Transcript of RT interview, 24 June

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RT: 0:00
Let's cross live now to Professor Gilbert Doctorow, former visiting scholar at Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Many thanks for joining us on the programme, very good to see you today. So, needless to say, it's been an extraordinary few hours. Last we heard from Trump, he was clearly seething and not happy at all with Israel or Iran, after what he said were breaches of the agreement that he helped to broker and was so happy to brag about. Talk us through your reaction to his words there, because usually it's just Iran that he would be critical of but this time it's Israel and Iran he's very critical of.

Gilbert Doctorow, PhD: 0:41
President Trump has many enemies. These enemies are the obvious ones, the Democratic Party. Part of the Republican Party does not like him. And I would say the vast majority of the alternative media, my confreres, my fellow colleagues who are informing the general public about the points in the news that mainstream doesn't touch. They are mostly anti-Trump as well.

1:12
I have dealt with the last week's developments, starting with the attack that Trump ordered on the three Iranian nuclear sites. I have taken a very different approach than almost all of my colleagues, because they are so anti-Trump that they can't imagine that the man could do something good. I tried to imagine what motivated him to commit an act of aggression, an act that is in violation of the American Constitution and also of an American law requiring the president to consult with Congress before making a war act on a sovereign state. And what I found when I put aside all prejudice, or as much prejudice as it is humanly possible to do, is, [there] might just have been a logic to Mr. Trump's actions, a logic which was proven in the last day by the announcement of a ceasefire.

2:13
The logic was that he, Trump, was preempting a nuclear strike by Israel on those very same sites. Let's face it. Israel has been losing the war with Iran, losing it badly. We don't know how badly because of strict military censorship in Israel, which means that the presence of the BBC and Reuters and the rest of it means nothing. They're not allowed to do any real coverage of the war damage.

They only can show some pitiful destruction of apartments. So the general public has no idea that Israel is on the ropes. Israel's infrastructure, essential to its economy, has been degraded. Its most important port, Haifa, has been largely destroyed or made inoperable because no merchant ship will go near Haifa for fear of being blown up by the Iranians. So the Israeli economy is badly wounded.

3:11
Now, we don't know this when you pick up the "Financial Times" or the "New York Times", but I'm telling you that from listening to Russian reports, listening to Indian reports, I deal regularly as a commentator, and to the most important Indian international broadcasters. And I listen to their programs, which are very, very sage and balanced. I have information which I've used to come to the conclusion that Mr. Trump was preventing Israel from doing what it could do on its own to destroy those nuclear sites, which could only be nuclear weapons. America had conventional weapons which would do the job, supposedly. Mr Trump declared victory and he left Mr Netanyahu with nothing to say except to do what we see now, enter into a ceasefire.

RT: 4:02
Well, this is what puzzles me, Doctor, is that Trump and now JD Vance as well have been bragging that those nuclear sites in Iran have been, quote, "completely obliterated". Why then should Israel continue to keep hitting those sites?

Doctorow:
Because they're looking-- Mr. Netanyahu is desperate to continue the war because it's the only thing that prevents his being arrested for various charges that have been in suspense due to his presidential, his prime ministerial powers. He is fighting for his personal political salvation at the expense of the welfare of his country. Israel is going down. Israel is being destroyed. And finally, Mr. Trump has stepped in.

4:49
What we have seen in the last week has enabled many of my peers to understand for the first time that the relationship between the United States and Israel is not what Mr. Meerscheimer has been saying for the last 18 years, that Israel dictates foreign policy to the United States. No. The relationship most recently has been the same as the American relationship with Ukraine, using Ukraine as a battering ram to impose a strategic defeat on Russia. The United States has been using Israel to wound Iran and to make revenge for the injuries that the United States has held close to its chest since 1980, and the hostage-taking of the American embassy in Tehran.

5:41
This was the explanation that Mr. Trump gave in his speech to the nation two days ago on why Iran was a dangerous enemy and terrorist state and had to be stopped. Fine. That was all theatrics. The reality is Mr Trump has stepped in and saved Israel from self-destruction. He's been kinder to Israel than America has been to Kiev.

RT: 6:07
Really appreciate your time today. Many thanks for joining us on the program, Professor Gilbert Doctorow, former visiting scholar, Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Thank you very much.

Doctorow: 6:18
My pleasure.