'Very dangerous point': Former British Commander makes chilling WWIII claim

well in the wake of the tragic death of palestinian-american reporter srin Abu baklay questions and tensions have been elevated as to how this veteran journalist was caught in the line of fire while clearly being marked as the press and by whom to help make sense of that situation of the Ukraine of Israel's relationship with Russia and of what is happening with Iran more importantly we are now joined by a favorite here on Outsiders he's here in Sydney he's here in The Outsiders Studio Colonel Richard Kemp great to see you how are you Richard see you in a real pleasure thank you welcome to Sydney we often see you on Skype and during covert we saw you and all locked away wherever but you're here in Sydney welcome to Sydney I hope we're treating you it's been bucketing down because as you know the climate change gurus told us it would never rain again I apologize um Richard let's go uh let's go first to Ukraine because uh you know that's all that's happening in the news give us your take on the Ukraine and the various relationships I think the first thing I'd say is is not to take too much notice of what most of the mainstream media has got to say about Ukraine because most of them and I'm think I'm thinking really more here about what I was watching the in the UK particularly the BBC most of them are really just regurgitating the Ukrainian General staff's perspective on what's Happening they're not taking account of of other perspectives such as what the Russians are saying they're doing and very often that does lead to a distorted picture but I think in reality the Russians are doing their best now as we speak to take the whole of the donbass region in East Eastern Crimea eastern Ukraine and they're being quite successful at that I think they're hammering the hell unfortunately out of the ukrainians with artillery and then going in to mop them up it's a slot a slow long process but I think eventually Unfortunately they will probably Prevail in eastern Ukraine they will also have no doubt consolidate their gains that they've made very effective gains in southern uh Ukraine taking most of the Southern Coastline of Ukraine and then at that point I think once they're happy they will what Putin wants Peterson's happy Awards he's got he will ask for peace and I'm sure that people like President macron Chancellor Schultz will push Ukraine into accepting whatever the Russians are asking for James but there do seem to be an awful lot of people who want to be using this um conflict in Ukraine as it looks to me to create a real conflict directly between the US and Moscow and you see this being pushed in a lot of the media that's you know constantly pushing all of these different stories about the Admiral Makarov ship this week and you know the coast of Kiev last week what do you make of that and I know macron wants to find an off ramp but are you concerned that there are other players in this that want to actually escalate this rather than come to some sort of conclusion that's not great but is better than you know the alternative I don't think the Americans if you're talking about the Americans have a desire to escalate this conflict I think what they have a desire to do is to support Ukraine to to prevent Putin from dominating the whole of Ukraine or even any part of Ukraine but not only for that reason also because if you if Putin is successful in Ukraine in any way then that makes him even more dangerous as long as he stays in the Kremlin and threatens other Eastern Europe country European countries including other NATO countries so I think that's it's quite important that happens I don't agree with people like president macron who says let's let's give Putin a face-saving way out of this and give him a chunk of of Ukraine well would he give him a chunk of France if it was that it's happened in the past well exactly is is Putin mad I wouldn't have said he's mad no I think he's um he's got a very different perspective on life from us but I don't think I wouldn't say he's clinically insane um I think what he wants is to give himself the uh the rep the the the uh Legacy of restoring Russian Glory that the Zara story really rather than the USSR and that means taking uh large areas and dominating large areas of Eastern Europe and in particular also shoving back at NATO and doing his best to neutralize NATO and I think he's been going to be quite successful at achieving that if he takes part of Ukraine will that be enough or is he going to go for a further go after Finland there's all sorts of talk about what his Ambitions are in that region I don't think that'll be enough for him I think uh I think probably eastern Ukraine and the whole of the coast of Ukraine is probably what he wants out of Ukraine initially um but he may want more and and certainly I think he will want more elsewhere and he's you know he said the Baltic states are illegitimate as Ukraine is legitimate and I think he'll probably push for some kind of aggression there if he has the chance and and you know this this will obviously threatens NATO and really threatens the prospect of nuclear war and therefore my view is that NATO's number one priority should be to get rid of Putin and I'm not suggesting that NATO forces or agents deliberately assassinate Putin but I think they should do all they can to support regime change a very risky strategy we've seen what's happened in Libya we've seen what's happened in the Middle East and it doesn't often work out the way you intend I mean the next Putin could be even worse than this one agreed and that's always a risk but we we know what we've got now and it's extremely dangerous so I think we should be working to identify and I hope we are doing this to identify a much better successor to Putin and then doing what we can to support the Russians in bringing that about I don't think we should be directly bringing him down but then does doesn't this create almost it legitimizes in a weird sort of way Putin's standing in the eyes of the Russian people because if his whole narrative is you know fear of encirclement um you know the West is against us then you