New Delhi [India], March 29 (ANI): Top US economist Jeffrey Sachs attributed the US miscalculations in the Iran war to 'gangster-like' thinking by top leaders, including Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Speaking to ANI, he characterised the decision-making process in Washington as lacking 'sophisticated analyses,' attributing the current crisis to a small, insular group of advisors.

'The miscalculations in the United States are the result of an incompetent old man calling the shots together with people like Pete Hegseth, who is an utter incompetent and a fool, and a few others who are completely out of their depths. Steve Witkoff, Kushner, come on. This is a group, a small group, that has commandeered power in the United States. They think like gangsters. They have no expertise. They have no deep knowledge. We in the public are not privy to all that's said, but we read about the leaks every day, and we see resignations like Mr Kent on occasion,' he said.

Notably, the Director of the United States' National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Joseph Kent resigned from his post in protest against the ongoing war with Iran, asserting that Tehran did not present an imminent threat to the United States and strongly criticising the rationale for military action.

Sachs criticised the US for underestimating Iran's capabilities and relying on propaganda, stating that the US doesn't even know the locations of Iran's enriched uranium sites.

Sachs argued that the US and Israel operated under the 'delusional' belief that a decapitation strike--specifically the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader and top officials--would trigger an immediate collapse of the Iranian government.

'Of course, there was a profound underestimation or even a more profound miscalculation that killing the supreme leader of Iran and top government officials would be the end of the story on the first day, that a decapitation strike would be enough to bring down the regime and enable, as Donald Trump himself said in one of the most delusional statements, that he would pick the next leader of Iran. So we have both in Israel and in the United States a breakdown of competence at the top level. In other words, these miscalculations are not the result of sophisticated analyses,' he said.

Sachs highlighted the failures of Israeli anti-missile defences and questioned the US's ability to make informed decisions. He also said that President Trump overrode professional military and diplomatic counsel.

'What we can gather is that Trump was advised by the professionals against all of this, but he simply overrode the actual cautious advice. This, I think, is what happened. Now, when it comes to the actual military capabilities, I'm a lowly economist, so I can't give you definitive answers on this, but again, if you keep your eyes open, you read, listen and think when the 12-day war took place last summer, it was clear that the Israeli anti-missile defenses failed on multiple occasions,' he said.

A central pillar of the conflict has been the perceived invincibility of missile defence systems. However, Sachs pointed to the '12-day war' of the previous summer as a turning point that exposed vulnerabilities. Despite Western propaganda claiming a total victory and the destruction of Iran's nuclear capacity, Sachs highlighted that the Iron Dome failed to intercept high-value strikes, including those near the Weizmann Institute.

Intelligence gaps persist, with Sachs claiming the US remained unaware of the exact locations of Iran's enriched uranium. Nuclear breakout capability remains a threat, citing experts like MIT's Ted Postol, who suggested Iran could enrich enough material for ten nuclear bombs within days if pushed.

'We saw the sites of the Weizmann Institute, a high-value target being destroyed, one of the key buildings, by Iranian missiles. We saw many other reports at that time that even in those 12 days, Israel ran short of anti-missile defences. And so after that, there was the propaganda in the Western media that the US had won the 12-day war. It had obliterated Iran's nuclear capacity and so forth. But those of us who just watched critically and tuned out the propaganda, which is relentless and just non-stop in our world right now, could see that this was simply not the case,' he said.

'They didn't even know where the enriched uranium of Iran actually was. We could see that nothing had been obliterated. We could listen to experts like Ted Postol at MIT explain that Iran, within a few days, if it chose to do so, could enrich the uranium that it had up to 10 nuclear bombs,' he said.

He also questioned the US's ability to make informed decisions.

'So we could see that we're living in a propagandistic environment where the claims that were made were not true. And that lingered until this latest round. And frankly, in this sense, I'm not surprised because we had learned last summer that the Iron Dome wasn't so iron after all, and we could see with our own eyes. I think what is notable this time, of course, is that Iran went after all of the Gulf facilities, which were also just easy targets. And there's a lot more to come of those targets,' he said.

The theatre of war has now expanded to the economic hubs of the United Arab Emirates. Sachs warned that cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi--designed as global luxury resorts rather than fortified military zones--are in 'absurd' danger. By aligning with the U.S. and Israel through the Abraham Accords, Sachs argues these nations have traded their security for a 'fatal' friendship with Washington.

'Basically, Dubai and Abu Dhabi could be blown up if the UAE gets into the war. These are resort areas. These are tourist destinations. These are not fortified missile defence areas. These are places where rich people are going to party and put their money. And to enter a war zone is to defeat the entire purpose of a place like Dubai. The Emirates got itself into an absurd mess with its eyes open. And it keeps doubling down, by the way,' he said.

He added that the Gulf was mistaken when they thought that if they befriended the US, they would be safe.

'Entering the so-called Abraham accords, basically siding with Israel and the United States and such fraught political circumstances, was an invitation to disaster for the Emirates, but the point is these governments in the Gulf bet everything on American protection. That's their basic bet. They said, we have the US military facilities. They will protect us. Therefore, we can act as we see fit. We can make deals as we see fit. And we don't have to worry. This is a fundamental miscalculation,' he said.

'Every day I repeat Kissinger's famous adage, and I'll repeat it at this point as well, that to be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal,' he added.

This assessment aligns with the intensifying rhetoric from Tehran. On March 20, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a formal warning to West Asian nations, demanding they prevent the U.S. from using local military bases for strikes against Iran.

Iran, on March 20, called on countries in West Asia to prevent the United States from using military bases in their own territories. These bases are the 'root cause' of the current crisis and are being used for operations against Tehran, claimed Iran. The government has warned that such actions would amount to complicity in aggression.

https://x.com/IRIMFA/status/2034719425736093824?s=20

'Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emphasises the Urgent Need for Regional Countries to Act to Prevent the Continued Use of Their Territory and Facilities by America and the Zionist Regime for Conducting Military Aggression Against Iran,' Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran's X post read.

The spokesperson also warned that countries hosting US military bases could face consequences if those facilities were used in attacks on Iran. (ANI)