In this powerful segment from The Duran 🎙️, expert commentary reveals how prominent neoconservative voices in the West 🇺🇸 have been actively pushing for a war with Iran 🇮🇷. Michael Waltz and other political actors are discussed in-depth, exposing the strategies and motivations behind the endless push for conflict in the Middle East 🌍. Is it about defense, or deeper geopolitical ambitions? 🧠 Dive into the analysis, uncover the facts, and hear why this push for war could destabilize the entire region. 📉🔥
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NewsTranscript
00:00All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is going on with the U.S. and Iran, what is going on with the U.S. and Yemen and the Houthis.
00:11It looks like Waltz, if you go off of the reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times on various other outlets in the U.S. mainstream media outlets, it looks like Waltz was moved, exiled.
00:26I like to say exiled, exiled to the U.N. because the U.N. is not very important for Trump.
00:31It's an important position, the ambassador to the U.N., but for Trump, he's not so hot on the U.N.
00:38But Waltz has been moved to the U.N.
00:41And it looks like the reason is because he was working, consulting, conspiring with Netanyahu when it comes to Yemen and the Houthis.
00:54And the entire conflict that the U.S. has with the Houthis, I've been saying it for a while.
01:06I don't understand what it's about.
01:10And Trump has never clarified what the objectives of this are really about.
01:15They say it's about opening up the shipping lanes, but these are shipping lanes that the Europeans depend on.
01:20So we've gotten all kinds of mixed messages about what's happening with Yemen and the fact that the U.S. is bombing Yemen and they're striking at Yemen.
01:30And we have the NBC interview with Trump where he talks about Iran as well.
01:37So maybe we can touch on that also because Trump is saying that he wants complete disarmament, no nuclear weapons, not even for energy reasons in Iran, which I think is a big ask.
01:54Anyway, let's start.
01:55What do you want to start with, Iran or do you want to start with Yemen?
01:57I think you're absolutely correct to say that these two events are connected deeply with each other.
02:03Now, the military attacks on Yemen, on the Houthis in Yemen, were actually initiated, as we all know, by Biden, not by Biden, but by the Biden administration.
02:15And the idea was that you'd attack the Houthis and you'd open the Red Sea to commercial shipping because commercial shipping had been effectively blocked by the Houthis, who've also been launching missiles against Israel.
02:31And the Houthis say that they're doing all of that in order to support Operation Aspida.
02:37I remember it.
02:38Absolutely.
02:39Operation Aspida is what they called it.
02:41Yeah.
02:41Yeah.
02:41Because of the Greek area.
02:42Go on.
02:43Yeah, absolutely.
02:44That's what Biden called it.
02:45Absolutely.
02:45And everybody knows that in some form or rather the Houthis are aligned to Iran.
02:55And some say go much further than that and say that they're actually proxies of Iran.
03:03The Houthis are also known to be in a particularly tough and well-organized military group.
03:09They have a lot of support within Yemen, apparently.
03:13Well, I mean, unquestionably, Yemen is a very, very difficult country to occupy and capture because it's very, very rugged, very, very mountainous.
03:25Its people are very tenacious.
03:27They have a long history, a long martial history going all the way back to the time of the Arab conquests of the seventh century, just to say.
03:37So, you know, it seems very strange that the United States under Trump should drift back into continuing a war, which Biden started and which wasn't succeeding.
03:56Because all those attacks by Biden, Biden's people, you know, the airstrikes on the Houthis were not actually achieving what they were supposed to achieve.
04:08Anyway, out of the blue, along comes Trump.
04:13He says that we're going to finally deal with the problem of the Houthis.
04:18A huge amount of U.S. naval and air power is deployed against the Houthis.
04:25There's all kinds of attacks on the Houthis.
04:27And the result is exactly the same.
04:29The Houthis are still there.
04:30They're still attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
04:35There's a lot less of it, which is why you hear about fewer attacks than you used to.
04:41But that's probably more of the consequence of the fact that very few commercial ships now go through the Red Sea.
04:49So it's not worked.
04:52And we also see that there are attacks on American ships.
05:01And obviously, we don't get a huge amount of detail about this.
05:04But at least in one case, damage visibly was done.
05:09An American aircraft carrier had to swerve suddenly to avoid a Houthi missile.
05:17And the result was that an F-18 fell into the seas.
05:23You know, a major aircraft was lost in that way.
05:28And, of course, the Houthis are claiming that they're shooting down lots of American Predator drones or Reaper drones.
05:34Maybe they are.
05:35Maybe they're not.
05:36I'm not able to say.
05:37But anyway, that's what they're saying.
05:39The point is it isn't succeeding.
05:40And all of this, along with a major drumbeat of threats now against Iran, with which the United States was supposed to be negotiating to try to find some kind of way to avoid a conflict.
