World ready to return to peace, prosperity: Mark Glenn

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Glenn, author and journalist, about a survey conducted by The Guardian which shows respondents believe Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is the most deserving candidate to receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Now what do you make of the response Rouhani’s recent overtures to the West is getting from people across the globe?

Glenn: Well I think whatever resent is that people are finally getting sick of war and sick of war in the Middle East for Israel’s benefit. This is just an online newspaper poll that has been conducted, so it does not necessarily speak in any kind of an official capacity vis-à-vis the Nobel Prize Committee.

But nevertheless I think that it is a good indicator that the people had enough and they are ready for the next chapter not just for their lives as individuals but all of our lives as human beings on planet earth.

Whether it is something that is actually part of the over intellectual process or whether they just have this feeling under their bones that these wars are never going to end until Israel is contained, I think that the statement here that is represented by this poll indicates that people have had enough and they are ready to go back to peace and prosperity.

Press TV: Now as we see this increased awareness of citizens of the world with regards to Iran which has continually been demonized by Western officials and media over the past years, how do you see this going forth? Would it increase more pressure on their elected leaders and representatives to be more open with regards to talks with Iran?

Glenn: Well yes and I think actually it is a double-edged sword because as the West is making this overtures towards Iran and there seems to be this warming of ties, this also can be used to put pressure on the Iranian government to bend in this area and to concede in that area and in ways that actually may in the long-term be detrimental to Iran’s national interest. So obviously Iran has to be cautious about that.

But at the same time given the fact that the West is constantly lecturing the rest of the world on how it is superior by virtue of its democratic process and how it is basically a political system that is designed to be utilized by the will of the people, at the same time if we do see this giant outpouring of support for peace and for a cessation of wars and then the Western governments don’t go along with this, it would certainly reveal and belie the fact that the West is nothing but a hypocritical political machine that has no business lecturing anybody on anything.