The Bottom Line

In this episode, experts with divergent world views agreed on one thing: it’s unlikely that the United States will resume the war on Iran. Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton tells host Steve Clemons that he still hopes for “regime collapse” in Iran, but that US President Donald Trump has failed to achieve his goals. In the second half, Georgetown University Associate Professor Nader Hashemi argues that the war had an opposite effect – strengthening Iran – and that the people of the region view the war “through the prism of the genocide in Gaza and what Israel is doing in Lebanon right now”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile

The greatest threat to stability in the Middle East is not Iran, but “the US working closely together with Israel”, argues United States political scientist John Mearsheimer. Mearsheimer tells host Steve Clemons that the notion that the US and Israel are making a safer, more stable Middle East is “ludicrous”. And the idea that Iran is “the great destabiliser” in the region is “a myth that the US and Israel purvey”. After US President Donald Trump insisted that “We have all the cards; they have none”, Mearsheimer says the exact opposite is true - “and that's why we are in desperate straits”. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile

“The US has won” because Iran has become “incapable of being a significant threat” to the United States for at least three years, argues retired Lieutenant Colonel James Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Carafano tells host Steve Clemons that even if Iran were to rebound, “Trump will just mow the grass… and bomb them back to where they were.” The importance of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's ability to control access to it are exaggerated, Carafano argued. Israeli ideas of changing the government in Tehran are “irrelevant”, Carafano added, “because they can’t do it without us”.

“There is no good outcome” that can be gained from the United States-Israel war on Iran, argues the former ambassador of France to the US, Gerard Araud. Responding to US President Donald Trump’s attempts to get European countries more involved in the war effort, Araud tells host Steve Clemons that “If you wanted us at the landing, you should have thought of us at the takeoff.” Araud says the current moment is similar to the US quagmire in Vietnam in the 1960s, when the White House continued to surge and escalate, creating “an illusion” that the war was nearing a conclusion.

Israel’s leaders have finally found a United States president “stupid enough and reckless enough” to join them in a war against Iran, argues US Senator Chris Van Hollen. Van Hollen, a Democrat, tells host Steve Clemons that the US capacity to degrade the Iranian military has never been in question. “The question is to what end, both in lives and treasure,” he says. On the attempts by Israeli and US officials to frame the war as a holy quest, Van Hollen argues that “The last thing the world needs is a religious war.”

Even though the joint United States-Israeli war on Iran is in its early days, “we already are in a scenario where the US has lost control of this war,” argues Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. Nasr tells host Steve Clemons that Iran is the weaker party, but it “has the capability to create a much longer mayhem” than envisioned by the US and Israel. US goals for this war may be unclear, but “Israel’s goal is to arrive at a point where it’s the supreme power in the Mideast”, says Nasr.

US President Donald Trump is falling into the same trap as his predecessor, Joe Biden, when he tries to convince Americans that they’re better off financially, argues YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen. Cohen and Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, join host Steve Clemons to dissect Trump’s State of the Union address and vision for the United States. One of Trump’s strengths is the weakness of his main opposition, the Democratic Party, argues Cohen, as the party acts “in a way that's completely untethered to how the vast majority of Democrats actually feel”.

At its peak, the BRICS coalition of economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – was seen as a serious attempt to move away from the United States dollar and the domination of Western economic institutions like the World Bank, Group of Seven (G7), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). But BRICS members have different political agendas, and new forces are at play, argues economist Jim O’Neill, a member of Britain's House of Lords. O’Neill, who coined the term "BRIC" 25 years ago, tells host Steve Clemons that the US's economic policies may be the driver of its own decline, coupled with the economic rise of China and India. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile

The Republican Party currently controls the White House and both houses of Congress in the United States. But will that change in November? Among Republican voters, US President Donald Trump is still wildly popular, despite criticism over uneven economic conditions and brutal anti-immigration tactics. And within the Democratic Party establishment, there is no sign of a desire to shift towards a more progressive, less centrist platform – even as left-leaning Democratic Socialists make gains. Host Steve Clemons asks Republican strategist John Feehery and Amy Dacey, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, about Trumpism and the election prospects of both parties.

If the Trump administration adopts Israel’s “red lines” in the negotiations with Iran, the talks are doomed, argues Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Parsi tells host Steve Clemons that Iran is willing to reach a deal on its nuclear programme, as it did in 2015 with then-President Barack Obama. But a lot depends on “whether the US is willing to push back against Israel or not”. Israeli officials were “very upset” that the United States has so far chosen diplomacy over war, and demand that the US add new issues – especially Iran’s ballistic missiles – to the agenda. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile