<div dir="ltr"><p style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;line-height:26.08px;margin:0px 0px 10px;text-align:left;text-decoration:none"><b style="background-color:transparent"><a href="https://therealnews.com/stories/nato-shields-u-s-from-its-military-adventures">https://therealnews.com/stories/nato-shields-u-s-from-its-military-adventures</a></b><br></p><p style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;line-height:26.08px;margin:0px 0px 10px;text-align:left"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">EIRIK VOLD:</span> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px">Well, I mean, the one hypothesis, I’m sure, is that he’s sort of hedging, he’s trying to shield himself from future allegation of him colluding, or, or caving in to Putin if he gives-. Which is, which are sure to come, if he gives even the slightest, tiniest concession to the Russians, or try to sort of deescalate the very dangerous and unnecessary tensions between the nuclear powers, U.S. and my neighbor country, Russia. So I’m sure he-. That’s one hypothesis.</span><br></p><span style="float:none;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;display:inline">
</span><p style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;line-height:26.08px;margin:0px 0px 10px;text-align:left;text-decoration:none">Now, I think a more compelling hypothesis is simply that Trump is being, just as he’s being a salesman for, for the U.S. arms industry when he’s pushing Europe to, to increase its military spending, and particularly buy U.S.-made weaponry. He is being now, he’s speaking on behalf of the U.S. oil and gas industry, the petroleum industry, trying to convince Europe to substitute Russian petroleum for U.S. gas, and basically capturing the European market for U.S. gas exports. That is a more compelling hypothesis.</p><span style="float:none;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;display:inline">
</span><p style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;line-height:26.08px;margin:0px 0px 10px;text-align:left;text-decoration:none">Now, let’s keep in mind that I think that Trump can better be understood as a businessman than as a person who is particularly ideological when it comes to international relations. And in this case I don’t think it’s particularly interesting to see his personal opinion. Putin doesn’t really count, because Trump wants a more, he probably wants a more constructive relationship between the U.S. and Russia. But he doesn’t necessarily want a constructive relationship between Europe and Russia, because that relationship would mean further economic relations between Europe and Russia, and it would mean a bigger difficulty, would mean an obstacle, particularly the Nord Stream pipeline which he’s talking about, will mean an obstacle for U.S. petroleum exports to Europe.</p><span style="float:none;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;display:inline">
</span><p style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;line-height:26.08px;margin:0px 0px 10px;text-align:left;text-decoration:none">So I think this is, what we’re seeing here, is Trump the oil industry and arms industry salesman, and that’s both in the case of his demand, his complaints about Europe’s military spending, and his, to some, very surprising rant against German imports of Russian energy resources.</p><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 11:01 AM C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space">Right to be reminded that there are factions in the political establishments of all three countries, serving a variety of interests. <div><br></div><div><br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jul 12, 2018, at 10:52 AM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" target="_blank">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="m_6042704643376965599Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div>[...]</div><div><br></div><div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;font-family:"Noto Sans",Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14.000000953674316px">But not everyone shared the same positive reading. To some, the message could be a series of warnings “about Russia’s recent anti-Iran stances in OPEC by siding with Saudi Arabia … and frequent meetings with the Israelis," an article in pro-reform <a href="http://jamehirani.ir/fa/201807114593/%d9%88%d9%84%d8%a7%db%8c%d8%aa%db%8c-%d8%ad%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%84-%da%86%d9%87-%d9%be%db%8c%d8%a7%d9%85%db%8c-%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%db%8c-%d9%be%d9%88%d8%aa%db%8c%d9%86-%d8%a7%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%9f/" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(51,122,183);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Jameh Irani</a> read, echoing a cynical view of Russian motives. "Russians always lean toward the side that serves their interests.”</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 10px;font-family:"Noto Sans",Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14.000000953674316px">The debate over Iran-Russia relations has always been heated in Iran, with some arguing that Moscow has historically proven to be untrustworthy. Those holding that view even believe that Putin and Trump might reach a secret deal that is against Iran’s oil and regional interests. <a href="http://www.ghatreh.com/news/nn43392009/%D8%AF%D8%B3%D8%AA%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%A8%DB%8C-%DA%86%D8%A7%D8%B1%DA%86%D9%88%D8%A8%DB%8C-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B4%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84%D9%87-%DB%8C%DA%A9%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A8%D9%87-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D9%85%D8%B1%DB%8C%DA%A9%D8%A7" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(51,122,183);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Hossein Sheikholeslam</a>, an adviser to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, however, dismissed those speculations. “Trump will not reach an agreement with Putin or with anyone else," he said, according to Ghatreh. "He is a supremacist and a pharaoh who seeks to impose his own will on the other side, be it the Europeans, the Russians or the Chinese.”</p><span style="box-sizing:border-box"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"><div><font face="Noto Sans, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14.000000953674316px">- Iran supreme leader’s top aide in Moscow to ‘deliver message’</span></font></div><div><font face="Noto Sans, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14.000000953674316px">Al-Monitor Staff July 11, 2018</span></font></div><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/07/iran-velayati-moscow-visit-russia-putin-special-message.html#ixzz5L3WwkEbH" style="color:rgb(0,51,153);font-family:"Noto Sans",Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14.000000953674316px;box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/07/iran-velayati-moscow-visit-russia-putin-special-message.html</a></span><br></div><div><br></div>===<div><br clear="all"><div><div class="m_6042704643376965599gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Robert Naiman<br>Policy Director<br>Just Foreign Policy<br><a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><div><span style="text-align:left">(202) 448-2898 x1</span></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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