Transcripts For CSPAN Irans Nuclear Program 20170904

Now in discussion on Irans Nuclear program and how the u. S. Should respond. From the heritage foundation, this is an hour. Good afternoon, welcome to the heritage foundation. We of course welcome those who join us on our website on all of these occasions. For our guests inhouse we ask that mobile devices are silenced or turned off as we prepared to begin, and for those watching online we remind you youre welcome to send questions or comments to at any time by simply emailing speaker heritage. Org. Leading our discussion this afternoon is peterboroughs. He is the senior fellow for National Security affairs in our center for Foreign Policy. He is also in his fifth term as a member of the congressional us, China Economic and security review commission. Prior to coming to heritage he served as a Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for asian and Pacific Affairs at the george w. Bush administration. Heritage he served as the assistant secretary of defense for asian and Pacific Affairs and the george w. Bush administration. He was also serving on the staff in the house with the Central Intelligence agency, the state department and activeduty naval officers. Please join me in welcoming peter. [applause] good afternoon, welcome to heritage and our program on iran. Since 2015, a Nuclear Agreement iran, iraq and yemen. Irans expanding influence in these wartorn countries have been facilitated by the dividends and sanctions provided by the nuclear deal. Questions like how should the United States respond, which should be done about the flawed Nuclear Agreement. How can the United States targeting target at home. Running is to discuss these and other issues is jim phyllis a Senior Research developer for affairs and Foreign Policy studies here at the heritage foundation. Policya foreign specialists who has written and spoken on middle eastern issues, International Terrorism since coming in 1979. He has offered dozens of papers on iran, its Nuclear Program and use of terrorism, and has testified for the Nuclear Program and other Nuclear Security issues. Jim hansen next to him as the president of the Security Studies group. He served in the u. S. Army special forces and conducted counterterrorism, diplomatic intelligence and humanitarian operations in more than one dozen countries. He is the author of cut down the black flag. Mark, he is the ceo of the foundation for the defense of democracy where he leads projects on iran, sanctions countering threat finance and nonproliferation. He is recognized as one of the key influencers in shaping counter threats from iran and the surrogates. Key warriors the against iran by the wall street journal in his book. The trump, obama and george w. Bush administration on both sides of the aisle. He is testified more than 20 times before congress and foreign legislators. With that, can you start us off . I would like to focus my remarks on irans various regional threats and the degree to which those threats have been boosted and complicated by the iran Nuclear Agreement. I am sorry to say that the access is alive and well. What north korea is doing today, you will love what iran will be doing a few years down the road. These states are led by rogue regimes that have sought Nuclear Weapons and the missiles to deliver them. They have cooperated closely on Ballistic Missile developments, perhaps to a lesser extent on nuclear issues. Both regimes have repeatedly violated their nonproliferation commitments. As the 1994 agreed framework with north korea, north korea, failed to stop the countrys nuclear ambitions. Future historians will eventually say the 2015 nuclear iran agreement failed to stop Irans Nuclear ambitions. I would argue that iran is much imposesgerous regime greater longterm threats the north korea. Much stronger economy, much more potent ideology, many more friends, allies and surrogates around the world and in the region. It has a much more aggressive record of regional interventions. In irans neighborhood, the persian gulf is the center of gravity for world oil. If iran is able to establish dominance over the slope flow bethat oil, there will Tremendous Energy security, National Security, perhaps longterm economic repercussions cascading out of that. The promises of the Obama Administration, the nuclear deal do not moderate irans behavior. They have stepped up their malign activities in the region since 2015. The Nuclear Agreement has made a by boostingn worse irans dictatorship in the economic, military and geopolitical sphere. The Nuclear Agreement handed iran and economic bonanza up to 100 billion. No one really knows how much in sanctions relief and unfrozen assets. This economic transfusion has enhancedrans economy, its ability to threaten its neighbors with conventional weapons, terrorism and subversion, and increase its support for its farflung. Urrogate network for example, they increased its defense budget, recently announcing there would be 300 Million Dollars more in funding for the Ballistic Missile program. That is very concerning because those of two of the most worrisome aspects of irans special forces of the Iranian Revolutionary guards which are charged with protecting and advancing irans revolution, not the national interest. That is the difference. The july 20 15 Nuclear Agreement, iran has escalated its military intervention in syria in close