Is the US—Israel’s Golem—Being Booted Out of West Asia? — Truth Jihad Radio

Iran says it has received numerous messages from neighboring countries regarding new security arrangements for the region. Tehran argues that the United States, through its bullying and disregard for the interests of its allies, has put their security at risk. According to Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, lasting peace and security can only emerge from a homegrown, independent regional order. This edition of Spotlight examines what these proposed security arrangements might entail and how they could reshape the region’s security landscape.

Transcript

Press TV: Good evening. In tonight’s Spotlight, we examined the emerging security arrangements in West Asia and whether the region is witnessing the beginning of a fundamentally new security order. Iran says it has received messages from neighboring countries seeking to shape new regional security arrangements as questions grow over the future of an American security architecture that has dominated the Persian Gulf for decades now. The 40-day war and Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz have demonstrated the vulnerabilities of that system, while even the disruption of the Bab al-Mandab Strait has shown how quickly regional conflicts can reverberate across the global economy.

So what would a genuinely independent regional security architecture look like? What happens to the American military bases if regional states no longer see Washington as the guarantor of their security? And are Hormuz and Bab Al-Mandab Straits becoming the foundations of a new balance of power in West Asia? That’s what we’ll be discussing tonight with our guests. Reza Vedadi, academic researcher and author, join us from Muscat, Oman. And Kevin Barrett, editor of Veterans Today, join us from Saida, Morocco. Gentlemen, both of you, thank you so much for being with me. I’m going to begin with Mr. Vedadi, our guest in Muscat. Reza, what is exactly changing at this moment? Qalibov says Iran’s neighboring countries are now sending messages about new security arrangements. What has changed since the 40-day war such that right now regional states are pushing and reconsidering the old security framework?

Reza Vedadi: We’ve witnessed since the Ramadan attack in the end of February, beginning of March on Iran, that Iran has put a lot of military pressure on the U.S. basis. And it’s demonstrated the U.S. capability, as it was promised for 20, 30 years to the purchasing people, the Arabs, the Persian Gulf countries, that it’s not capable or it will not be used to defend them. It was mainly used to try and defend Israel. And so I think these Arab leaders have come to a conclusion that they can’t rely on the United States’ promise of defending them, no matter how many billions they have spent on establishing the bases, buying the military equipment, and maintaining these bases. So I think they’ve come to a realization that they need to work with either regional powers, such as Turkey and Pakistan, with the Mecca agreement, or actually working with Iran in a capacity that will demonstrate that they will not want to be party to a country that attacks it.

So I think we have to see how things unfold. The fact that the United States isn’t capable militarily to try and defeat Iran and has resorted to the sanctions which it has been committing for many, many years, maybe many decades, and hasn’t worked, in the sense that it hasn’t collapsed the Iranian government and system.

I think the leaders realize that they need to have a new approach to the issue of Iran and relations with Iran.

Press TV: Thank you, Mr. Vedadi. I’m going to come back to that. Mr. Barrett, thank you so much for your time as well. When we are talking about a new regional security arrangement, in your mind, what would that actually look like in practice? Is it joint maritime security? Is it mutual defense commitments? Is it intelligence cooperations or something beyond?

Kevin Barrett: Well, one would hope that it would involve all of that. And it could involve a major upgrading of relations between Iran and its neighbors. Those relations have remained very stressful, mainly not so much because of any real clash of interests between Iran and its neighbors, but rather because the United States Empire is dominated by Jewish Zionist billionaires who have hijacked the United States and made the expansion of this settler colony squatting in occupied Palestine their number one priority. And since Iran, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been led by people of principle who refuse to abandon the Palestinians to the genocide that the Zionists are trying to force on them, that has led to this conflict. And because the other nations have essentially been willing to remain U.S. vassals, they’ve been dragged into the conflict with Iran. And all of these other issues that come up, whether it’s the Islamic Republican governance versus hereditary monarchies, or whether it’s sectarianism, these are actually secondary. The prime issue has been the fact that Iran has been made the enemy of the Zionist-occupied American empire which has forced that enmity on the regional countries. And that hasn’t worked out for the regional countries. As the other guest accurately said, putting American bases in that region whose real purpose is to try to defend endless Zionist expansionism in the Greater Israel Project from Iran has not been advantageous to those countries. On the contrary, it’s put targets on their backs. And when th