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Chas W. Freeman, Jr. returns to the program with strong comments, diplomatically delivered, about Trump’s developing foreign policy.Freeman spent more than 30 years in the US Foreign Service, and at the State and Defense departments. He was ambassador to Saudi Arabia 1989-91. He withdrew his nomination to serve on Obama’s National Intelligence Council in 2009 after attacks from allies of Israel, for which he now expresses great relief.His most recent book is America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East.
We open with Freeman’s general comments on the first 3 weeks of the Trump administration, and talk about the early announcement of new sanctions on Iran for dubious reasons, and Trump’s uninformed view that the Iran nuclear deal is only between the US and Iran. We talk about Israel’s illegal settlements, the attempt to retroactively legalize them, and Obama’s abstention on the UN Security Council vote in early January.
Freeman says the right-wing Zionist government in Israel is “doing itself in” and dryly notes that Israel is effective in manipulating the US.
There’s much more in this wide-ranging discussion, touching on Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya. And near the end, Freeman endorses BDS, boycott/divestment/sanctions on Israel, with some limitations.