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Iran after Venezuela? Policy analyst predicts Donald Trump's next steps, points to ‘standard playbook’
Jeffrey Sachs said that Israel “is obsessed with Iran” and claimed that the United States fights the wars Tel Aviv “wants it to fight”.
Renowned economist and policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs has warned that US President Donald Trump's next target could be Iran after a dead-of-the-night operation in Venezuela to capture its leader, Nicolas Maduro, last Saturday.
Speaking to at least two Indian news outlets, Sachs said that Israel “is obsessed with Iran” and claimed that the United States fights the wars Tel Aviv “wants it to fight”.
“My fear is that Iran is next. Keep an eye on Iran. Israel is obsessed with Iran and wants to overthrow the Iranian government. The United States, for reasons that are not 100 per cent clear, is basically beholden to Israel. The United States fights wars that Israel tells it to fight. It's very, very dark, actually,” Sachs said in the interview with India Today.
According to Sachs, Trump’s December 29 statement with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago signalled that Iran was next. He also pointed to the Republican’s statements on protests in Iran.
“This is clearly a typical deep-state provocation — lining up the human rights argument to invade Iran to ‘protect the people of Iran'. This is a standard playbook,” Sachs added.
Venezuela and Iran: Can the US pull a Caracas in Tehran?
The world was stunned last Saturday when US special forces raided Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s residence in Caracas and flew him out of the country. He was later taken to New York, where he was produced before a judge on “narco terrorism” and other charges, on which he pleaded “not guilty”.
While most nations condemned the US action, nobody could really do anything.
As for Iran, protests have been going on in the country since late December over the rising cost of living. The protests have so far resulted in over two dozen deaths, according to an AFP report.
Trump has said that if the Iranian government cracks down on peaceful protestors, the US would intervene.
“We are ready, locked and loaded,” he had said.
But will Washington be able to pull off a Caracas in Tehran? According to Jeffrey Sachs, an intervention in Iran is a "recipe for disaster”.
“This is where I would expect the possibility of a real global explosion. That one will be hotter than Venezuela if it happens. It would be potentially disastrous because Venezuela is in the American geographic neighbourhood, and China and Russia don't want to take on the United States there. But Iran is in the middle of a lot of major powers. Iran has hypersonic missiles and a capacity to do a lot of harm. Israel is a nuclear-armed country. All in all, it's a recipe for potential disaster,” the expert told India Today.
What's happening in Iran?
Iran's latest protest movement began on December 28 with a strike by mobile phone traders in a Tehran market.
Since then, demonstrations have spread to the heart of the economy, the capital's Grand Bazaar, and several more towns and cities, particularly in the western part of the country.
On Tuesday, clashes erupted in the Grand Bazaar for the first time since the protests began, with police using tear gas to disperse crowds. In one case, gas drifted into a hospital.
Trump has threatened to intervene, while Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for the protests.
General Amir Hatami, commander of the Iranian army, warned that Tehran will not tolerate outside threats "without responding".
According to the news Fars, Hatami said "if the enemy makes a mistake" Iran's response would be more robust than during last June's 12-day war with Israel.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed not to “yield to the enemy”, while the country's Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei warned protesters on Wednesday there would be "no leniency for those who help the enemy against the Islamic Republic".
