CGTN Europe spoke to Professor Laura Blumenfeld Middle East Analyst and Former US State Department advisor for Middle East
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00:00Well, let's draw all of this together now with Laura Blumenfeld, the Middle East analyst and former United States State Department advisor for the region.
00:08Laura, welcome. What does Israel's request for a United States cluster bombs signal perhaps about its intentions towards Iran?
00:19Well, I think Israel is going for broke. They're going to go as far as they can go.
00:24And we have a signal back from the United States in one word, which is using the word we, when Donald Trump tweeted that we control the skies over Iran.
00:34I think it's very important because for years, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been saying our fight is your fight.
00:41Our fight to dismantle Iran and its terror proxies are relevant to the rest of the civilized world.
00:47I think Donald Trump is signaling more and more. You know, he's trying to answer that question.
00:51Can you be a superpower if you don't exercise your superpowers?
00:56You know, am I going to preside over a parade this week or a strike on Iran's nuclear centers?
01:01And that's not to say that they're going to participate directly, but it's clear that they're showing more of a willingness almost in that World War Two style of lend lease or loaning equipment to Israel to make what would have been impossible for them alone possible.
01:16Does America speak with one voice? I mean, do Mr. Trump supporters speak with one voice?
01:22I don't know if you could hear our correspondent Tony Waterman in Washington talking about the splits in the MAGA movement, the Make America Great movement in the United States.
01:30Just explain why is there this MAGA pushback against Israeli pressure and how serious is that divide?
01:38Well, it's a fascinating question. It's not only on the right, but it's also on the left.
01:43There's a horseshoe theory in American domestic politics and foreign policy where both the far right and the far left are opposed to foreign interventionist wars because of our bad experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
01:56What Trump is arguing and crucially, his vice president J.D. Vance tweeted, this is not necessarily about a forever war.
02:06The expectation is it will be a quick win. Yes, Trump hates wars, but he also likes winning and his way to peace, the way he's presenting it is by by basically decapitating what they call the head of the snake and the source of all instability in the Middle East.
02:22I mean, Iran is watching Trump very carefully, but so is the rest of the world. Putin, Xi, they're asking him, are you going to sit in the situation room and watch the screens, watch these attacks play out on the screens as if it was Shark Week on TV?
02:38Are you going to jump in as if you're a hero in D-Day? And I think right now Trump can't resist the opportunity to be a hero.
02:45Well, look, you've you've been in the in the room when difficult decisions have been taken.
02:50What are Mr. Trump's options if these tensions escalate further?
02:55Well, he does favor diplomacy. This is coercive diplomacy of the highest order.
03:01I think in a sense, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, owes his life to Donald Trump.
03:06That's been out there in the public that Israel was ready to assassinate Khamenei last week.
03:11But but Trump, you know, pulled the reins back in on Netanyahu that could give him some leverage.
03:16There's a lot of personal relationships involved when it comes to Trump and his international affairs.
03:22So I think that although diplomacy is damaged, it isn't dead.
03:26And so I think what we're looking at today is Israel's version of the Iran nuclear deal, which is bloody them up and then go back to the bargaining table.
03:35Laura, good to speak to you. Thanks for coming on the program.
03:37Laura Blumenfeld, the Middle East analyst and former U.S. State Department advisor.