Trita Parsi

And this is part of the reason why they're so aggressive against anyone who questions that relationship.

And again, you can question that relationship.

I would, for instance, never argue in favor of having a negative relationship between the United States and Israel or between the United States or Saudi Arabia.

I want the United States to have...

a sound and healthy relationship with as many countries as possible.

But this is not sound, this is not healthy.

And I would say a lot of this is also our own fault.

At the end of the day- Well, it's all our own fault.

When we're giving endless support without questioning, without any restraint on it, it actually fuels the worst instincts of any country.

Israel is no exception in this.

I would point to how Saudi Arabia was conducting itself

up until 2017 to 2019, MBS came in and was extremely reckless.

And he constantly thought that whatever he would do, the US would come in and bail him out.

And then there was these attacks by the Iranians against Saudi oil fields in 2019 over a dispute and with the effort that the Trump administration was doing to stop the Iranians from selling their oil.

And the Saudis were stunned to see that Trump said, this was not an attack on the US.

This was an attack on Saudi Arabia.

And I'm not gonna go to war with Iran over Saudi Arabia.

This was a betrayal of the Carter Doctrine that essentially said that the US would do this.

But Trump, of course, being a non-conventional thinker and probably didn't even know about the Carter Doctrine, was like, no, I'm not gonna do this.

This was stunning for the Saudis and for everyone else in the region.