The Pompeo, MbS, Netanyahu Secret Meeting That Led to the Hit on the Iranian Nuclear Scientist

We begin with the assassination of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist which followed a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia between Secretary of State Pompeo, the Saudi Crown Prince MbS, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and the head of Mossad Yossi Cohen. David Hearst, the Editor of the Middle East Eye joins us from London to discuss his latest article “Exclusive: Saudi Crown Prince was reluctant to back U.S. attack on Iran” and how the hawkish Netanyahu and the cynically ambitious Pompeo were not able to get MbS to agree to a wider conflict with Iran, apparently settling on the hit on the Iranian physicist. We will assess the broader strategy of forging an alliance between Saudia Arabia, the Emirates and Israel which could end up making Israel the gateway to the Mediterranean and Europe for Gulf oil and gas exports which will mean throwing the Saudi ally Egypt under the bus by bypassing the Suez Canal.

 

A Founder of the IRGC on Israel’s Fear Iran is Three Months Away From the Bomb

Then we look further into the possible repercussions from the hit on the Iranian scientist which Iran’s Supreme Leader has vowed to avenge. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was a high ranking member of the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps who Netanyahu had singled out by name in 2018, and we speak with a founder of the IRGC, Dr. Mohsen Sazegara, who held several high ranking position during the early years of the Iranian revolution including serving as deputy prime minister in political affairs. He joins us to discuss Israel’s determination to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb now that Mossad fears the Iranians are about three months away from having two nuclear bombs after enriching enough U-235 fissile uranium following the collapse of the P5+1 nuclear agreement which Trump and Pompeo scuttled.

 

Can Trump Undo His Rhetorical Damage to Get Out the Georgia Vote in an Election He’s Called Rigged?

Then finally we go to the battleground state of Georgia where control of the U.S. Senate will be decided in the two January 5 runoff elections which are being fiercely contested with Democrats and Republicans pouring in money and resources. Jeffrey Lazarus, a Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University joins us to discuss Trump’s vilification of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State who he called “an enemy of the people” and Trump’s upcoming visits to the state next Saturday to repair the damage of his own rhetoric as he tries to encourage Republicans to vote in an election he has called rigged.