Former EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton Talks Iran War
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Let's discuss now with Cathy Ashton, who is the EU's first High Representative in Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and a key negotiator of the previous Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA. Cathy Ashton, good morning. Welcome to Bloomberg Radio. Hello. What is your reading of the situation in the Middle East today? Do you see any path to de-escalation from where we are now? Well, I think there are a couple of things. First of all, it's important that we try and find out what exactly President Trump's ambition is for how this will end. Because on the one hand, there's a degrading of Iran's potential nuclear program. And of course, the removal of ballistic missiles and launchers and so on, preventing Iran from playing any significant role in the region or with its proxies.
And on the other hand, you have the prospect of some kind of regime change, which is a much longer process, as we know from other countries and other experiences. And where you're trying to look for people who can lead the country in a different direction. And that so far has proved, I think, quite elusive. for President Trump, despite him saying he wants to be involved in choosing that person, despite them talking about a variety of different people, some of whom have been killed, some of whom don't seem to be appearing on the horizon. So there is a sort of bigger question about what is the objective when it comes to Iran. And then, of course, there is a question of what Tehran is trying to do by sending missiles all over the Gulf.
Is it about trying to send warning signals? Is it specifically about targeting U.S. military facilities? Or as we've seen, is it broader? And are they trying to say to countries, you've got to tell the Americans and Israelis to cut back on this because it's for your own safety? Well, what should we make of the potential successes to the late Ayatollah? Trump says that his second oldest son is unacceptable. Well, that's right.
What is the current situation in the Middle East regarding Iran?
And this is where it gets kind of interesting, if I can use that word, in terms of what the Americans want to achieve. There have been a number of names that have been thrown around. Ali Larajan is one. The Ayatollah's second son is, as you say, another. If these are unacceptable people, well, where are the acceptable people? The problem in Iran has been, I think, that we don't see the level of organized opposition that you would see perhaps in other countries. And that's because they've been oppressed. It's not because people don't oppose the regime. It's because when they do, we see these massacres, we see people imprisoned and so on. So put very simplistically, if the IRGC wanted to surrender, who would they surrender to?
With your experience in negotiating with the Iranians in the past as well, is there any path from here that can lead back to diplomacy on the nuclear issue? Or was this U.S. action inevitable to try and bring an end to any prospective nuclear program in Iran? Well, this is the chosen method, if you like. When we had the JCPOA, we were confident that Iran could not build a nuclear weapon within at least 12 months of us engaging with them. In other words, that we would have at least a 12-month window in which we could take military action, we could put pressure on them and so on.
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