cooperation with russia. Irans troops and surrogate militias have played the leading in assisting b assad regimes attempts to clawback territory from syrian rebels. Thanhave deployed more 5000 revolutionary guards, troops and advisers, as well as Technical Support and in addition, 20,000 foreign fighters from iran backed militias. Militias andht recruits from afghanistan and passive and pakistan. Intervention, which has been eclipsed by the Russian Air Campaign has decisively shifted the balance of power inside syria in favor of the assad regime. Now that it is on the verge of defeat, u. S. Must take steps to preclude iran from filling the vacuum left by the Islamic State and prevented from repositioning thewallah and elsewhere for next round of warfare with israel. Iran also has stepped upon assad to it he targeting the jewish state, which provided thousand of increasingly and capable longrange rockets to palestine, and gaza. An estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles to hezbollah. In case the Israeli Government had any doubt about the nature of the irans hostility, the revolutionary guards hopefully a sign of one of the missiles they tested in march 2016, which said in hebrew, not in farsi, but in hebrew, israel must be wiped off the earth. Iran also was escalated its threats to arab adversaries since the nuclear a sign. Radicalize shiites in bahrain. Back militant groups such as the ball rod party. Trained militants from bahrain and revolutionary guard camps in iran. They have intercepted several arms shipments from iran. By the way, that is in violation councilsecurity revolution 22 31, which enshrined the Nuclear Agreement. It prohibits these armed exports. Also escalated the pressure against bahrain claim in the should be next to the islamic republic. Saudi arabia also has come under increasing pressure from iran. Not only from the saudi bridge of hezbollah, which has launched terrorist attacks inside the kingdom, but also from rebels in yemen that have launched that are fighting the saudi led intervention in that country in support of yemens internationally recognized government. Otherave also launched missiles against saudi territory and raided villages on the saudi side of the border. Lifting u. N. Sanctions and iran helped ease and pave the way for enhanced strategic cooperation with russia. It allowed russia to it allows iran the opportunity to push us purchase more advanced arms from russia and modernize its army. Russia already has delivered s 300 missiles that could greatly complicate is really or american retaliatory preventive or preemptive attacks against Irans Nuclear facilities if the deal is filing it. Proponent of the deal, i am not really focusing on the deal here. If it was up to me i think we iran and violation of this deal. It definitely bike violated the resolution that accompanied the deal. Regardless of what the policy is on the nuclear issue, the u. S. Has to push back stronger against iran on the regional level. I think first and foremost, we must draw a clear redlines. Number one is the nuclear redline. I would argue that it is the chief it is barrier to irans proceeding down the nuclear path, not some kind of diplomatic agreement. U. S. Needs to maintain its strong forces in the gulf and the ability to launch an incredible use of force against the Nuclear Facilities or other aspects of iranian power. U. S. Should also strengthen its allies especially in israel and the gulf cooperation. They faced the most immediate threats from iran should build the gcc defense capabilities, particularly in the areas of missile defense. Forces, naval forces, Intelligence Surveillance and reconnaissance assets. Pentagon should expand and institutionalize joint planning and joint exercises to develop a shared strategy for deterring and containing the Iranian Regime. Missile defense should be high priority. Israel has a very good one. U. S. Can do more to help is really withstand the Ballistic Missile threats. The gcc states also face that threats threat. They have much less capabilities. U. S. Sold oman, patriot missiles. Those missiles are not integrated into a Regional Defense system. Has been done to improve the effectiveness against the iranian Ballistic Missile threat. They should be imposing additional sanctions on iran for terrorism and its Ballistic Missile activities and human rights abuses. Constellation of enterprises that revolutionary guards have spun off to support its operations. The goal of the sanctions to be to pay an increasing price for the activities of the revolutionary guard. Finally, the u. S. Should seek to weaken and undermine the surrogates. Particularly has wallah, which has been instrumental in syria, iraq. Has wallah has been training rebels in yemen. It is also very active in lebanon. Last year the gcc in the arab league declared them to be a terrorist state and designated as such. The eu continues to differentiate between that has ball a military wing and the political wing as if the political wing has no knowledge or power to stop the terror activities of the socalled military wing. Washington should work with the gcc in israel to try to influence the eu to step up at sanctions on has wallah and join the rest of the role, or much of the rest of the world in trying the threats that that organization poses. The bottom line is that the washington must impose clear and increasing tots on the regime in order dissuade it from continuing on its present path. Let me just stop there. I dont know if you guys caught this from jims remark, but iran is the bad guys. Can we lay that on the table. The funny thing is, that actually needs to be said. We spent the past eight years watching president obama in power this regime. For some reason, i am still stunned. I dont know where he read this, heard it or thought it, i dont know who gave him the idea that iran could be a partner for peace, but he treated them that way. He gave them everything they wanted, everything they asked for comment even before he took power, he was making moves to make them the regional hegemon. Can find no i historical background for this. It is not like they havent been doing that thing since 1979. Time forabout u. S. iranian relations. Through the entire iraq war, they were one of the major producers and distributors of explosively formed projectiles that killed american troops, somewhere between 500, 1000, at least american troops were directly killed by weapon only weapon we weaponry provided that were used by then them to kill u. S. Troops. Yet somehow he decided that they were going to be the ones that we should back. That was the horse we should back. Now we are dealing with that. We are doing with the fact that not only have they been in power, they have been returned to the international community. 2016, they were the state departments leading sponsor of terrorism worldwide. That may not get you much in the Trump Administration. In the Obama Administration and its you cash flow in in the middle of the night. There are spending that money on a lot of the organizations that jim mentioned. I want to talk about the proxies. Is a humanitarian group that operates to feed the poor. Or, the terrorist organization that shares its gains with people to buy their allegiance. They are one of the main places iran spends its money. There are one of the main ways iran push its of power and destabilizes the region. There is another Wonderful Group of humanitarians. Iran backed them. They are causing no and destruction. The other thing i would like to note, lets flip another thing on its head. Israel is a great ally. Can we get back to that again. We can have iran as an ally and israel as a front of me at best under the Obama Administration to israel being our only true friend in the region and iran being the enemy to peace in that region. We have changed nothing else but that thought process, i think we have established a much better, and much more realistic world order. Groups iraner group in yemen. There is a dangerous situation there because you have the gulf and the otherse helping. It is not like they are really helping good guys. They are helping less bad guys in some cases against them. That is something being to keep an eye on. The two places where i think iranian influence is right now is most important to the united is iraq, syria and afghanistan. We have wars going on impulse of those. We have a plan were i think the nice thing is, we are at the endgame in iraq. What is going on in syria . Anybody know . Nobody knows what the answer is. It is not good, and it has not ended, it is closer to the end. We need to plan for a postisis phase in both those countries. One thing that has to happen is that we have to stop the advance of iran into both of those areas, and we have to push them back. And onehe main dangers, of irans biggest goals has been to create what some call a shiite crescent, or a land bridge to the mediterranean. If you go through iraq and syria, you get to the met. Be irans greatest dreams along with nukes and other bad things. That is what they want. They want to control that swath of territory. They would like to control all of it. Ability to have the move from iran to the mediterranean, or the other way, they have accomplished something we cannot tolerate, nobody can. That is just a bad scenario for everyone. Aty have been very good seating that area with malicious. We always hear about the shia been that have be involved in the iraq war killing americans. Once we left and iran moved into that vacuum, they started creating alliances with local shia militias and what could become a shiite crescent. Is a horribly bad thing for everyone. They have been smart about it. These are local shia and majority areas. They have done a reverse sons of iraq concept where during the surge, we went and i we worked with the tribal leaders, we made friends with them and we said, this is your territory heard we will help you. Al qaeda and iraq as an enemy to all of us. We want stability. We basically made them the local constabulary and said, we will back you as you try to take control of your own areas from al qaeda and iraq. Is, in these done areas, where there were pockets people,villages and they started paying them. They said, we are protecting you against isis. We are protecting you against the other imperialist, the coalition. We will be your friend, so they build alliances with these people and allegiance from these , note that goes to ron even to baghdad. That is something we now have to deal with because they are there, they are armed, they feel empowered and, and lest we and the other folks in the region can do something to push them they are going to be at least a foundation of that land bridge to the mediterranean. That cannot happen. , lets doidea something about it. Lets just not admire