get Finland joining NATO that he's saying well look at this I'm right and you know weirdly support for Putin goes up in Russia even as in the west we all look at this guy as this terrible monster I'm sure that's right but what's the alternative the alternative is to to put our hands up and accept that he is you know the aggressor he is and let him get away with it I mean he knows Putin knows and I'm sure many of the Russian if not most of the Russian people know that NATO whether Finland and Sweden are in it or not presents no threat to Russia he knows that yeah he doesn't think NATO is an aggressive Alliance NATO NATO is a defensive Alliance and he knows it he just wants to get rid of them and to expand his influence and I'm sure many people in Russia think that'd be all right it is it is a real risk so on on the NATO question just quickly tell us your thoughts on on NATO I know you think they're probably a lot weaker than than we're led to believe but also then tell us about the Middle East you're an expert on the Middle East you've served you know you know it all these links uh what's happening we're viewing it very much from the European point of view but what is the Middle East Syria Russia Iran Israel how are they viewing this conflict yeah I've often been called to know it all right but I'm used to it um first of all NATO I think NATO is a a very weak Alliance and I don't mean necessarily military or military it is weak but politically it's very weak and although people say you know the first Russian toe cap on NATO soil that'll be huge consequences for Putin I don't believe that I think he will be able to put a toe cap or more than a toe cap into say the Baltic states and NATO will not literally react to that in this honest for the same reason as they're saying they're not directly reacting to Ukraine because they're terrified of Putin's nuclear deterrent or or aggression whatever so I think that's that's the reality of nature I'm sorry to say that and I hope it's not true but I believe it in terms of the Middle East I think that um very clearly countries like Iran there aren't many countries like Iran but I think Iran thank God for that Iran as they looked at Afghanistan and saw the weakness of the West in Afghanistan as did Putin I think they are looking at this situation and they are seeing also the weakness of NATO and yeah it's not just the weakness of NATO I mean you have a guy in the white house right now who is by all accounts you know essentially senescent now whether that's you know to read with which that's true or not it's not cutting a very pre-possessing figure shall we say on the world stage aren't all of these dictators the putins the um the Iranians all going to be making as big a run as they can between now and say 2024 China absolutely and and um you know when I say the weakness of NATO the US is NATO right that's what I mean the British defense minister uh says when U.S decided to withdraw from Afghanistan he asked all NATO members to retain a presence in Afghanistan after the U.S left not one NATO country agreed to do that which shows NATO is a paper Tiger but I'm just Iran Biden seems determined to reinvigorate the Obama Iranian deal which will essentially see them have nuclear weapons down the track how far progressed is that and is the deal he's negotiating even worse than what Obama had in place it is worse than Obama and Obama's deal was not a deal that prevented or would prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon it paved the way to that and and Biden's desperation to restore Obama's Legacy and create his own legacy over Iran I think is making him give everything he can the most bizarre thing I think about all this is two really bizarre things one is that um the the lead negotiator over the Iran deal is a Russian is the Russian government the Russian government at this time and secondly the world is reminded of the dangers of nuclear weapons yet still we're we're heading hell-bent on creating a path for Iran which is it probably even more unpredictable and unstable than Russia to have its own nuclear weapons they want to wipe Israel off the map I mean that is their government's stated position I mean that my gosh so what's uh where it from the Israeli point of view what's how's Ukraine and Russia because Russia's right next door to them in Syria what's the thinking there from the Israeli point of view I think I think Israel is playing a very delicate path on this and they're often criticized for not condemning Russia enough and for not supporting Ukraine enough but the reality is that um that Israel has Russia in its backyard it's its neighbor in Ukraine in in Syria Russia Israel must be able to carry a defensive action in Syria to prevent the Iranians using Syria to build a base of attack against Israel and to reinforce its base of attack that already exists in Lebanon so in order to do that Israel has to coordinate with the Russians the Russians could easily say no you're not going to attack um offensive capabilities in Syria at which point either Israel has to accept that or there is a conflict with Russia which of course is not wanted so Israel has to Treader type path I think that Israel is doing a lot in in to help Ukraine particularly I think in terms of moment of providing extremely important intelligence to Ukraine are we quickly are we hurtling towards World War III are we in World War III I think I think we're probably closer to World War III than we've ever been probably including the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. I I'm not I'm not suggesting I wouldn't want to terrify your listeners if they believe a word I say that that um that we're on the verge of it I hope we're not but I think we are a very very dangerous point now Colonel Richard Kemp thanks so much for talking to us here on Outsiders Outsiders always love to hear your point of view and to have you here in person in Sydney so if you see Richard today come up and say good ideas uh thank you so much Richard for coming on

Channel: Sky News Australia

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Length: 11min 59sec (719 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022