- For full video interview, see below
Donald Trump's game of hardball with Iran is dangerous and could backfire, Prof Robert Patman warns.
Tensions with Iran have been been escalating since the United States unilaterally withdrew from the multi-party Iran Nuclear Deal and imposed economic sanctions on the Persian nation.
What the world is witnessing is not just a confrontation between the two countries, but a battle between two very different visions of how to achieve security in the Middle East, Prof Patman, an international relations specialist at the University of Otago, says.
"The Europeans and the other signatories to the Iran Nuclear Deal totally reject Mr Trump's position,'' he says.
"Mr Trump is sort of back to the future; the idea of great powers calling the shots, and hoping to bring about regime change in Iran and put in a more sympathetic regime.''
Prof Patman says it is a dangerous gamble.
"We want to encourage democratic change in that country. Mr Trump's position will probably boost the position of the hardliners in Iran.
"It's very worrying and very dangerous . . . The Americans have dispatched the Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier with a strike force, plus a bomber squadron. This is a very tense area. Iran is a major player in the Middle East. I just think the prospect for miscalculation in such a situation is quite considerable.''
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Comments
North Korea, a nuclear capable nation, is no longer on President Trump's radar, despite it still testing rockets.
Iran is not nuclear weapons capable, but an American attack would make the balloon go up. In the mindset of American evangelical fundamentalists, the balloon is called 'Armageddon'.
Only Russia can avert it.
Referring to the Iranian government as a "regime" is biased. Say government.
Manipulating, meddling a democratically elected government out of power doesn't sound as moral & saleable as "regime change".
US govt, military and their allies/lackeys have done every atrocity you can think of, and more; yet repeatedly use the Machiavellian tactic of inversion - of blaming their enemy/rival of doing the very actions that they do themselves.