06:00And at the same time to bring Iran's nuclear enrichment program under control with fears that, unless that happens, Iran will at some point develop a nuclear bomb.
06:14So it seems to me, briefly, that what happened is, again, we had a tassel within the administration, the Trump administration.
06:27We had one perspective, which is the one that Trump seemed to be going with when he was inaugurated and for about a week after, trying to negotiate a deal with the Iranians, try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
06:46Talk about the fact that if the United States can be sure that Iran won't be able to produce nuclear weapons, that safeguards are created to achieve that, that the United States would be prepared to de-escalate with Iran and reduce tensions.
07:07It's talking contacts with the Russians about seeing whether the Russians can play a role to achieve all of that.
07:19And we saw a lot of steps now.
07:21There's been a lot.
07:21I mean, we floated that possibility on one of our programs back in January.
07:26But we see that it's actually it had it appeared to be moving forward quite far.
07:32Lots of discussions about this between the Americans and the Russians and the Russians and the Iranians.
07:39So everything seemed to be moving quite well in terms of that diplomatic track.
07:45And then suddenly we get the swerve towards confrontation.
07:50The ceasefire breaks down.
07:55The there is renewed conflict in Yemen.
08:00There's the renewed threats against Iran, which are being made not just by Trump himself, but by people like Pete Hegg says.
08:08And then into the middle of all of this, suddenly we hear that the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has been sacked or at least not sacked, as he rightly said, exiled to the UN.
08:22And now we're getting media reports in the United States that Trump has discovered that Waltz was working very, very closely with the Israelis and coordinating with them and was trying to basically work with the Israelis to persuade Trump to launch an attack on Iran, which for the moment, at least, Trump still doesn't want to do.
08:50So I have to say it straightforwardly.
08:53All of the evidence, again, is of a deeply divided administration.
08:57You have people like Whitgough, other people, J.D. Vance, maybe Tulsi Gabbard, possibly.
09:04I don't want to spend too much time analyzing things too closely.
09:09But people say, you know, we've got to scale down commitments to the Middle East.
09:16We don't want to get involved in a war with Iran.
09:19Marjorie Taylor Greene has been talking about this.
09:23There is that side of the Trump movement and factions within the administration talking in that way.
09:32Trump himself sometimes talks in that way.
09:35And then we get the visceral pro-Israeli, near-con types, people like Mike Waltz, who are working with the Israelis in order to try to engineer a conflict with Iran.
09:53It reminds me very much about the situation with Ukraine, by the way.
09:57So, again, similar divisions.
10:00Kellogg advocating, working with the Ukrainians.
10:05Now we see Waltz advocating for working with the Israelis, trying to bring the administration, Donald Trump, back to a near-con position, which is basically confrontation and ultimately war with Iran.
10:24And Trump himself, sometimes he tilts in favor of one side.
10:31Sometimes he tilts in favor of the other.
10:34Sometimes he goes with Whitgoth, who both with Russia and Iran is the person who talks mostly about compromise and is the negotiator.
10:43Other times he goes with the more hardline people, with Waltz until recently, with Hegseth, people like that who want confrontation with Iran.
10:57And the whole situation is unstable and chaotic.
11:02And in the meantime, it's already created a military crisis because the United States finds itself launching missile and airstrikes against the Houthis, killing people, a lot of people apparently, no doubt causing the Houthis some damage, but ultimately achieving nothing.
11:26Exactly.
11:26Killing a lot of people, but achieving nothing.
11:29And it seems like this is a conflict with Yemen that the U.S. cannot win.
11:38I mean, they have no strategy with regard to Yemen.
11:46There's no diplomacy, obviously.
11:48There's no diplomacy.
11:48There's no dialogue.
11:50And they're bombing Yemen.
11:52They're killing people.
11:54But what's the goal to all of this?
11:57That's the part that I haven't quite understood.
11:59Because you get different messages.
12:01You get, oh, well, we're doing this so we can open up the shipping lanes.
12:04But then you get a message saying, well, the shipping lanes are not really that important to the United States.
12:09They're important to Europe.
12:10Why should we be in conflict with Yemen in order to prop up the Europeans?
12:16And now we have this tariff war with the Europeans.
12:18I mean, you're getting all kinds of mixed messages with regards to the shipping lanes.
12:21Because the Houthis, their message is very straightforward and very to the point as to why they're doing what they're doing.
12:28And it's connected to Gaza.
12:31It's connected to the recent strikes from the Houthis are connected to the announcements from Israel that they're going to broaden the operations in Gaza.
12:44They're going to expand the operations in Gaza.
12:46So now the Houthis are saying we're going to implement an air blockade.
12:52So, I mean, you know, on the one hand, you have the Trump administration, which is divided, which is chaotic.
