Middle East Eye

Is Trump's "peace through strength" mantra just a facade?

This week, the US President doubled down on threats to Iran, promising to bomb the country if they don't agree to new restrictions on their nuclear program.

In 2017, Trump tore up a US-led nuclear deal with Iran, under which Iran's government had promised to allow greater transparency over what it says is a civilian nuclear power program.

In exchange, the US and Europe would ease crippling economic sanctions that have stopped the oil-rich country from trading with large parts of the world.

Trump's most recent threats are part of a growing pattern of moves that have renewed fears of instability in the Middle East, which threaten to spill out into another round of regional war.

Speaking on MEE Live, Middle East Eye's editor in chief David Hearst says Trump is surrounded in his second term by figures even more intent on military domination than he is, and their language of peace is just a smokescreen for a campaign to create a new hegemony in the Middle East with Israel at its centre.