Israel behind US Congress anti-Iran measures: Lendman

Press TV has interviewed author and radio host Stephen Lendman from Chicago to talk about anti-Iran moves made in the United States Congress.

What follows is a transcript of that interview:

Press TV: Give us your thoughts on the recent comments made by parliament speaker of Iran, Ali Larijani, warning of reciprocal parliamentary action with regards to the anti-Iranian bills by the US Congress and also about what he has to think about the CIA.

Lendman: Anti-Iranian hostility in America has been long standing for 36 years and I see nothing going on in America now that is changing that. I am very dubious about just exactly what US President Barack Obama feels. I think he would like something, a success, on his deplorable raft sheet, to show that he succeeded in doing something positive rather than all the negatives of his geopolitical policies.

Congress, both democrats and Republicans, continue being extremely anti-Iranian. And the Israeli lobby led by AIPAC is simply pushing them to come up with anti-Iranian legislation. That really puts the nuclear deal in jeopardy.

As far as America is concerned, I don’t know if it would affect the deal into the other P5+1 countries (the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany), certainly not Russia and China and maybe not the others as well, including Germany, who really want a deal, and want normalized relations and yet Washington pressure can be so intense that the best of intentions of other countries can be run asunder by US policies. I’m very, very negative in what I see going forward. And I see nothing in US-Iranian relations changing.

Press TV: Mr. Lendman, in your opinion, who is responsible for pressuring Congress into putting forth all these anti-Iranian motions, specifically at a time when the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] JCPOA has been lauded as such a historic agreement and what do you think they are to achieve with these actions?

Lendman: If I could blame it on anything I would blame the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, just intensively anti-Iranian. I mean their campaign is absolutely relentless and non-stop and it has an effect. They lose one battle and they come back and they fight other battles and the battles they are fighting are to get Congress to pass anti-Iranian legislation.

They try to undermine all relations, US relations with Iran, the nuclear deal and everything else to keep Iran isolated and succeeding in getting Congress to really come around to what they want to do which is the reason why I am very negative on things going forward and I am especially concerned once Obama’s tenure ends and we see a new president—whether it is Republican or Democrat—Hillary Clinton the Democrat, if she is president, is extremely hostile towards Iran. Donald Trump if he is the candidate, I don’t see any difference with him or any of the other Republican candidates.

We will have a new Congress and it doesn’t depend on whether it’s Republican or Democratic-controlled, the anti-Iranian hostility will continue. And the thing I fear most are provocations that could literally create the possibility of a war, a greater war than the ones raging now in the region. It’s a very serious situation.

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