12:57It's trying to deal with Ukraine, not successful.
13:02It's trying to deal with Iran, on again, off again.
13:07I mean, you know, there's no direction.
13:12And now it's opening up another front with Yemen.
13:16It hasn't solved the most important issue, which is Gaza.
13:23It hasn't solved it.
13:25And it seems like they're not even talking about it anymore.
13:28It's just kind of disappeared.
13:30Witkoff was negotiating.
13:33And then the negotiations broke down.
13:35Now we have this blockade on Gaza.
13:39The hostage situation has not been resolved.
13:44And now we have Yemen all of a sudden, just all of us coming up.
13:47And you have Waltz in all of this exchanging messages with these rays, with Netanyahu.
13:55Who knows?
13:55I mean, the Trump administration is not solving any problems.
14:03They're creating more, it seems.
14:05And I haven't even talked about China.
14:07No, I know.
14:07No, you're absolutely correct.
14:09Now, to understand neocon thinking, I mean, what they're trying to do with the attacks on the Houthis, for the neocons, including Mike Waltz, I suspect.
14:23Definitely for some people in Israel, the people who are in the driving seat, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his top officials.
14:33The attacks on the Houthis are a step towards the larger objective, which is a war against Iran.
14:43It always has been.
14:45So by getting Trump to authorize attacks on the Houthis, they are bringing Trump closer to the point of launching attacks on Iran itself.
14:59Now, one can see how it was done.
15:01The Israelis would say they were incredibly successful against Hezbollah.
15:06We decapitated their leadership.
15:08We inflicted massive blows upon them.
15:13You should follow our copy book.
15:15You should do with the Houthis what we did to Hezbollah.
15:19We decapitate their leaders, launch these precision strikes against them, infiltrate their organization.
15:25And, of course, that's what the United States has done.
15:29And, of course, we see that it isn't working.
15:32So one can understand how Trump and his people might have been lured onto this course.
15:42But the objective is, as I said, ultimately to get the United States tangled with Iran.
15:48So you then come back, because this is, again, how the neocons work.
15:52They always, when one escalation fails, remember what we always say, they have no reverse gear.
16:02They demand a further escalation.
16:05They say the reason you are not succeeding with the Houthis is because the Iranians are backing them.
16:13So in order to defeat the Houthis and to achieve victory and to open the Red Sea, you need to break Iran.
16:22And we have Hexas coming out and saying this.
16:28Basically, we know, we know extraordinary posts that he published warning the Iranians.
16:35We know what you're doing.
16:36We can see exactly what you're up to.
16:39We're coming after you if, you know, you continue on this way.
16:43Again, with the Houthis.
16:44And we have this very angry comment on Truth Social by Trump himself that he's going to impose secondary sanctions on anybody who buys Iranian oil and that anybody who dares to buy Iranian oil can do no business with the United States.
17:03So you can see how this has been worked, that it's Iran that is the ultimate problem, that the only way we can resolve this is by going after Iran itself, finishing off Iran, and then all of the problems in the Middle East will be sorted.
17:25And forget about diplomacy, diplomacy isn't going to deliver anything.
17:32We must go after the head of the snake.
17:36Iran is vulnerable, is lost in Syria.
17:39Its air defense system is being destroyed by the Israeli airstrikes of October.
17:46So this is an open target and we should go and we can win.
17:51And we can see how the maneuvering is going on.
17:57There's pushback.
17:58As I said, Vance, I'm guessing Gabbard, Marjorie Taylor Greene and people like that, they are strongly opposed to this approach.
18:09But there's divisions within the administration and the president himself can't make up his mind.
18:16Sometimes he tilts to the one side.
18:19Sometimes he tilts towards the other.
18:22He's just got rid of Waltz because he's discovered the extent to which Waltz was actually working for the Israelis rather than for him.
18:32At least that's what the American media is now telling us.
18:37But he still seems to be hardening his stance against Iran.
18:42So, yeah, even with Waltz, he couldn't quite bring himself to dismiss Waltz entirely.
18:49He had to move him to the UN.
18:52Yeah.
18:53And Waltz is going to do damage at the UN.
18:55Absolutely.
18:55He's going to do a lot of damage.
18:57Absolutely.
18:58Nikki Haley did a lot of damage at the UN.
19:00Waltz is going to do a lot of damage there as well.
19:03But I think that shows you the power of the neocons and the hold that they have on Trump.
19:10He was not able to completely remove Waltz.
19:15No.
19:16And he still got – with regards to Ukraine, he still has Kellogg there.
19:19So what does Trump need to do?
19:23Well, he needs to do exactly what you said.
19:25He needs to sack the neocons, confront people like Lindsey Graham, who I suspect is playing a significant role behind the scenes, and say, look, this is my administration.
