Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said in an interview with Axios that the Middle East would be more stable if Iran possessed a nuclear weapon, in comments that aired Thursday on CNN.
Asked by Axios correspondent Alex Thompson whether Iran should be free to build a nuclear weapon, Piker said that Iran, like any sovereign nation, "has a right to defend itself, regardless of its domestic policies." He cited political scientist John Mearsheimer's argument that mutually assured destruction is the only way for countries to secure their sovereignty, and said that would bring stability to the region.
Thompson then asked directly whether the Middle East would be more stable if Iran had a nuclear weapon. "I believe yes," Piker replied.
Piker said he does not personally want Iran to have nuclear arms, adding that he does not want the United States, Russia or China to have them either. He also said he was not advocating that Iran be given weapons-grade enriched uranium, and argued that the nuclear file is a distraction. According to Piker, the Iranian government has used the enrichment issue as leverage to draw the United States back to the negotiating table and win sanctions relief.
In the same interview, Thompson asked Piker about his past claim that America is the leading practitioner of terrorism, and whether that made the United States worse than al-Qaeda. Piker replied, "Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths, yes," and said the U.S. has caused enormous harm around the world. He pointed to an American strike on a school in Minab, Iran, that he said killed dozens of people, including children, and said accountability was required, while stressing that this does not make all Americans terrorists.