the problem and say this is awful and horrible. The areas that they are in our majority sunni areas. Same place that isis has decimated there. They are essentially part of the region set now have to come back under control. Brokend syria are both states. The baghdad government exists, but the idea that their loan can go into the sunni areas and provide governance in a way that will be accepted by the people there is a fantasy. It is not going to happen, did happen, they do not trust them. We promised them after the surge that we would make sure the majority shia government in baghdad, which is highly influenced by iran, would treat them well. Them, whiche by share well and to all the things they need to do. That did not happen and the rainy and stash iranians took more control and essentially those guys got burned. Now we are going to ask them to do it again. Trust us again and the Central Government will do fine by you and dont worry about the iranian influence and shia militias that slaughtered their way across that territory to push isis out. One thing that has not been covered much as how about that was. Secretarytarian and and slaughtered during the reconquest there was outrageous. So, we need help there. Well, there are two countries i have a border on southern iraq, who could help us. The saudis and jordan. They have got a dog in this fight. Now that President Trump has a new best friend, the new saudi crown prince, who has said, maybe it was not such a great those peopleall who were killing everybody. At this point they he is afraid they will shut down his monarchy and he wont has have all the things he likes so much. Can bring some of the gulf arabs in for rebuilding, they can foot the bill. President trump likes it when other people pay for things. If we can get the saudis and other wolf arabs to kick in reconstruction money to start commerce and potentially provide peacekeeping forces, i think we are in a position to provide a moveerweight to irans into those area, and to stop that land bridge from solidifying. Little tough, it is not an easy thing, you will have sunni and shia. Last thing i heard the kurds were having referendum on independence. It is messy. It was easy everybody would have taking care of it already. Right now we need to look at what is the best way to stop either iranian domination of those regions, or a third sunni insurgency. Neither one of those is a particularly good idea so if we could get some help from the gulf arab states and push iran out of those areas, we will actually have a accomplished something. Thank you jim. It is great to be here because for me heritage is the house of reagan. Heritage had a huge influence on the reagan in terms of ideas, policies and people who went into the Reagan Administration. President i mention reagan is, when you deal with iran, you have to take a page from the reagan playbook. It is worth remembering that when Ronald Reagan came in a office in 1980, he inherited a mess, it a global dogs breakfast. Reagan had to shift the u. S. Policy from policy of to one of aggressive neutralization and rollback. He identified the soviet union in many respects. It was a revolutionary regime and internal internally fragile regime. Administration had developed something he call National Security decision directive 75. That was a government approach using all and show mad American Power to subvert soviet power i know heritage played how toficant role on build off and expand military potency. There was an element of economic and military warfare. I know heritage played a role in the idea that train the resources of the soviet state. Was support for antisoviet proxies and dissidents and reaching out around the world for those who were under soviet domination and figuring out ways to support them. There was some legitimacy of communism. I think president reagan was really good at articulating the case against communism. When ssd d 75 did not do was have a myopic focus on arms control. You did not see in the first 1986, the not until Reagan Administration assessing over these deeply flawed arms controlled agreements. To give that as we think about iran. I think we need a conference of plan of action that the iran until that the Obama Administration reached and moved with a trumpolicy Administration News is insurance of American Power. Again to neutralize and rollback influence and hit at some of the same areas of president reagan hit at. The problem with where we are today at iran is that it is not only taken all of our energy and resources in this town, but it is also created a policy paralysis. Was verycy paralysis much exploited by iran over the past eight years. I think they have articulated. Iranianso afraid of the shadow. Were afraid they would walk away from that nuclear deal that counselnot willing to the aggression. I would argue that the administration has to move away from this focus and moved to and stay. The iranian the lethal and state in 10 years time iran will have an industrial sized Nuclear Program have to wait for the key restrictions in the program and they will emerge with a legal, internationally recognized compliant industrial Nuclear Program. We will have near zero Nuclear Breakout and have been easier sneak out option it will have if it grows up five or 6 a year it will be about 1 trillion within a decade. Particularly european think significant investments from iran and are afraid to lose. