‘Iranian threat to Israel fabricated by international war lobby’

Iran “isn’t insane enough” to attack Israel with its advanced military and all the talk about the threat coming from Tehran is being artificially fueled by the US and Israel itself, geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl, told RT.

The Israeli Prime Minister has visited the US to express his concern about the consequences of a historic phone call between Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, and his US counterpart, Barack Obama.

Benjamin Netanyahu said he came to Washington to "tell the truth in the face of the sweet-talk and onslaught of smiles," which is how he described the Iranian leader's recent speech at the UN.

But despite the rhetoric from the Israeli PM, author of “Myths, Lies and Oil Wars”, F. William Engdahl, believes that the reset in US-Iranian relations is real.

RT: Do you think there really has been a thaw between Iran and the US or is it just a way to ease public fears? 

F. William Engdahl: I think there’s been a back channel between Iran and Washington, and the Obama administration to try to prepare the state for this. And after the election of [Iranian president Hassan] Rouhani, the way was clear with [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and his kind of populous rhetoric out of the way for a genuine dialogue between Washington and Tehran. All appearances point to that.

RT: Iranian president Rouhani has signaled that he'd like to resume flights between the US and Iran.  Isn't it too early for steps like that?

FWE: I think that it’s not at all too early for steps like that. I think the point is to get the sanctions removed as rapidly as possible from Iran. I was in Tehran in February of this year and the sanctions are hurting the common Iranians. And this is a hawkish lobby in the [US] Congress that pushed this through earlier this year and later last year. And I think that has to be taken down as a first step towards bargaining in good faith on the nuclear issue.  

RT: There's been a lot of speculation about Obama's strained relationship with Netanyahu.  Is it bad enough to prevent the US from remaining Israel's international cheerleader?

FWE: I think there’s no question that the Obama administration – especially, in the second term – has dramatically distanced itself from this very-very tight relationship that’s been in place for decades since the time of president [Jimmy] Carter [who was in office in 1977-81] with Israel and Washington – the strong Israeli lobby, AIPAC, think tanks and lobby groups in and around Washington. And for that reason [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu made an unprecedented backing of [Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 election] Mitt Romney, including financial backing through Sheldon Adelson, his good friend and Vegas casino owner, to back the opposition to Obama because he felt that Obama was distracting from that ‘tail wag the dog’ relationship between Tel-Aviv and Washington. And that’s a major-major step.  

RT: We spoke to one Israeli journalist who told us the majority of Israelis see Iran as a genuine threat.  Do they have grounds to feel that way?

FWE: I don’t think so. Iran hasn’t waged an aggressive war on any nation for more than a century-and-a-half. And I certainly don’t think they’re insane enough to launch a war on Israel, which is armed to the teeth with nuclear submarines and other weaponry that would really not be to the advantage of Iran at all. I think this is a fabrication by a certain international war lobby in Washington, perhaps in Britain, France and certainly around the Israeli defense industry and certain circles in Israeli intelligence around Netanyahu that want to have Iran a boogeyman to justify the continued support of Washington to Israel.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.