The President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis, was a guest on Evangelia Baltatzi’s show on ERT today, June 16th, where he spoke about the dramatic developments ongoing in the Middle East. As he noted, “Mr Netanyahu has opened the gates of hell”, pointing to the escalation of military conflicts and the gradual collapse of international order.
Mr Tsoukalis referred to the cancellation of the international agreement on the control of Iran’s nuclear programme by the first Trump administration in 2018 and the negative consequences of that decision, noting that an international agreement—and not Israeli bombing of Iran—is the safest road to prevent further nuclear proliferation.
He stressed that under Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel is increasingly acting as a dominant power in the wider Middle East, exploiting its military superiority and the admittedly impressive ability of its intelligence services to infiltrate the opposing camps, while the country is simultaneously becoming a pariah for the international community. He also noted that Israel’s armoury and its enemies’ fears will not be sufficient to ensure the security of Israel and its citizens in the future. Professor Tsoukalis pointed to the role played by the US and President Trump, who, whether he knew about Israel’s intervention in Iran in advance or not, now risks being dragged by the Israeli Prime Minister into the perilous military escalation his predecessors have repeatedly striven to avoid.
Click to listen to the interview, in Greek.
Experts
