John Mearheimer: Every country in the world, including the USA, is desperate to avoid war with Iran except Israel and the UAE, but Israel may well be powerful enough to make it happen

The interview on Judging Freedom 4 hours ago is here.

The Chinese import 1.4 million barrels of oil from Iran a day. Are they just going to sit back and allow the Iranian leadership to be toppled if Netanyahu and Trump attack?

No, they're going to go to great lengths to help Iran. And as I said to you before, with the passage of time the Chinese especially, but also the Russians, are going to help the Iranians more and more. And that's why I said to you a year from now when we'll when we're talking about this issue, right? It will be clear that the China Russia dimension will be more important then than it is now. But it's already
important now. 

I want to make one other quick point to you just to put this whole crisis in perspective. 

I believe that virtually every country in the Middle East except maybe the UAE, which is pretty closely allied with Israel, but virtually every other country in the Middle East, plus the Chinese, plus the Russians, want this war to not happen. The only country that really wants it to happen is Israel. As we've talked about, the Americans really don't want this war. Trump doesn't want to fight a war against Iran. He's being pushed down this road by the Israelis.

So, you see the remarkable power of Israel simply because it has such a hold over American policy makers. 

Just think about it. Every country in the Middle East except maybe the UAE is desperate to avoid this war. The Chinese and the Russians don't want this war. Trump really doesn't want this war. Who wants this war? Benjamin Netanyahu.

Well, will he get the war that he wants?

Boy, it's very hard to say. I go back and forth on this one. 

On the one hand I say this war can't happen because we can't achieve our goals by striking Iran. And furthermore you have to take into account what Iran can do in retaliation. You were just talking about the Straits of Hormuz and what the consequences would be if that one heated up. And of course, the Iranians are going to launch ballistic missiles at
Israel as well. So, it's hard to see why it makes sense to start this war from a purely strategic point of view. 

But then, it looks like Trump has boxed himself in. And furthermore, the Israelis appear to be putting enormous pressure on him to go to war against
Iran. And you know, can he disobey his masters? I don't think so. 

So that pushes me in the other direction. So I feel one day war is inevitable because of pressure from the Israelis and the next day I think it's not going to happen because I can't tell a story as to how a war leads to some sort of happy ending for all the parties. Don't the Israelis with their intel and military superiority or at least accomplished excellence from their perspective understand how devastating to Israel this war would be? 

No countries in the world except Israel and UAE want war but the serried host of female journalists in London, Sarah Vine, Alison Pearson, Ruth Dudley Edwards and the rest are baying for blood like tricoteuses and seem honestly to think a US attack brought about by Israel and shamefully supported by the UK will make Iran a happier place. Astonishingly they have the idea that the December protests were spontaneous and directed against the regime itself rather than hardship caused a vertiginous fall of the rial which Scott Besant has admitted the US deliberately brought about. 

They are experienced journalists.

Don't take very seriously again any journalist who wants war with Iran - they are either propagandists or bloody fools or both - and never ever again for a moment trust ones who say Epstein worked for Russia.