All right, let’s turn our attention to potential World War III. There’s a lot of uncertainty right now whether the ceasefire uh in the so-called Middle East will be upheld by Iran and Israel. Um after the deal was brokered, rockets were still flying. Both sides blaming each other for breaking the agreement before it even had a chance to hold. Um looking here, the Iranians celebrating ceasefire victory over Israel.
The UN chief has weighed in again, saying that Iran and Israel must respect the ceasefire. Um, Israel is saying now diplomacy will happen soon. Whatever. BB Netanyahu is very good at at starting wars. Um, Senator Bernie Sanders has said that Netanyahu should not be dictating US policy.
We’ve been seeing a lot of that. And of course, Donald Trump just landed uh overseas at the NATO conference even as his own people are saying that they did not destroy Iran’s nuclear program. In fact, maybe just set it back a couple of months, but they’re scrambling that to walk that back. Trump’s taking direct aim, in fact, at both governments.
Um, I think we might have some sound there.
While both Iran and Isra Oh, there he is. Uh, let let’s pause here and listen to Donald Trump as he continues to uh devolve before our very eyes. That violated the peace agreement and the ceasefire agreement. Do you believe that Iran is still committed to peace? Yeah, I do.
Uh, they violated, but Israel violated it, too. Are you questioning if Israel was committed? Israel. As soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen, I’m not happy with Israel.
You know, when when I say, “Okay, now you have 12 hours.” You don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So, I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land that was shot perhaps by mistake that didn’t land.
I’m not happy about that. You know what? We have We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the [ __ ] they’re doing. Do you understand that? Do you have you had a well I maybe they don’t know what they’re doing cuz if there’s anybody in the world if there is anyone in the world who is an expert on when people don’t know what the [ __ ] they’re doing it’s certainly Donald Trump.
Uh this is just breaking uh here at the United Nations Moscow from out of Moscow. Russia says the United States and Israel violated the UN charter with the Iran attack. It’s very interesting to see what’s going on now. China has kind of come down on the violation uh of the UN charter side. Russia has done the same.
France is kind of drifting that way as well. The UK stood up and saluted of course uh the United States and Trump apparently sharing u a message he got from the head Mark Roots of the uh of NATO uh cheering him on.
But you know this thing is really uh continued to unfold in real time. And while both Iran and Israel have acknowledged the shaky ceasefire, no details have emerged about the terms of the deal or what cons concessions rather either side may have made. The Iranian foreign minister says negotiations won’t continue unless aggression against Iran ends.
And in fact, out of Palestine, a message has come. Uh Palestinian authorities saying that they want a ceasefire as well. Mustafa, uh, what do you make of these developments, not only in Iran and Israel, but in the region, and how does this play, uh, against the backdrop of what’s going on globally, not not just in the United States? Well, it destabilizes, right? Everybody’s always talking about trying to find a way to to stabilize what’s going on in the Middle East, and these sets of actions are are destabilizing, and they have ripple effects.
So it puts all kinds of people’s life uh in jeopardy right both you know folks who are in you know the countries that are there but also all across the planet. You now have uh you know you see people in heightened uh senses of alert right now and in different uh facilities across our country uh things that they often call as tier 2 targets. Um so you know they’re increasing the security there but you also understand whether it’s the bases that are across uh the Middle East or in other countries uh are also now men and women are in harm’s way. So you know when people don’t know what they’re doing when they don’t continue to invest in diplomacy and automatically just go uh to a military option um you’re placing yourself in a very precarious situation.
Um, and once again, as we’ve said before on this show, it shows uh that these folks are unprepared uh for these significant situations that they’ll have to make decisions about.
Yeah, no question. I mean, you know, as you as you’re talking there, the question of diplomacy, we know the joint comprehensive plan of action, the so-called JCPOA that Trump walked away from that was negotiated under the Obama administration of course set the stage for this. Uh, everyone is saying, including Tulsi Gabbard, which apparently, you know, she was shut out.
uh of the conversation on what to do a couple of days ago is saying that Iran does not yet have nuclear capability that they weren’t on the verge and BB Netanyahu of course has been saying that Iran is on the verge for the last 20ome years so we know he obviously can’t be trusted Larry um thinking about this question then of where we are in terms of a peaceful resolution even as it’s being reported about an hour ago Rosemary D Carlo the UN’s under secretary general for political and peaceuilding affairs told the UN security council today. The truce is also an opportunity to peacefully resolve the Iran nuclear issue.
