Transcript of Press TV, Iran, 14 March

Transcript submitted by a reader

https://www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/132998

PressTV: 0:09
Hello and welcome to Spotlight. Iran, China and Russia have called for an end to all of illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Western countries led by the United States and provoked by the Israeli regime have been pressuring Iran and imposing bans on the country for decades now. Their main pretext in recent years has been Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran has constantly proven its good will and proven the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program by fully cooperating with the IAEA and allowing comprehensive inspections of its facilities by the UN agency.

0:43
Now the new US president is trying to increase the pressure even further by using the language of threats, which the leader of the Islamic revolution has strongly condemned and rejected. Let’s discuss that issue and more with our guests on tonight’s Spotlight Edition. We have independent international affairs analyst Gilbert Doctorow joining us from Brussels. And also, executive committee member of the Hamilton Coalition to stop the war, Mr. Ken Stone is joining us from Hamilton, Canada.

1:21
Well, gentlemen, welcome to the program. Let’s start off with Mr. Doctorow in Brussels. Please share with us your views regarding the talks between China, Russia, and Iran in Beijing. The three countries diplomats exchanged views on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and of course the illegal sanctions imposed on Tehran.

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD:
I think this has a great symbolic value. Of course it’s not going to change anything in American conduct in the coming days. But it’s a statement that will be important in months to come if, as I expect, Mr. Trump pursues his plans for a reorganization of the governance of the world, from the present management regionally and internationally by coalitions the United States has put together, to a sharing of responsibility with other major powers. By that I mean China and Russia and India. This is likely to come.

2:26
In these circumstances, I would not take any particular statements, accusations, threats, bullying that Mr. Trump has directed against Iran as having any real seriousness. You have to understand that Mr. Trump is in the middle of a massive reform, a wrecking ball against institutions and structures that have been put together in the States for 30, 40 years. He is taking on the deep state directly, going at the jugular.

Mr. Kennedy was murdered for saying just saying a few things that are in line with what Mr. Trump is trying to do now, that is to end the Cold War. Trump has gone beyond lectures at the American University, which is what did in John Kennedy, to actually taking on and firing the people who have been responsible for wars, who have been destructive of democracy all around the world, and who worked for USAID, who worked for the CIA. This is dramatic.

3:37
In this context of a fight to the end that’s going on in the States, Mr. Trump is using language in a way to disarm and to confuse his opponents. Part of that is the bluster and bullying that he has directed at Iran. However, if you look a bit deeper, I think it’s reasonable to expect that Mr. Trump is not in the pocket of Netanyahu, as Joe Biden was.

He is not agreeing to pursue an attack on Iran, which for Mr. Netanyahu is his lifelong ambition. And another example of how in the Middle East, Trump is doing things that are at variance with the rather negative impression he’s made by his remarks about resettling Gaza, was the start of direct talks with Hamas, without the Israelis present. These are things that you have to look at very carefully with a microscope, I understand, because the big picture is all very negative in what he’s doing in the Middle East.

But there are these little hints that give me encouragement that he is not going to be Mr. Joe Biden, that he has no intention of being Genocide Joe, as genocide Donald. So I would be more optimistic. And in this context, what was done in the agreement of Iran, Moscow, and China is very important.

5:19
And also note who was there. Who was the Russian representative? This was Ryabkov. He’s a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He’s a tough guy. This is the one who prepared the rollback of NATO that was delivered to Washington and Brussels in December of 2021.

PressTV: 5:38
Ken Stone, Chinese and Russian diplomats have called for the lifting of the quote “unlawful” sanctions imposed against Iran. They reiterated Tehran’s right to peaceful use of nuclear energy. Give us your analysis, please, of the joint statement following the trilateral meeting. An analyst that we spoke to actually earlier here on Press TV believes that this meeting is a clear expression of solidarity with Iran.

Stone: 6:02
I heartily agree with the assessment that the trilateral meeting was a clear expression of solidarity with Iran. After all, both Russia and China are also subject to unilateral and illegal US and Western sanctions, including those from Canada against their countries.

