Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was National Security Advisor in the Carter Administration, believes military collaboration between the U.S. and Israel in the Middle East would be a monumental geo-political error.
He told the Swiss daily La Tribune De Geneve, in an interview published today, that such military collaboration aimed at changing the balance of power in Lebanon or to punish those responsible for terrorist acts “would be a grave mistake on our part.”
Brzezinski maintained that “This would signify that Washington is abandoning its role as mediator in the region to become an engaged protagonist. The European countries will, in such a case, dissociate themselves from the U.S. and the Soviet Union will no longer remain passive in the face of such a coalition,” he said. He noted that Moscow has kept a low profile in Lebanon so far, even though it backs Syria.
Brzezinski characterized the existing relations between the U.S. and Israel as bad. “If currently and in the short term, the interests of both countries may coincide, in the long term the Israeli policy may prove disastrous for the United States,” he said. He added that the believed Israel was utilizing its rapprochement with Washington to distract the U.S. from a comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East which is currently at an impasse.
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