Israel imposes policies on Trump admin. through Kushner: Scholar

An American writer and retired professor says Tel Aviv is imposing policies on Washington through US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and his senior advisor Jared Kushner, and if Trump continues to follow Israel’s policy, there might be a war between the United States and Iran.

James Petras, who has written dozens of books on international issues, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday while commenting on reports that Trump is planning to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a Trump loyalist and foreign policy hard-liner, especially on Iran.

According to reports, Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a foreign policy hard-liner and one of Trump's staunchest supporters in Congress, is likely to replace Pompeo as the CIA director. The pro-Israel senator has always worked against the interests of Iran.

“There is a great deal of confusion and rumors that have not been confirmed about cabinet changes. However, given the fact that in the recent period there has been a great deal of resignations, expulsions and other chaos, the situation could evolve in the direction of replacing Tillerson with Pompeo,” Professor Petras said. 

“Pompeo is much more in the line of the nationalist politics which is essentially to tighten up economic relations with China along the lines of taking sanctions. It’s probably to continue the policy of hostility toward Iran and Russia, but it’s not clear whether this will lead to a war with North Korea since North Korea has nuclear weapons now that could retaliate,” he stated.

‘Trump regime is facing a possible coup d'etat’

“We have to look at the fact that currently Trump is under siege with the investigation of his former national security advisor, Flynn. And, Flynn’s decision to testify on some issues that are very trivial, but it indicates that the regime is under siege and facing a possible a coup d'etat or what they might call impeachment,” Professor Petras said. 

“The only problem might now is that Trump has won on the tax exemptions for the rich, and this has created a certain stability and unity between the Republicans and Trump -- Republicans in Congress,” he noted.

‘US policy going to become more turbulent’

“Overall I would say this that the policies toward Iran and China and North Korea will not be better, as they are likely to exacerbate especially with Israel’s recent attack – yesterday’s attack -- on Syria and the continuing aggression in the Middle East,” the academic said.

“So if Trump continues to follow Israel’s policy, I can imagine confrontations with Iran. Israel is probably the most dangerous appointment in the US government. I say appointment because Israel acts as if it is a member of the United States government, and certainly imposes policies on the Trump administration through his son-in-law, Kushner,” he underlined.

“So we can say this: The US policy is going to become more turbulent, more chaotic and more dangerous with all countries in the world including Iran,” the analyst concluded.

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