics is a very good and actually. describing the current situation. in washington in addition to what we really see at the moment is the climate of chaos what has been happening over the last 6 or 7 months at the united states a chunk of them and time and time again to say you know what we all really interested. who are we going to meet with the iranians i'll be going to make the

previous deal even better and at the same time doing it all through the week after week increasing the pressure not only the increasing the sanctions but they also sanctioning the cheap people that they want to negotiate you imagine trump is talking about the fact that he's looking for any opportunity to talk with the iranians and at the same time he's sanctioning being in foreign minister say we don't want to talk to the ukrainian foreign minister because he doesn't have enough power at the same time the sanctioning me and supreme leader if your sanctioning going to do shit regards any and foreign minister rainey and supreme leader all till who do you want to talk to ok well that's a very good point i mean pi let me go to you in los angeles i'm glad that i've seen brought that up i mean why would anyone in iran want to talk to donald trump in the united states walked away from the nuclear deal and then you have all of these

theatrical and i mean don't get me wrong i think meeting the north korean leader was a good idea but you need to have some traction afterwards this is not a photo op and i think this is the criticism here you're not going to solve all the world's problems with one meeting with one leader that that is usually the end process and if you have a very good idea maybe you can shake up the works i mean i'm not against these things here but why would. adversaries or people made to be adversaries appointed as adversaries of the united states really want to talk to this administration because you can't really tell if they're going to keep their word or not and you don't even know what they know they don't even know if they know what they want when they have a conversation of this sort it's all very confusing go ahead pie in los angeles. well i agree for the most part and quite honestly i personally don't think donald trump is in charge of anything in a functional capacity i mean i think he's really enjoying a extended. retirement in the white house while basically reading from

a prepared daily script discourtesy of the same essentially the same neoconservatives that were in charge of the george w. bush administration as well as their variant cousins neo liberals and in the obama administration he's obviously been appointed to re reinstitute the mad man theory that kissinger ran with nixon as you well know as a historian several decades ago the problem is in this interconnected age most of eurasia and the southern hemisphere nations are on to this game and know that he's basically there to either scare or intimidate or at the very least confuse these so-called adversaries so tear her on moscow beijing islam abide ancora this point most nations know that trump is basically there is a placeholder while the people that are actually in charge are scrambling and actually sweating out of nervousness because the stakes have never been higher geopolitically or macroeconomic li trans-atlantic li and i should mean that you

mentioned israel i mean it seems to me you know what this flurry of attacks attacking 3 countries in the region in rapid succession obviously this has to do with bibi netanyahu his reelection hopes because of the i guess he's not elected he faces jail time so he's easy as this is pretty important stuff here but it seems to me also he's trying to keep donald trump's attention keeping his attention on the region which all of us on this program and most people watching this program know that donald trump has very little interest at all in foreign policy and probably even less interested in in the middle east outside of what you said his arms sales go ahead and beirut. yeah well i mean israel is in a very precarious position now i mean a few short years ago they thought that syria under us thought was over and therefore iran. iran's connection to lebanon would be clipped you know where hezbollah is and and this would ultimately we can the iranian

alliance the resistance axis as they call it and you know fast forward a few years israel is surrounded on all sides by battle hardened. fighters or soldiers and you know who have better misfiled and better arms than they ever had before. so you know aside from this being a pre-election ploy. the israelis are in a very bad situation and they're desperate and eager to get the united states to maintain its military presence in the area and now let's not forget that that was one of the main things that trump wanted to reverse when he was running for president and has made several attempts to do so not entirely successfully because there's such pushback from the u.s. deep state and from obviously israel so i mean israel's in a bad way i think its attacks on on all these countries show desperation more than

anything else and it's no way to head to iran without actually directing directly hitting iran because that would be something israel scared of and ultimately israel is pushing for that great fight between iran and the united states that it thinks will reverse its fortunes but i think they're all in for a surprise well let me get a. bonus there is what we're always surprised me at least it keeps things interesting and it will in a weird weird way i mean speaking about israel and then trump coming out again like a showman the salesman. approaching a possible. turn around and that is something that terrifies the saudis and the israelis i mean we as soon as that has been was mooted days ago you had officialdom from israel and the saudi arabia going directly to washington d.c. to plead their case here i mean trump wants success at least the perception of success but it's not going to come that way is it go ahead option in. i mean at

this moment but he's really looking for is a full top maturity with somebody like air president but if you do look at the weeds in which he has been or his government cannot have been framing iran policy over the last couple of years it doesn't at least. it doesn't look that he's consistently looking for a reprimand with iran doesn't seem but he's looking for a meaningful solution for for this problem what we see is all too many inconsistency and in this current situation to iranian side despite the factionalism that is going on inside iran and you know any and political framework at least this supreme leader has made it crystal clear that at least in the current situation he's not interested in any type of phone negotiation because as far as

