Israel trying to provoke US into attacking Iran: Academic

An American writer and retired professor says Israel and its lobby in Washington, DC are trying to provoke the United States into attacking Iran by fabricating the notion that the Islamic Republic represents a threat.

James Petras, a retired professor who has written dozens of books on international issues with particular focus on Latin America, the Middle East and imperialism, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.

In a Washington Post article on Tuesday, two US senators warned that the administration of President Donald Trump “is barreling toward war with Iran,” calling on Congress to act to prevent it.

Tom Udall (D-NM) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said that Trump might wage a war on Iran based on a wrong justification like the one the administration of former President George W. Bush used to go to war with Iraq in 2003.

PressTV-Trump barreling toward war with Iran: US senators

Two US senators say President Trump “is barreling toward war with Iran,” urging Congress to stop him.

They said the Trump administration claims that Iran has not abided by the nuclear deal it reached with the world powers, an accusation Tehran has vehemently rejected. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has several times confirmed that Iran complies with the restrictions on its nuclear activities under the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

They added that the president also accuses Iran of being partially responsible for the rise of the Daesh terrorist group, another allegation that Iran has dismissed as unfounded. Iran has, in fact, been actively providing the governments of Iraq and Syria with military advice to push back against foreign-backed militants who have been terrorizing both countries using support from Western countries and their regional allies.

‘US accusing Iran the crimes that it committed against Syrian people’

“The world opinion agrees that Iran has complied with all the conditions of the nuclear agreement. All five countries except the United States signed off on the agreement and continue to respect that only Trump discovered that his own former president [Barack Obama] was false. I think this is a complete fabrication by the extremists in the Trump government and Trump himself,” Professor Petras said.

“The second accusation that Daesh was working with Iran is completely false. Iran was very active in Syria in advising and supporting the elected government of Syria and has fought consistently over the past two decades fighting Daesh [Takfiri extremists] in every context. And I think the world opinion understands that. Very few people except Israel make those accusations,” he stated.  

“What is really clear is that Washington was intimately involved in encouraging the extremists in Syria and Daesh itself. So the US is accusing Iran of the crimes that it committed against the Syrian people and the advisers from Iran,” he noted.

“It’s very clear that the US Congress especially Senators Udall and Richard Durbin have put a motion in Congress to reject the US military aggression. The only influence in Washington that is pushing for an aggressive and militaristic policy towards Iran is the pro-Israel lobby and the Netanyahu regime. They are trying to provoke the United States into attacking Iran by fabricating the notion that Iran represents a threat,” the analyst said.

“Instead one should look at Israel with its multiple bombs and nuclear weapons, and its accusations as a front to disguise its own nuclear threat to the Middle East and all of the Islamic peoples of the world,” he observed.

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