Zionist hawks are running American foreign policy: Former US Senate candidate

Neoconservative pro-Zionist hawks are running American foreign policy and they are winning says, a former US Senate candidate says, following Russia’s announcement of withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty.

Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV after Russia said it was preparing to leave the Treaty on Open Skies, months after the United States unilaterally quit the key trust-building pact, which allows reconnaissance flights over the participants’ entire territory.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Washington’s exit from the treaty last year “significantly upended the balance of interests of signatory states.”

“Due to the lack of progress in negotiations around the continuation of the treaty under new circumstances, the Ministry is authorized to announce the start of preparations for withdrawal,” said the statement.

The statement criticized the US for “arrogantly” turning a cold shoulder to Moscow’s proposals for keeping the deal in place.

Russia preparing to leave Open Skies Treaty after US exit

Moscow criticized the White House for ‘arrogantly’ turning a cold shoulder to its proposals for keeping the deal in place.

“I think it's important to compare Moscow's withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty to the complete breaking of the American word to Moscow time and time again. And this really parallels the lies that the United States has told about Iran as a justification for the US unilaterally pulling out of the JCPOA -- P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, where the United States has accused Iran, as it's accusing Russia have all kinds of violations that haven't happened, and where you see a circumstance here, where the unilateral American abrogation of these deals is destabilizing the world. It's making it a more dangerous place,” said Dankof.

“And, I think, increasingly it's going to be harder and harder for the United States to be taken seriously in any international deal when it's quite obvious that its word sadly enough can no longer be trusted,” he stated.

“So whether you're looking at the Open Skies Treaty that Moscow is now withdrawing from because the United States has already done so, when you look at the American abrogation of the ABM treaty, when you look at the series of broken promises to the Russians, made by American administrations since the end of the Cold War, in regard to the United States saying it would not encircle Russia when in fact that's exactly what it's doing, when the United States said that it would not recruit former Warsaw Pact countries to join NATO, 13 of those have now joined NATO, and where the US continues to move military assets ever closer to Russian borders in Eastern Europe, and where the United States continues to conduct provocative naval exercises in the Baltic region, even as the Victoria Nuland, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden team facilitated yet another attempt to encircle Russia with the destabilization and the coup d'etat facilitated by the United States and the EU in Ukraine in February of 2014,” he added.

“So whether you're looking at Russia, or you're looking at Iran, the United States continues to break its word to both of these countries. The situation is becoming increasingly dangerous in regard to the potential for military conflict between the United States and these countries at some point,” he stated.

“And as I've said before, the American word sadly enough can no longer be trusted in anything in the way of any bilateral or multilateral deal, especially with the performance of the Trump administration regarding JCPOA P5+1. And now this breaking of the American word in the Open Skies Treaty with the Russians,” he noted.

Trump formally withdraws US from Open Skies Treaty

The United States has withdrawn from the Open Skies Treaty that allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries.

“It's a sad day. It's a grim day, it's a more dangerous world. And I think the only people that win in a situation like this are these neoconservative pro-Zionist hawks who are running American foreign policy. They see themselves as the winners in this, and certainly the so-called military-industrial complex, and the armaments manufacturers will see themselves as winners in this entirely sad situation,” he concluded.

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