The US appears headed on a collision course with Iran that could lead to a war with “disastrous” consequences, an ex-advisor to former US president Jimmy Carter has said.
“We think we are going to avoid war by moving towards compulsion,” Zbignew Brzezinski, who was national security advisor to Carter in the late 1970s, told an audience at an Atlantic Council think tank event in Washington late on Tuesday.
“But the more you lean towards compulsion, the more the choice becomes war if it doesn’t work. That narrows our options in a very dramatic way,” said the former official, who remains an influential voice on US foreign policy.
Brzezinski said he was concerned about an escalation in “rhetoric,” as the US approach to Iran’s nuclear program appeared solely focused on forcing Tehran to comply with international demands, leaving Washington little flexibility.
“A lot of small decisions are being made which in the meantime narrow your freedom of choice in the future,” he said.
Brzezinski warned repeatedly of his concerns that the US could stumble into a war with Iran.
“If we slide into a conflict with Iran, in this or that fashion, the consequences for us will be disastrous, disastrous on a massive scale and also globally at the same time,” he said.
Brzezinski said there was a need “to galvanize this country into a deeper understanding” of international challenges facing the US.
“One of the most appalling things that I see is that we are more challenged than before in a more complex fashion,” he said.
“Our public is driven by fear, ignorance, demagogy to a very high degree and that I think has a paralyzing effect in intelligent management,” of foreign policy, he said.
Brzezinski, who endorsed US President Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign, described what he called a “strange situation,” with Obama and the Democrats failing to assert leadership while their Republican rivals were advocating extreme or ill-informed policies.
“The party in power is frozen, and the party out of power is raving mad,” he said.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
Ugandan wildlife authorities have reintroduced rhinos into a remote protected area where they were once poached into extinction, an event seen by conservationists as a milestone in efforts to support the recovery of a species threatened by poaching. On Tuesday, two southern white rhinos from a private ranch in the East African country were reintroduced into Kidepo Valley National Park in the country’s northeast. Two more rhinos in metallic crates arrived on Thursday. There have been no rhinos in the park since 1983, the result of poaching. However, a private ranch in central Uganda — the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary — has been
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
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