By LifeSiteNews (Politics) | Created at 2025-03-27 19:14:23 | Updated at 2025-04-05 02:23:21
1 week ago
Thu Mar 27, 2025 - 1:07 pm EDTThu Mar 27, 2025 - 1:20 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — In a powerful interview with former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, an unusually emphatic Alastair Crooke explains how and why a desperate Israel is attempting to lead the United States into war with Iran.
Crooke, a 20-year veteran of managing Israeli-Arab peace negotiations, says the U.S. is pursuing a “decapitation” strategy both in Yemen and Iran, modeled on Israel’s strikes against the leadership of Hamas.
Crooke not only says this “won’t work” – he also warns it may trigger a major war. Strikes on Iran are planned “for the spring,” he says, “whatever that means,” by an Israeli delegation in Washington.
Why the rush? Crooke says the international and 10-year-old agreement on the Iranian nuclear program expires in October 2025, and the Israelis say that the strikes can’t wait.
This agreement, known as the JCPOA, has a “snap-back” provision, meaning sanctions will be automatically applied to Iran in the absence of compliance. A U.K. government statement explained in October 2024:
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA or Iran nuclear deal) is an agreement reached in 2015 between Iran, the U.K., China, France, Germany, Russia, and the U.S. (the P5+1), to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. It was endorsed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015).
Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA in 2018, which saw Iran resume its nuclear activities after disagreements derailed a “promising start” to the attempted cooperation to halt them.
Crooke points out the fact that the U.S. “tore up” its own agreement with Iran will be understood by the Russians as a warning in any negotiations over peace in Ukraine.
“Putin has a constituency too and the constituency will say look – the Americans had an agreement with Iran. They walked away from that agreement – they tore it up – the JCPOA. Not the Iranians”
Global fallout
This is one reason why Trump’s actions on Iran may “unravel” his attempt to reset relations with Russia – not only over Ukraine, but also on a new global security architecture. The Russians will remember, Crooke says, that the U.S. is now threatening to destroy Iran over an agreement the U.S. itself reneged on:
They walked away from it. Now they say they want another [agreement]. And if they don’t get it, Iran is going to be destroyed, dismembered.
The agreement is still significant, though the sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program expired in October 2023. Yet it still provides for “snapback” – the resumption of sanctions on Iran should it be deemed to be in violation of the agreement – as the U.K. government stated in 2024:
Under the terms of the JCPOA all previous U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme can be re-imposed in the event of “significant non-performance by Iran of JCPOA commitments” (the snapback provisions).
The U.K., France and Germany and the U.S. contend that there is no credible civilian justification for Iran’s nuclear programme.
The trouble is, there is no proof that Iran is developing nuclear weapons despite Israel constantly and falsely claiming for decades that they have been doing so.
The current Iranian leadership emphasizes that it is against their religion to build such destructive weapons.
The glaring issue is that the United States is not applying the same demands to Israel which has a large cache of nuclear bombs and associated delivery systems. The U.S. has not been demanding that Israel also eliminate its nuclear weapons.
That stopped after the Kennedy brothers were assassinated after having been enraged that the Israelis stole U.S. nuclear secrets and materials, illegally developed their bombs, refused to join a nuclear arms treaty, and destabilized the Middle East, as the Kennedys warned would happen.
The Trump administration and its Western allies still refuse to accept that Iran may be developing a non-military nuclear capability. They continue to defer to Israel and its frequently false intelligence on this and many other issues regarding what they consider to be adversaries to their Greater Israel conquest plans.
Israel’s large nuclear arms stockpile is treated as though it does not exist when everyone knows that it does.
Crooke argues that a time-consuming process of tabling U.N. Security Council motions to secure this “snapback” may see the JCPOA expire before sanctions can be resumed, removing any framework for action against Iran.
“So I think this … is driving the timetable of the Iran attack,” Crooke contends.
Israel ‘desperately needs’ war with Iran
Yet there is another reason why the Israelis are pushing for the U.S. to strike Iran: “Israel desperately needs it.”
Why? Crooke says that with Israel on the brink of disintegration into civil war, a war with Iran would see Israelis “rally round the flag.” Crooke cites Netanyahu’s dismissal of the head of Shin Bet, followed yesterday by the removal of the Israeli attorney general – saying, “Israel is so deeply divided now – particularly after the sacking of the Shin Bet head – the head of the security services Ronen Bar.”
“And now, the dismissal of the attorney general. She has been dismissed. They … are talking about a strike [and] a campaign of civil disobedience.”
Widespread reports from Israel and in the Western media say that Netanyahu seeks “permanent war” to secure his grip on a fracturing state.
READ: Israel on the brink of civil war? Tensions mount as Netanyahu resumes Gaza war
“It’s not yet got to violence – but it’s getting very, very close to that,” Crooke explains.
“And so clearly what you do when your society is so severed in two? You start a war … and everyone gathers around the flag.”
Crooke says that Trump is not yet determined on military action against Iran. He quotes the president as saying: “I would rather have a peace deal than the other option. But the other option will solve the problem,” and then Crooke concludes, “I think there’s serious consideration [of U.S. military strikes on Iran].”
What kind of strikes? Rather than attacking the nuclear facilities alone, or even at all, Crooke says the U.S. seems to believe that it can simply decapitate the Iranian leadership, leading to a “cakewalk” toward regime change in Iran.
This, says Crooke, is touted as the “final solution” to stabilize the Middle East.
That is the same promise Netanyahu emphatically touted to the United States when he advocated they must attack Iraq because of its alleged “weapons of mass destruction” which proved not to exist.
It is a strategy which not only demands force but, according to Crooke, it is intended to serve the Israeli requirement that Iran be left “neutered and naked,” as the Israeli delegation insists that the technical knowledge to build nuclear facilities also be somehow removed.
This seems to mean targeted assassinations on the model of those directed at the Hezbollah and Hamas leadership – which, while weakened, have not been removed from power in Lebanon and in Gaza.
This will not work to destroy Iran’s leadership or to promote regime change, says Crooke. Such a move is far more likely in his view to spark a major war.
How close is this war? Larry Johnson asked Crooke: “Where are we now with respect to going to war in the Middle East?” to which Crooke replied: “I think that we’re on the runway, in brief.”
He says the Israeli delegation in Washington is “doing the rounds of Washington to say that Iran cannot be allowed to drag this out.”
Why is the U.S. considering military action which could leave its entire strategy in tatters? Crooke says it is not being pushed for the national interest of the USA:
It’s Israel from the beginning [which] drives the policy.
[Israel] drives what will be in that memorandum, drives what will be the conditions that will be set down for Iran to fulfill.
Crooke says “the whole team” of the Trump administration sees unconditional support for Israel as “canon law. We support Israel. No question, no discussion. We just support it. Whatever it does, we accept, even though Israel is so deeply divided.”
The U.S. is faced with an urgent demand to start another war for Israel, in order to save Israel from itself. With the threat of a major conflict, which could collapse the world economy and derail the MAGA project entirely, the Israelis are now urging Trump to press the self-destruct button.
Crooke explains how, in this critical moment, the U.S. government seems determined to follow the methodical madness of an Israeli regime in the process of destroying itself.
You can watch Alastair Crooke speak to Larry Johnson on “CounterCurrents” HERE.
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