If you want to understand the current state of the conflict with Iran, I urge you to read Michael Doran’s invaluable Mosaic essay “What Iran is really up to.” The stakes are high and the conflict is complicated. The mainstream media are acting as little more than a vehicle of Iranian/Democratic disinformation and propaganda.
This week’s Tikvah podcast features Doran and is posted here at Mosaic. I have embedded it below. Doran elaborates on his essay in the podcast with this introduction:
Since May, Iran has carried out a half-dozen acts of sabotage against the U.S. and its allies. What’s the story behind these escalating provocations? Is Tehran looking for war? Is Washington? These questions are particularly pressing since, on this coming Friday, the world’s leading economic powers will gather in Osaka, Japan for the G20 summit, where the rising tensions and the matter of how to respond to them will loom large.
Earlier this week, Hudson Institute scholar Michael Doran offered a compelling account of the strategic thinking behind these recent Iranian actions. In “What Iran Is Really Up To”…Doran presented evidence that Iran is seeking to sow fear among European governments in the hope that they will pressure the Trump administration to reinstate two crucial waivers that would ensure the continued viability of Iran’s nuclear activities. This is part of a long game, writes Doran, to revive the 2015 deal and preserve Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
In our podcast this week, Michael Doran joins Jonathan Silver to explain his essay and its argument. He discusses why the revoked waivers are so important, why the Iranians believe their strategy will work, and why the biases of European governments and some prominent American Democrats play right into Iranian hands.
Steve would want me to add that the musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.
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