US policies on Iran cannot be trusted: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Eric Draitser, the founder of www.stopimperialism.com, in New York, about US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s recent military threats against Tehran.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Many people argue that such war rhetoric, if I may call it that, is being said essentially to placate Republicans. How do you feel about that?

Draitser: it is not really to placate Republicans although to some degree I suppose that is part of it. But it is really to placate the Israeli lobby, it is really to placate what I would call the imperial [inaudible] in Washington, the consensus of the military-industrial complex which in many ways, still sees Iran as not only a major threat but a major opportunity; that is to say an opportunity for the war making powers of the United Sates and of its various satellite and puppet regimes that it supports.

So on the one hand, you have the United States pushing forward with this P5+1 deal, you have the Obama administration trying to solidify that deal and trying to shore up support in Washington behind that deal. On the other hand, you have another element within the US government that is very much at the ready continuing the saber rattling and the warmongering against Iran.

I think this demonstrates not a rift in government, I think that is a misconception. What it demonstrates is a dual track policy that the United States has taken in regards to Iran; on the one hand attempting to co-opt Iran, an attempt to bring it within its orbit economically by allowing it to integrate into Western finance capital and into Western neoliberal capitalism generally, vis-à-vis the corporations, the consumer goods, the oil, the energy and all of these things. On the other hand, maintaining a warlike position and posture against Iran in order to be able to neutralize it. So what the United States is really looking to do is to neutralize Iran by any means necessary.

Some would argue that can be done economically and through peaceful means, some would argue that has to be done militarily, but either way, Iran is not an ally; Iran still is a threat from the perspective of Washington.

Press TV: Standing where I am in Iran right now, I imagine many Iranians ask themselves when they hear such rhetoric coming out of US officials that can the US be trusted? How would you answer that?

Draitser: Can the US be trusted? [inaudible] internationally, I would be very hesitant to put trust in any government let alone that of the United States which is the imperial hegemon that it is. Certainly it cannot be trusted.

What Iran needs and is trying to do is to position itself such that it can create a mutually beneficial relationship in order to boost its economy and reintegrate itself into the world system, but I think that there are many in Iran who are skeptical of that quite rightly because they understand that the motives that are pushing Washington’s agenda are certainly not peaceful co-existence and mutually beneficial arrangements.

The United States, Israel and the (Persian) Gulf countries and all of the rest of them are still motivated by one singular goal and that is hegemony, whether it is global hegemony for the United States or regional hegemony for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel and the rest.

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