AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): According to Politico, Peter Thiel, a billionaire technology investor, announced that he has serious doubts about America's war against Iran and believes that America should not have started it at all; a position that has placed this major financial backer of the Republican Party face to face with the US President over one of the fundamental foreign policy decisions of Donald Trump's administration.
Thiel's remarks, made on October 12 at a private meeting (and the audio file of this speech has been obtained by Politico), are his most explicit position that has so far been publicly revealed about the war against Iran. These remarks were made less than two weeks before the midterm elections; elections in which Trump's party is fighting an intense battle to maintain its majority and power in Congress.
Thiel said in this speech, "I am doubtful about [this war]; I believe we should not have done such a thing. Numerous mistakes were made."
He continued, "Perhaps we fundamentally do not possess the necessary hard power [for this objective], and perhaps we are also losing the soft power war."
Thiel in his speech clearly declared his strong opposition to neoconservatives and Middle Eastern wars; but at the same time, he emphasized that his criticism is directed at the war with Iran and not at Trump personally, and he remains willing to continue supporting the President.
According to Politico, however, the announcement of this position and Thiel's open opposition over the war against Iran is evaluated as one of the most prominent signs so far of the emergence of deep concerns within Trump's inner circle of close allies about the consequences of this conflict.
These remarks are part of a series of Thiel's speeches in Nashville, which Politico's Decoded section has covered since this fall. In his latest speech, Thiel also warned in detail about what he called "the unbridled power of the International Criminal Court" and, citing the words of figures from the Bush administration such as Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Secretary of Defense, and Dick Cheney, the then-US Vice President, addressed the issue.
Thiel stated, "I consider the syndrome of extreme anti-Trumpism in the Cheney family to be an effort at sycophancy and appeasement of the International Criminal Court in order to remain safe from legal prosecution; although it is probably too late. This suspicion has been reinforced in me that the threat of an arrest warrant from the Court hangs like the sword of Damocles over the head of the Trump administration; even as it tries to advance this war against Iran."
Thiel also spoke about his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Zionist regime, in early 2024 and noted that in that meeting he had asked about Netanyahu's plans for Gaza. According to Thiel, Netanyahu had told him, "I cannot turn it into another Dresden"; a historical allusion to the bombing of the German city of Dresden in World War II by the Allies, which led to the deaths of about 25,000 people.
Thiel was the first technology investment titan in Silicon Valley to support Trump's candidacy in 2016 and gave a loud speech at the Republican National Convention that same year.
He was also the largest financial backer of the political action committees (super PACs) that financed the election campaign of JD Vance, the current US Vice President, for entering the Senate in 2022.
Politico had previously revealed in March that Vance was also "hesitant" on the eve of the war about the United States entering into direct confrontation with Iran.
Representatives of Peter Thiel and the White House office did not respond to Politico's requests for comment on this matter.
**************
End/ 345E
