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.

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Will Trump adopt Israel’s ‘red lines’ on Iran? | The Bottom Line

United States plans for Gaza amount to a “theme park of dispossession” for Palestinians, argues Drop Site News Middle East Editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

Abdel Kouddous tells host Steve Clemons the draconian measures planned for the two million shell-shocked Palestinians in Gaza are an Orwellian labyrinth of biometrics, bureaucracy and “a lab for government surveillance” – all meant to drive them out.

Noting that Israel hasn’t “gone past phase one” of any ceasefire agreement with an Arab country, Abdel Kouddous warns that Israel is establishing facts on the ground in Gaza – including 50 military bases – “which eventually become permanent”.

Gaza’s daily nightmare vs US talk of AI-driven smart cities | The Bottom Line

United States President Donald Trump realises “the rules-based international order” never existed, and he’s “willing to turn his back on that”, former Trump administration official Christian Whiton argues.

Whiton tells Steve Clemons that US foreign policy remained fairly consistent over the past 80 years while Trump is happy to upset “the globalists and the establishment unity party in Washington - Republican and Democrat - and all the generals”.

In Europe, the US would like to see more populist, anti-immigration governments, Whiton said, adding that Western societies should “cast aside” the idea that they are “inherently racist, a patriarchy [with] … a racist, imperialist history”.

Why is Trump upending 80 years of US foreign policy? | The Bottom Line

China’s domination of minerals - especially the copper needed for electrification, data centres, robots, cellphones and defence technology - is pushing the United States to ramp up its control of oil and minerals worldwide, argues Daniel Yergin, one of the world’s top experts in the economics of oil.

In this episode, Yergin explains how Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Russia and other issues are connected to the business of oil and the competition to control Earth's minerals. And while US President Donald Trump’s motives in Venezuela and Greenland are unclear, Yergin says one thing is certain: The US is desperate to achieve supply chain independence from China.

How much of Trump’s foreign policy is driven by minerals and oil? | The Bottom Line

America First foreign policy means that the United States is becoming a country that opposes the rule of law, free trade and collective security, argues Ian Bremmer, president of the risk analysis firm Eurasia Group.

Bremmer tells host Steve Clemons that the international system built by the US over decades “was going to reach a geopolitical bust” regardless of the advent of President Donald Trump.

Washington’s decision to project power in Venezuela, coupled with rhetoric threatening Greenland, “makes the US more unreliable for its allies”, according to Bremmer, “and a much bigger driver of geopolitical risk on the global stage”.

After Maduro: Is the US driving global instability? | The Bottom Line

The United States has realised it cannot keep “trying to police the whole world”, argues Victor Gao, the vice president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing.

Gao tells host Steve Clemons that improved China-US relations are “inevitable” although he warns that some American policymakers still view China as the number one threat and Chinese officials “never underestimate what American neofascists will cook up next”.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Gao maintains that Beijing has replaced Washington as the world’s champion of free trade and won’t allow the US to dominate the field of artificial intelligence.

Has the US made peace with the rise of China?

Months after being attacked by the United States and Israel, Iran finds itself in the crosshairs again, with Israeli officials lobbying US President Donald Trump to address Tehran's ballistic missiles.

Veteran Iranian diplomat Javad Zarif tells host Steve Clemons that "everybody lost any faith in diplomacy" after Israel and the US attacked Iran following five rounds of reconciliation talks between Washington and Tehran.

Zarif added that Israel has historically thwarted every opportunity for reconciliation between Iran and the US, and that Trump's style of diplomacy is disastrous, as it creates "negotiations that end up in war".

Javad Zarif: Main threat to the Middle East is Israel, not Iran | The Bottom Line

Two months ago, United States President Donald Trump held an international gala to celebrate his 20-point plan for peace in Gaza, but his plan has been stuck in phase one since then.

Bronwen Maddox, the director of Chatham House – one of the world’s leading think tanks – argues that while Trump’s ceasefire slowed the horrific Israeli bombing of Gaza, “that doesn't mean we've got a plan for the future".

Maddox tells host Steve Clemons that Iran is weaker, but Israel’s campaign to destabilise its neighbours, such as Syria, is dragging the region into further conflict, not peace and prosperity.

Trump declared a 'new Middle East’ – but what has changed? | The Bottom Line

After years of support from the United States for the Ukraine war to continue “as long as it takes”, the Trump administration is now pushing to end Europe’s war – quickly and imperfectly.

While details are still under negotiation, they include issues such as ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and Russia’s control over about 20 percent of Ukraine.

To understand the implications for Europe, the US and their relations, host Steve Clemons speaks with Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, and retired Colonel Heino Klinck, former director of US Army international affairs.

Will Trump’s ‘imperfect plan’ for ending the Ukraine war work? | The Bottom Line

US diplomacy under President Donald Trump has a bigger chance of success because it focuses on transactional deals that “translate into improvements of people’s lives” instead of “theories about democracy, freedom and human rights”, argues Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Kagame, who has led Rwanda for more than 30 years, tells host Steve Clemons that he’s “never seen the level of focus, attention, energy and pressure” that the US president brought to the conflict between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, which led to the signing of a tentative deal between the two sides in Washington on December 4.

Kagame: ‘Never seen this much attention’ to ending Africa war

A weekly take on US politics and policies and how they affect the world.

The Bottom Line

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