'Iran is next, not Greenland': Jeffrey Sachs warns Trump's Middle East moves could be disastrous

As tensions rise following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and US President Donald Trump's repeated threats to occupy Greenland, American economist Jeffrey Sachs has warned that the next and far more dangerous flashpoint could be Iran.

"My fear is that Iran is next. Keep an eye on Iran," Sachs said while speaking to India Today Global. He was responding to questions about what could follow Trump's statements on Panama, Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland.

Sachs said Israel is obsessed with Iran, and wants to overthrow the Iranian government and "the United States for reasons is basically beholden to Israel." He added, "The United States fights wars that Israel tells the United States to fight. It's very dark actually."

Referring to recent high-level political signalling, the economist said the warning signs were explicit. "When Netanyahu came to Mar-a-Lago last week around New Year, they made a joint statement basically saying Iran, you're next or you could be next," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sachs said Trump's own remarks reinforced the threat. "And Trump has said that with protests in Iran, if the government cracks down on the protests, we are basically 'locked and loaded'. We're ready to fight," he said, adding that "this is clearly a typical deep state provocation."

"In other words, we're lining up the arguments, the human rights argument. We're going to go in and invade Iran to protect the people of Iran. This is a standard playbook," he said.

The economist warned that such a move could have consequences far beyond Venezuela. "And so, this is where I would expect the possibility of a real global explosion," he said. "And I would give a warning that one will be hotter than Venezuela if it happens."

Sachs explained why Iran represents a fundamentally different and more dangerous theatre. "It would be potentially disastrous because while Venezuela is in the American geographic neighborhood and China and Russia don't want to take on the United States in the Western Hemisphere, Iran is in the middle of a lot of major powers," he said.

He continued, "And Iran is itself with hypersonic missiles and a capacity to do a lot of harm and a lot of damage, and Israel is a nuclear-armed country. All in all, it's a recipe for potential disaster."

The noted economist said that sound heads in Washington should stop Trump. "This is not a joke. This is not a game. This is not appealing to your base. This is not social media. This is not some play. This is reality, and stop it before things get out of control," he said.

Sachs said the scale and frequency of Trump's threats were unprecedented. "Trump has threatened Iran, Mexico, Colombia, obviously Venezuela, Denmark, and Nigeria in the last couple of weeks. A president of the United States making dire threats against half a dozen other countries," he said.

"He's also saying that the government of Cuba is about to fall. All of this is just like lighting the fuse all over the place, and things could get really dangerous and so world leaders need to wake up," Sachs said.

When asked about Europe's muted response on Venezuela, Sachs criticised what he described as selective outrage. "It's interesting with the Europeans in panic over the statements about Greenland. They say don't touch us," he said. "But they're so scared, so hypocritical, by the way, that they don't complain about Venezuela, but they say, 'Don't come after us.'"

Sachs said European leaders need to act consistently. "European leaders need to stand up and be real human beings, not just vassals," he said. "And they have to say it's not right in Greenland, but it's also not right in Venezuela. It's not right in Iran. They have to stop playing the subservient vassals of the United States."

The US State Department's Farsi account on January 4 published a picture of Trump along with the caption, "Don't play games with President Trump." The message was written in red text in Farsi.

The post featured a picture of Trump alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with other officials standing behind them, and contained an additional warning that "President Trump is a man of action. If you didn't know, now you know."

Trump's message was about the possibility of dealing with the regime in a similar way to what he did in Venezuela, where the forces in a midnight operation captured Nicolas Maduro.