19:38I run it the way I want it to.
19:42War with Iran would be a disastrous idea.
19:45And we've got the makings of a deal there, which exists, by the way.
19:51Witkoff is absolutely right about this.
19:53We've got the makings of a deal, and we should do that deal.
19:58And, you know, Netanyahu won't like it.
20:01Some people, the neocons in the U.S. won't like it.
20:04The MAGA base will.
20:06And, you know, we can then start to work towards some kind of stabilisation in the Middle East.
20:14Unfortunately, I don't think that's what's going to happen, because I think that, firstly, Trump is afraid to break with people like Lindsey Graham and the other neocons and that whole group of people.
20:32But I think on this issue, on this specific issue, he also has his own visceral feelings, which, as I said, complicate things, which is like lots of Americans.
20:42He doesn't like Iran, or at least he doesn't like the regime there.
20:47He wants to see the regime overthrown.
20:50He probably dislikes Iran every bit as much as some people in Israel.
20:57Israel do.
20:58His heart, if you like, is in conflict with his head.
21:03So he finds it even more difficult to make a decision on this than he does with, say, Ukraine.
21:10And ultimately, given that this is so, I have to say this, I think we are probably, again, on the countdown towards an attack on Iran.
21:18We know that the Israelis actually proposed it both before he became president and after he became president back in November.
21:29And then again, apparently in January, they came up with lists of targets and proposals about how an attack on Iran could be organised.
21:37We know that we now know from the media in the United States that Waltz was helping the Israelis to lobby for that attack on Iran.
21:48Trump didn't like the fact that Waltz was playing that role.
21:51But we see that he's not breaking with Waltz, as you rightly said.
21:55He sent him to the UN, where Waltz will take a very, very, can be absolutely guaranteed to take a very strong neocon pro-Israeli line, just as Nikki Haley did.
22:08And we will probably find ourselves in exactly the same situation that we always seem to be in, with the United States drifting into an all-out clash with Iran.
22:19I have to say this, I think sooner or later, one way or the other, this clash is going to come.
22:27It's going to start with an Israeli attack, a big Israeli attack on Iran, backed by the US.
22:35And I'm afraid it could escalate into something more.
22:39Just a final thought, the US is screwed on foreign policy.
22:45I don't have a better word.
22:46They don't have any diplomats, Alexander.
22:48I was thinking about it now.
22:49Waltz at the UN.
22:50What business does Waltz have at the UN?
22:53What business did Nikki Haley have at the UN?
22:55What business does Waltz have at the UN?
22:57He's not a diplomat.
22:58He's not a diplomat.
23:00Rubio, not a diplomat.
23:03Kellogg, not a diplomat.
23:05None of these people have any diplomacy experience, negotiating experience.
23:13Trump's best negotiator, his absolute best negotiator, his best diplomat is Wyckoff.
23:21And Wyckoff has no position, no support, no department in back of him.
23:25And he also doesn't have foreign policy diplomacy experience.
23:28It shows.
23:29But he's his most rational, most effective diplomat.
23:36And the diplomat that is pushing for some sort of peace or off-ramp in all of these crisis areas.
23:43And now there's so many of them, we're losing count.
23:45We're losing count at how many fires now are popping up.
23:48And yes, it came from Biden.
23:51Absolutely.
23:52A lot of them came from Biden.
23:53All of them came from Biden.
23:54Yeah.
23:54But Trump is not extinguishing any of them.
23:58And it starts with Ukraine.
23:59That was an easy one.
24:01That was an easy one for the U.S. to walk away.
24:04Iran, like you said, is a slam dunk.
24:06Easy.
24:07We don't want Iran to get nukes.
24:09Iran doesn't want to get nukes.
24:11Russia says they'll mediate.
24:13Deal done.
24:15And then you can focus on Gaza, on a two-state solution.
24:21But no.
24:22Your thoughts, just to wrap up the video.
24:24You're absolutely correct.
24:25The one thing I would add is, you're absolutely right to point out the fact that the current
24:30administration has no diplomats, nor did the previous administration, nor did the administration
24:36before that one, which is, of course, Trump's, nor did Barack Obama's administration, actually.
24:42I mean, the United States has not had diplomacy since, I would argue, George H.W. Bush, who
24:52at least had people like James Baker and Brett Scowcroft.
24:58But these were old men even then.
25:01And now, of course, they're gone.
25:03So, you know, there is no diplomacy on the part of the United States.
25:07This is the direct product, the disastrous effect of decades of neocode control of the
25:17American government.
25:19I mean, the United States stopped doing diplomacy 40 years ago, and it has no mechanisms to
25:25carry it out any longer.
25:26All right.
25:27We'll end the video there.
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