the President of Iran Hassan rouhani
said the way to avenge general Qasem
Soleimani
death was to drive the United States out
of the Middle East he said this morning
they have cut off our dear soul emani's
hand the revenge would be to cut
america's feet from this region he said
that would be the real revenge and final
answer of regional nations to America
well joining me now from Kuwait is
Professor for sure as an expert on
relations between the Middle East and
the West thank you very much professor
jj's for joining us at this attack on
the air bases was very much and very
deliberately so from Iran no hint of a
proxy carrying out this retaliation on
its behalf but will there be more
because will the hardliners say that
this is not enough to avenge general
Soleimani s death well I think what I
see is that both sides the United States
and Iran are trying to climb down from
the tree why because neither side wants
all-out military confrontation which I
checked with you know with each other
the Iranians have made it very clear
from day one after the assassination of
sulemani they do not really want all-out
war with the United States and they have
stressed all along the proportional
nature of their retaliation they have
never said that they were going to
release somehow escalate beyond any kind
of proportional response my take on it
is that Iran now what we have seen by
striking directly against American bases
from Iran as opposed by Iranian proxies
Iran now can go back and say to its
people look we have retaliated we have
initiated action we have basically
avenged the blood of sulemani this does
not really mean at all that Iranian
proxies will not wage a relentless
attacks against the United States even
though Iran itself might not really
basically strike further against America
horses make no mistake about it this is
the beginning they prolong basically
confrontation between Iran on the one
hands and and its proxies and the United
States and its allies so even though
there's a sigh of relief in the region
so far that this basically both Donald
Trump and the Iranian leadership are
climbing down from the tree I think the
next few days and next few weeks are
going to be extremely dangerous in this
ongoing clash between the two sides and
we wait to get a full report of exactly
how much damage has been done to those
bases whether there are any casualties
what role do you see European nations
who are trying to you know bridge that
gulf between Iran and the u.s. what role
do you see them playing and do you think
they can bring some influence to bear
either on Iranian actions or on the
actions decided by Donald Trump I think
this is a very very important moment now
it seems to me that we have basically
overcome this particular cycle of
escalation so far so far it seems to me
now you need adults in the room and
Europe and European powers which the
Foreign Minister would be meeting on
Friday to discuss the European unified
response to the crisis I think this is
the moment for the European powers
including the UK and Germany and France
and other powers to really play kind of
a mediating role between Iran and the
United States because on their own
neither the United States nor Iran will
be able to resolve that differences I
think we know what needs to be done what
needs to be done is that basically
preserving the nuclear deal which
President Trump pulled out unilaterally
from it in 2018 trying to basically lift
the economic sanctions the Donald Trump
sanctions which he has imposed again
unilaterally against Iran
I mean again for your own viewers what
we need to understand about this crisis
this is a man's made crisis
it really is Donald Trump's crisis he
manufactured the crisis by pulling out
unilaterally from a nuclear deal that
was signed by his predecessor Barack
Obama and the European powers and Russia
and China this is the moment now for
Europe to stand up and try to offer Iran
a way out and also offer Donald Trump
who seems to be also locked in this
cycle of escalation a deal I think my
take on it is that both sides need to be
brought to the table how by trying to
offer Iran some economic relief the
Iranian economy is bleeding it has had
major impact on social harmony and peace
inside Iran and also by trying to
negotiate other a wider deal between
Iran and the great powers or basically
tried to revive the previous nuclear
deal that was signed in 2015 by Iran and
the six great powers okay professor if I
was Georgia as we must leave it there
but thank you very much for your
thoughts on all of this today Thanks