And these sanctions, these unilateral sanctions, are flagrantly illegal, and they are in fact an act of war, and that’s recognized under international law and the United Nations Charter. In Chapter 7, the Charter says that there’s only one body in the world that can apply coercive economic measures, loosely known as economic sanctions against countries, and that is the United Nations Security Council. Any other sanctions that are leveled by countries such as Canada, the UK, the US against countries mostly in the global south, are acts of war.

They are strictly illegal, and they’re used to force compliance on usually poor and weak countries to come in line with US foreign policy, or they even can be used and have been used in the form similar to a medieval siege of creating regime-change in countries, such as in Iraq between the first and second Gulf War, and recently in Syria, where the government of Bashar al-Assad was brought down largely by these economic sanctions, which impoverished the country and put 80 percent of the people food insecure.

7:50
And we know that these sanctions have often killed more people than bullets. For example, in Iraq, 500,000 Iraqi children were killed between the two Gulf Wars by a lack of access to food and medicines, due to these illegal US sanctions. And when she was confronted about this fact, the former foreign minister of the US, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, said it was worth it, the deaths of 500,000 children. So we know that Russia, China, and Iran are smarting from these sanctions, and they have worked very hard to develop means to get around these illegal sanctions, such as the formation of the BRICS and the talks about the creation of alternate monetary and banking systems.

8:51
So the three countries definitely were in solidarity with Iran about the illegal sanctions. They were furthermore, If you want me to continue, I’ll talk about the peaceful uses of– Tehran’s right to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Under the NNPT, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to the utmost degree and in fact under the treaty other members are obliged, they are obliged to help Iran develop their nuclear program–

PressTV:
Absolutely.

Stone:
–which Iran has benefited from. So I would say that on those two points and on other points, the Russians and the Chinese were a hundred percent in solidarity with Iran.

PressTV: 9:42
Gilbert Doctorow, talking about the sanctions, there were some important points that Mr. Ken Stone brought up. The ill intentions in these sanctions are evident with preventing access to much-needed medicine and treatment for Iranian patients. So the hostilities [were] not just aimed at the government, but ordinary Iranians were suffering as a result of these sanctions. The imposition of US sanctions on a list of other countries, namely Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, Lebanon, they’ve had devastating humanitarian consequences. Talk to us more about the aspect of punishing ordinary civilians with these illegal sanctions.

Doctorow: 10:23
Well I think that my co-panelist has touched upon it very well by making reference to Madeleine Albright. There is no humanitarian concern. There is absolute callousness in the levels of the American State Department, USAID, and other institutions that should be concerned about the impact on the general population of such sanctions, but are not.

And this is, of course, it’s part of a much bigger picture. Right now, Iran is doing well not to be under attack from Israeli and American airplanes and rockets. That’s already a positive. It’s good that we can talk about alleviating the pain of the sanctions. The issue before Iran is one of time. Right now, the Trump administration is very preoccupied with finding a settlement of some kind, some kind of ceasefire in Russia.

Mr. Witkoff, who otherwise has responsibility for the Middle East, is particularly engaged right now on that big issue. The Middle East, in a sense of the Gaza situation, is a second major distraction, shall we call it, for the United States. So Iran’s time to get the attention of Mr. Trump and his colleagues is yet to come.

11:49
It is understandable that Iran was officially offended by Trump’s language and lack of dignity. I agree completely with that assessment. However, these are early days, and I do expect that when Trump is able to move on to dealing with Iran, the situation will be improved. That is not to say at once, but we’re very well aware that the issues that the United States is introducing now go well beyond the question of Iran having a nuclear weapons program. The United States’ ambition is to cripple the development of missiles in Iran, to cripple the relationship that Iran has with its fellow members of the resistance, the proxies.

12:38
These are all the most ambitious sides to the Trump administration view of what it can or should achieve in Iran. I don’t think any of it is achievable, but it will take some time before, as I say, the administration can focus its mind on Iran and see the realities.

PressTV:
Ken Stone, there were years of accusations that Iran was seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Then came the JCPOA deal, which resulted in inspections and etc. Then the US pulled out of the deal. Why should the US be trusted? And is Iran right to ask for assurances when the US has shown it can’t be trusted even when it signs deals?

Stone: 13:24
If you want my opinion, I don’t believe the US can be trusted. Under Obama, it obliged Iran to join the JCPOA. It never lived up to its side of the bargain in the JCPOA. The US sanctions were not totally lifted, which was a violation of the agreement. And then along came Trump in 2018 and abrogated the deal altogether, because as Mr. Doctorow has pointed out, Trump wanted to renegotiate the deal and put an end to Iran’s conventional missile program.

But of course, the Iranian government knows full well that the United States of America has never forgiven the people of Iran for rising up in a popular revolution in 1979 and knocking over their puppet, the Shah of Iran, which reduced the hegemony of the US, their power over West Asia considerably. And they have been trying ever since to overthrow the Iranian state.

14:38
And that includes the war that they sponsored by Saddam Hussein that lasted for eight years against Iran and resulted in millions of deaths. And it includes also the fact that Mr. Trump himself ordered the assassination of General Soleimani, an Iranian high commander, a general, while he was on a mission of peace, bringing a document to a meeting in Iraq at which the Saudi Arabians were going to attend in order to build a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which the US and Israel definitely did not want.

15:20
So, I mean, I’m just giving you a couple of examples here. I do not believe the US can be trusted. They have proved that over and over again. And I do believe that the Iranian government should go ahead on using the language of the NNPT and their friendship with Russia and China to improve and expand their peaceful nuclear program.

PressTV: 15:48
Mr. Doctorow, on that note the leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei says experience has shown that negotiations with the US have no effect on solving Iran’s problems and that the negotiations with the US are neither wise nor smart nor honourable. Do you see it in that light as well?

Doctorow:
Not exactly. I understand the aggravation, disappointment. You really, disappointment is an element because with the change of administration in Iran, there was hope that an accommodation could be reached with the states, and that was dashed rather quickly. So the ire, the anger over this disappointed hope for a change for the better is perfectly understandable.

16:33
However, nothing is forever. The United States cannot be trusted, but exactly who can be trusted? In this world, the old Russian wisdom that became commonplace internationally under Gorbachev and Reagan, that is, trust but verify. That verification is of great importance to ensuring honesty and transparency. And so in the case of Iran’s eventual accommodation with the United States, it will not be the honesty or the integrity, which is doubtful among many American senior politicians.

It will be a question of who is standing by Iran, and this was exhibited by the latest agreements between the Russians, the Chinese, and Iran, and who is going to enforce or monitor the implementation of whatever is agreed. So I would not be so pessimistic, even if at the present moment, the anger is real and justified.

PressTV: 17:36
Ken Stone, would you like to respond to that?

Stone:
I’d like to say that Donald Trump’s approach to Iran is wrong-headed and will have the opposite effect–

PressTV:
Yes.

Stone:
–of his intention to bring some kind of rapprochement or understanding or rejuvenation of the JCPOA to fruition. When you come into power and reinstall your maximum pressure campaign, you know, sanctioning every tree and every street in the country and threatening force against the country, a proud country such as Iran, you are going to get exactly the opposite effect that you are nominally aiming for.

18:28
And so I think that it will backfire on the US. I would suggest that if the US wants to achieve friendship with Iran, the thing that he should do first is to remove all the US sanctions on Iran and cease all the hybrid war that’s been going on between the US, from the US point of view, against Iran. And I’m talking about here the NGOs that operate in, or have operated to try and bring about disturbances and regime change in Iran, about other coercive economic measures that the US government is using against Iran.

19:19
And instead show that he’s serious about peace and the fact that he wants to see Iran not have a nuclear weapon by exerting what Qatar, six days ago, I think, called for, the government of Qatar. And they said Israel should be subjected to all the provisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It should have to declare the nuclear weapons stockpile it has built up with the help of France and the United States over the past 50 years. And it should be subject to inspections, very intense inspections the way Iran was during the period of the JCPOA.