these concerned that trump is not looking for a meaningful negotiation is looking for a full top opportunity and what you just mentioned about israel is absolutely right is the sign of desperation because what we see at the moment is a clear and classic example of diversion theory although the last 3 or 4 weeks mr netanyahu desperately has been trying to divert the attention of the people in israel to foreign policy and his kind of security agenda in the region to distract him from basically his all political and economic shortcomings and despite all of that despite everything that he has done over the last 3 weeks there is no guarantee whatsoever of the $76.00 at 17th of september each and forming a government well after the elections then they roll out the deal of the century which has gotten a really cool reception all around i'm going to we're going to talk about that

later we're going to go to a short break right now and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on trump's middle. east policy state with our state. police today there are good tennis and bad at it it's the bad news in yemen the united states deems to be a threat the good. lord in syria the cia and the us military were engaged in covert actions really throughout the world. where they were assassinating populist leaders they were backing up right with military windows funding an army of death squads there's no posts anymore because there's always a small. really good this is a profit. system

most of the 1920 s. and you know there were no laws really on wall street and the abuses were huge and the market went up and people began to look at the stock market as the proxy for the economy people are getting wealthy because their stocks are going up and they didn't take with their jobs they just become speculators and so this is what happened now people are saying look the economy the real economy is terrible are beyond no jobs they've been shipped overseas and i'm nothing left of the day trading and the market goes up therefore i'm being productive but it's obviously. well you know the hard thing we've kind of adopted because we were called pirates for so long. i mean they're in this small ball and sniffed at harpoon ships and it's just you. know you might not be handed. the little self to be told fish already 90 percent of the dot and it won't be calmer.

50. 7 tons they do it several times a day with the oh you get an idea. we have to understand we can all still use to. be within this he does feel for you. i'm doing this because i want the future world to future generations to have and enjoy the ocean we.

welcome across like we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle 3 months we're discussing trump's middle east policies. ok on this program we always discuss very specific things we can talk about what's going on in yemen which we do and which we should because so much of the media doesn't want to talk about what's going on and of course we talk about iran we talk about israel we talk about syria but let's look at the region as a whole show i mean let me go to you 1st hear oh i'm sorry let me go to los angeles who's winning and who's losing in all of this here what's the position of the united states because it seems to me and trumps a gut he wants to get out they just won't let him out and he has not found the the wherewithal to make his will come to fruition and that's his fault because he's the president of the united states but is the u.s. power is receding and everybody in the region really knows it and israel and saudi arabia are very terrified of it go ahead in los angeles. i don't think trump. wants

to get out again just recapping on what i said before trump is there to confuse and throw other parties off they see north korea as a win in that sense of bringing the leader to the negotiating table they want to reprise that with other nations in the middle east and west asia those nations are buying it with regard to afghanistan why did he just do a 180 on his planned meet up with the taliban the process out here in the west in the u.s. and u.k. will tell you that it's because a few soldiers were killed it's because of further let's not leave out the critical aspect of the afghanis yeah i mean i know that i mean with the with the pocket i nani's i'm like chinese i'm agreeing with you ok so there is no there is no intention there is no intention to get out of afghanistan afghanistan's been 18 years tomorrow 911 marks the basis of being in afghanistan to establish

a critical force for essentially containing eurasia and having a base for acting against russia and china in the medium to longer term so they don't want to get out of afghanistan yemen is bound to be split like the sudan had been they're just biding their time while trying to suppress the who are these and iran they're trying to split away from russian and chinese alliances in order to isolate iran inevitably hit iran as hard as they can in order to dissect and balkanize it and appropriate its resources this is reality as far as israel 890 s. have feared or hurt sales own diaries we're talking about the need for a greater israel stretching from the nile to the euphrates there biding time the need to hit syria and remove assad presence in afghanistan over the past 16 years all these are part and parcel toward the longer term aspect of wider imperial expansion up to the euphrates river and including it ok but i mean let me go to shit i mean but everything we did say i understand the geo political ambitions but

it's it never works. it has a terrible history of failure disaster in misery ok and that's what the shifting sands are in the region i mean remarkably enough you know ever since we could make from the end of the cold war to the present every single effort to quote unquote push a rand back isolate iran to destroy it has just had the reverse effect ok one failure after another so who's winning and who's losing in the region let's go back to beirut. well you know if. if the u.s. was a stock on the stock market every time it made a move in the middle east you'd bet against it and make a lot of money i mean i don't know how they keep you know failing so costly but i think in terms of the region obviously iran is doing well iran has you know maintained its territorial integrity stayed out of the fray it

has drawn major power alliances and support from russia and china it's even had the europeans on its side for a good part of the last year and a bit you know because of their dismay over that in the iran deal it maintains its alliance its alliance in the region and stronger than ever. defeating its its adversaries like saudi arabia and all the military theaters in which you know these proxy wars are taking place so that's let's go to like the loser i mean saudi arabia is probably the biggest loser in this region right now and of course the saudis are american proxies so when saudi arabia loses so does the united states but the saudis have now lost in syria lost in iraq they've lost in lebanon i mean they kidnap the prime minister of this country and beat him up for god's sakes. so

they do it in the target and they. asked in yemen when though but i'm coming to the whole thing but they lost they lost with that tar they lost with the tar and the g.c.c. is you know forget it so over and of course they're losing in yemen but more importantly the saudis particular m.b.'s the crown prince has been absolutely reliant on mohammed bin zayed of the u.a.e. for all his adventures and the saudis and the emirates he's are now at odds with each other and southern yemen so basically who are saudis allies there's not one last there's no one laughed and while the iranians are going from strength to strength now we're developing a land route all the way from iran right to the mediterranean so i think that's my takeaway of who's the biggest winner and who's the biggest loser in this region good type ology there i've seen your take on all of this go ahead. i think if you really looking forward to truly have to go way beyond the reach in my opinion

didn't read or what is happening at the moment in the middle east is of manufacturers over the last 5 years basically import or even the least dought and all the 53 percent of these weapons that are pour in to do region directly coming from the united states and other 20 and 30 percent imports are done by american and other so in my opinion they are the true when is. what you see that happening at the moment in the region the other group that in my opinion are winning to christianity right in india united states don't trump knows without their support without their important support is not going to have any meaningful chance whatsoever for the next week surely into a presidential election and he's actually consistent policies over the last. hears

. anything for busy political support basically. all for drusilla and so many of the deceased that they have seen over the last 2 years we effectively have made chris and chris young writes in the united states then we miss one of the important thing is what you see happening at the moment. you know pie it's very interesting that's a very interesting thing we heard from sheen there i mean the trump wants a quick photo op to show he has fixed tree and the more the more desperate he gets for that that attempts to be able to show off to the world because he that's what he is is a show off he's a very egotistical he's a narcissist and we all know that we all know that people know what they voted for it ok but the harder he works to try to get that the more he gives away to people that do not want to see his vision come to fruition ok he keeps he keeps bowing

down to the deep state thinking that somehow they're going to turn the trick for him but they're not they're going to intentionally obstruct everything he wants to do because it's not in their interest it's certainly not in the interests of the deep state and at the same time the cherry on top of the cake here is that trump knows that there is an anti interventionist sentiment in the united states they voted for him so he has to deliver for them something and he's not he is he's a he's batting record is it when it comes to victories opposed to what fox news will say go ahead and pie in los angeles. that's why i say that we should have to pay much more attention to the actual deep state because regardless of which party a politician personality or puppet is placed into the white house and or his or her cabinet their interests are continually perennial so what was stated in the late ninety's with the late is a big never agencies tax the grand chessboard is still very much in play as far as

macro strategy towards you. eurasia and containing the rise of russian china hasn't been very successful over the past 20 years because as you alluded to earlier the more that they throw at a rising eurasian continent that's further integrating the more in jujitsu or fashion the force comes back at them but nonetheless trump is there in order to keep over 100000000 either unemployed underemployed or struggling americans economically a day. in order to you know convince them that he's the populist that they've chosen and championing their causes meanwhile we've been in an economic depression since 2007 that's only now being given the signals to get worse as further you know asset consolidation is expected to go forward so i sense he's there in order to distract but that distraction game is getting harder and harder as the deep deep

state is essentially scurrying and scrambling to figure out how to save face economically while containing further integration between these east south and west asian nations that are working splendidly with each other in order to erect the next global pillar economically whether it's the belt and road initiative or you raise an economic union there are so many aspects that are being on a week by week basis finding success across your asia but washington and london are running around with their tails between their legs because they're running out of options on how to be able to contain it while convincing their own populaces that they have their best interests at heart and the media speaks for them ok that's one of the tragic things of our time the mainstream media is just an echo chamber for power it's really shameful here. and we're going to give you the last minute here it seems to me i mean you have all brought up really good points here but the

reason why you can't have this. take out of this group think it's because of a greek word it's hubris you can't mitt that you were wrong and that is the great tragedy particularly american involvement in the middle east now hubris 40 seconds go to you go ahead. you know peter i don't know that this sort of us flip flopping and not having direction is such a bad thing you know to be quite honest i'm i'm kind of ok with the us staying and you know when it's i coach a murderer and not being able to predict the short term medium term and long term expectations of other players on the world stage you know i don't know why all our conversations start and end with the united states is just not good at all the important players that once was and a lot of things are getting done without the united states so let's let's let them stay in their echo chamber and let the rest of us get on with things well if and that's essentially what is happening what will happen and we'll be covering it here

on cross stock ok i want to thank all of you for joining us here many thanks to my guest in beirut los angeles and going to salaries and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at r.t. see you next time and remember rostock rules.

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headlines and the u.s. president tries one of the most talking members of his white house tain john bolton he becomes the 3rd national security adviser to be booted out by donald trump. come pulp fiction that branded a c.n.n. report that claims u.s. secret service has extracted a high level spy from moscow back in 2017 and anyone yet who seeks the blue israeli votes is by promising to annex the west bank although it has sparked outrage in the arab world and mornings from the u.s. .