At the 14th World Peace Forum in Beijing on July 3, Gareth Evans—who served as Australia's foreign minister for nearly a decade and later led the International Crisis Group—turned his focus to the Middle East.
He set a realistic tone, noting that peace processes inevitably attract spoilers, and the U.S.-Iran talks are no exception.
He also questioned U.S. leadership, citing Donald Trump's impulsiveness and self-absorption as traits that make him prone to derailing any negotiation he engages in.
However, Evans's main argument centered on Israel. In his view, the single greatest barrier to peace—both now and over the past several decades—has been Israel, and more specifically, Prime Minister Netanyahu.
He described Israel's resistance to compromise since Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995 as remarkable, calling that event "a really terrible watershed moment." That resistance, he argued, has been accompanied by a persistent failure to envision a just political solution to Palestinian aspirations.
Evans linked this directly to the broader regional conflict, asserting that Netanyahu—acting largely out of domestic political calculations—was determined to drag a willing United States into the war.
Reporter: Guo Zedong
Cover & video: Deng Yingheng