20:12
So I think his whole approach is backwards, and it will end in failure or in war. And the war with Iran would be disastrous. It would probably lead to a regional conflict between West Asia and maybe a world war.

PressTV:
You meant to say Iran, you said Iraq, Mr. Ken Stone. Anyhow.

Stone:
Sorry.

PressTV: 20:38
Yeah, no problem. Mr. Doctorow, some important points brought up there by Mr Stone; I want you to address all of them as we wrap up the show. Your thoughts on this approach riddled with military threats by Donald Trump coupled with those of the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu against Iran.

Ayatollah Khamenei has warned that Iran is prepared to deliver a decisive response. Also on a separate note, Mr. Stone mentioned the sheer hypocrisy regarding the Israeli regime which evades the NPT, it evades cooperation with the IAEA, has openly admitted to nuclear sabotage, terrorism, and assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, and of course, assassination of many other figures, which we don’t have time to really cover right now.

Doctorow: 21:25
The difference between me and Mr. Stone is that he is taking Donald Trump’s words at face value. I don’t. I played at the beginning of this. My point is that Trump is involved in a titanic struggle to cut down the deep state and to end those forces within the American institutions that have been promoting war globally, and a cold war with Russia and with China. This means that he has a great many enemies, and he is using confusion as a tool to neutralize his enemies. They don’t know what he’s doing.

22:07
When he made these obnoxious remarks about Iran, was he addressing Iran or was he addressing the people on Capitol Hill who otherwise give him a lot of trouble? I think it was the latter. I think he was trying to shut them up by feeding them this line about Iran when he has no intention of following through on it. Give him time.

I follow closely what he’s doing in Russia. And most everyone, all peers of mine, are completely confused by what he’s trying to do. I think I’m not confused. I think I understand that he is working in contradictions from day to day just to shut everybody up while he gets to the main points that will lead to success.

22:55
So this is his modus operandi. It is not normal. It is not what academically-minded people expect, like Mr. Stone, like myself in general, and people around me. We think of people who behave in a more transparent way. Mr. Trump’s strength is not transparency. It’s confusion; and look at what he does, not what he says.

PressTV: 23:21
Okay, I’m going to have to just to continue with the points, I’m going to have to disagree with you there, Mr. Doctorow, because of looking at the decades of US animosity towards Iran and Washington’s anti-Iran policies. But regardless of that, also, if you may talk to us about this hypocrisy that we’re seeing towards the Israeli regime, which I just mentioned, they evade the NPT, they’ve evaded cooperation with the IAEA, and of course, all the admissions of nuclear sabotage, terrorism and etc.

Doctorow:
Is that for me?

PressTV:
Yes.

Docrorow: 23:59
OK, look, the question of hypocrisy that the United States under Trump today vis-a-vis Israel, the relations with Israel are, I am certain, not what they appear to be. We know where Joe Biden was. He was a hundred percent in the pocket of Netanyahu. That was a personal issue.

In general, there’s a lively debate in the States, particularly in the off mainstream, my peers, over whether the Israel is the tail that is wagging the dog or whether Washington is the head that is wagging Israel, the tail. That is an open question. And the two sides of this issue are being debated by people who are quite serious and quite experienced. There’s no answer to it. But I would say right now that more likely Mr. Trump is not a continuation of Joe Biden, that he is not a great fan of Netanyahu. And so give it some time.

25:03
All right. Sorry, sir. We’re going to have to leave it there. We’re short of, fresh out of time for tonight’s show. Independent international affairs analyst Gilbert Doctorow, joining us from Brussels; and also Executive Committee member of the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, Mr. Ken Stone. Joining us from Hamilton, Canada. Gentlemen, thank you for contributing to tonight’s show. And also a special thanks to our viewers for staying with us on tonight’s program.

25:22
It’s good night for now. See you next time.