Jeffrey Sachs on the Real Origins of the Iran War and the Coming Economic Devastation

“If he says instead, uh, we can't wait any longer. We're going to attack, I believe we will see a different world four weeks from now. uh a world uh that is uh profoundly damaged, the world economy in crisis, the possibility of escalation to a full world war. And I don't think I'm being hyperbolic uh or naive to say that we are at that fork in the road right now.”

“Right now there is a an ongoing building global serious economic crisis and that is because uh a uh narrow stretch of water through which uh comes a an enormous extremely important strategic flow of resources... oil and gas obviously, but also fertilizers and petrochemicals and uh many many other key commodities... is closed.”

“And that is what's called the clean break strategy. The clean break was the clean break from the peace accords, from the land for peace idea that Israel would return to its borders... specifically seven wars uh were designated that would overthrow governments supporting Palestinian militancy. And those governments were, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.”

“Where does this hatred and venom come from? uh with respect to the United States, it's very simple... in 1979, as the sha of Iran was dying of cancer, the people uh led a revolution, an uprising... The United States hated that. When you're an empire as we are, when you have protectorates, when you have uh places where you have your military... that led to uh a reputational question.”

“In 2015, such an agreement was reached, the joint comprehensive plan of action, the JCPOA. It was reached not only with the United States, but with Britain, with France, with Russia, with China, and with Germany... Then came the Zionist lobby in the United States. Oh no, you can't have an agreement with Iran. They're the evil empire. You can't do this.”

“Iran has not invaded or attacked another country for a century and a half. This was a peaceful country... it had been invaded several times. But it was a democracy that didn't threaten anybody, didn't want to threaten anybody, hadn't threatened anybody, hadn't invaded uh any place actually since the 1790s.”

“But if you combine a mass uh destruction in West Asia, the Gulf, the Eastern Mediterranean, uh with a super El Nino, I don't even know. Somebody's going to have to write the next book quickly about this because we would not have had a shock like that since World War II. Certainly. and the effects on political destabilization uh on the effects of governments falling the potential cascading of this war would be tremendous and uncontrollable.”

“The reason is that the Iranians have not pursued a nuclear weapon. Our own intelligence agencies have said that repeatedly. What they have pursued though is a treaty with the UN Security Council to confirm that to put them under strict monitoring under the nuclear non-prololiferation treaty but in return for ending the US economic warfare on Iran.”