Episode Details

Joining us on this edition of the News Review we have writer and political columnist Saeed al-Shehabi who's joining us from the British capital London and also joining us from Saidia, Morocco, we have editor of Veterans Today, Mr. Kevin Barrett. Gentlemen, welcome to the program.

Let's jump right in, Mr. Shahabi, and give us your thoughts on the recent comments coming from the Iranian president. President Raisi said that there will be a strong response to any possible bullying against Tehran.

Saeed al-Shehabi: Thank you very much. The situation in the Middle East generally is very tense at this moment because of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the killing, the maiming. And of course, its extraterritorial attacks on other countries, on Syria, on some parts of Iraq.

So all this has put Israel in the limelight of the crisis. It seems to me that the Israelis believe that they can only survive in an atmosphere of war. So as long as there is war, they will survive. If there is peace, they cannot survive. So they are threatening to strike and supported by America. But America also, American involvement in the region is destabilizing the region….

Mr. Kevin Barrett, the Iranian President said that the adversaries and enemies, in his own words to the Islamic Republic, used to resort to language of threat against Iran, even stating on multiple occasions that the military option was on the table, but he also said that they're not seeking a confrontation with the Islamic Republic. Do you think that the United States was ever at a point where it was contemplating any form of military action against Iran, most notably recently?

Kevin Barrett: Well, I think the American side is undoubtedly contemplating some form of escalation in its relatively low level back-and-forth—it’s not a war, but there has definitely been pressure put on the American occupation of the region by various Axis of Resistance groups. In the wake of the (Tower 22) attack that killed three American servicemen and wounded a lot more, the Americans were probably doomed to escalate to some extent. But then the question became: Would they try an actual attack within Iran’s borders, and how big would it be if they did? This would of course threaten to escalate into a regional war, because obviously Iran would retaliate, as President Raisi made clear. Or will they continue with the tit-for-tat exchanges with various resistance groups?

The Americans are operating illegally in Iraq. The Iraqi parliament has voted to expel the US and the US hasn’t left, so it is an illegal occupying power. And it’s an even more blatantly illegal occupying power in Syria. The recent attacks on Americans (at Tower 22 in Jordan) happened right next to the Syrian border. And one could argue that Jordan is also occupied and that decisions for Jordan are made from within the gigantic American embassy compound there.

So the US occupation of the region, which is not popular in the region, especially now that the Zionist genocide of Palestine has gone into high gear, has led to the situation where the local resistance groups are much more likely to want to target American shipping in the Red Sea, American occupying forces in Iraq and Syria, and put pressure on the Americans.

The thought would be that perhaps the U.S. would dial back its support for the genocide of Gaza. And so in this confrontation, the Axis of Resistance is on the side of enforcing international law and the judgment of the World Court that just found probable cause that Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza. Whereas the Americans are genocidal global outlaws.

I don’t think the Americans want to escalate the war in the region (especially) in this situation in which they are the outlaws and are hated by the vast majority of people in the region.

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