Do you think that this can reach a peaceful resolution? I I I think it’s going to be difficult because United States is, you know, consistently, you know, whether it’s disagreements between Iran and Israel or other nations is at times the despite our troubling history play, you know, kind of peacemaker. But it’s hard to play peacemaker after you you’ve followed the lead of another country that you know attacked the nation unprompted. And I also you know you know Dr. the card.
This also in terms of United States legitimacy as not as a superpower but as a diplomatic entity uh throughout the world, right? I think that that you know particularly the last couple months that you know you’ve seen the Trump administration um and in many respects you know allow their actions to chip away at whatever capital the United States has.
So yeah, I think that you know what we have here is you know less than two week of a period allegedly to kind of work some things out. But the the the other part of this is you’ve got to get Netanyahu to hold steady. And whether it’s been Donald Trump or President Biden, neither one of those individuals seem to be able to say, even though they’re capable of it, don’t do that.
And if if you’re not capable to have if you’re not, you know, don’t have the ability to prevent him from these major or minor skirmish skirmishes, then we’re going to find ourselves right back in the same place 2 months, 6 months, 8 months, 2 years from now. So the United States has to have show a steady diplomatic hand and and secondly, not contradict themselves by doing some of the things that we discussed a few minutes ago. And then thirdly, we’re going to have have Netanyahu to hold steady and not attack Iran again. Indeed, it it seems incredibly unstable. But Netanyahu is is very consistent.
He’s always going to start a fight. If for no other reason, he’s trying to stay out of jail.
So, Dr. Carter, um I’m thinking about something that you you gave a talk back in December over at Politics and Pros that I saw posted on the uh the Wilson Center’s website, of course, the Eviscerated Now, Woodro Wilson Center, where you you’re talking about how, you know, these issues spill out over borders. It isn’t just about countries and flags.
It’s about people. And with such a volatile situation in Iran and in Israel, but with a population in that region that transcends those artificially drawn borders, how could what we are seeing right now uh lead to I don’t want to say further instability, but how could it change even the politics of the region? the Yemenes. Uh we’ve seen the Houthis, of course, and Hezbollah and Hamas, all of them getting support from Iran, but then China perhaps. I mean, do they reup the Iranians and their their arms and their stockpiles?
What are your thoughts on how this isn’t just about Israel and Iran, but it’s about people throughout the region? For sure.
Sure. And I think my colleagues hit a lot of the major points. I think something you said that is really critical is that we have to understand that most of the reasons why people move or leave have to do with this kind of instability.
So in fact, we’re creating more pressure on the region because people don’t tend to stick around when bombs are dropping. People tend to flee to neighboring countries. People tend to flee to where they can go. So this is putting uh pressure on Europe. This is going to put pressure on other parts of the Middle East.
And certainly, I think one of the things that the United States is realizing, they’ll never admit is that part of the reason that China is such a juggernaut is China moved into all those places on the continent of Africa, in the Caribbean, in the Middle East that the United States basically walked away from and said we wanted nothing to do with.
And it’s not to suggest that China is more altruistic, but in terms of giving up ground internationally. The United States did that all on its own. And when we look at what’s happened over the last, say, six months since Donald Trump has been in office, we’ve moved away from all sorts of international relationships that actually kind of held the world together. And none of us, and I think this is something we don’t talk about enough, have lived in a world with no United Nations, no NATO, right?
Like we’ve not lived in that universe yet. No World Health Organization. We’re experiencing now. And so I think when whether we’re talking about Iran or any other place, one of the things we know is that part of the reason why Iran is here is because of US intervention and because the US really participated in creating the conditions for Iran to look like it does now, for Iraq to look like it does now.
And it’s sort of like we’ve tried to semi-subscribe to the you break it bought it kind of philosophy but we’ve never actually invested in that region because we view it as instrumental to our own ends.
So, I think we’re going to create a situation where people will be flooding to other nations. Um, that will these other nations will need more assistance and we are doing all of the things that seem to be contraindicated by the politics that Donald Trump espouses. So, it’s going to require more international cooperation, not less, to manage the fallout. Okay. All right.
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