Scott interviews Trita Parsi about his paper concerning the intervention of Middle East powers over the last decade. Parsi and his coauthor Matthew Petti found that, contrary to the picture often painted of one malign actor driving all the instability, there are really six Middle Eastern countries engaging in a lot of foreign intervention. Iran, which is currently the U.S. foreign policy establishment’s favorite villain, is no more interventionist than the other five. And that most instability in the modern Middle East can be traced back to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Finally, Parsi talks about the Iran Nuclear Deal, which he says was gravely threatened when Biden dragged his feet at the beginning of his presidency. 

Discussed on the show:

“No Clean Hands: The Interventions of Middle Eastern Powers, 2010-2020” (Quincy Institute)

“How to Make Iran Trust a New Nuclear Deal” (Foreign Policy)

Trita Parsi is the president of the National Iranian American Council and the author of Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy. Parsi is the recipient of the 2010 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Follow him on Twitter @tparsi.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee and Listen and Think Audio.

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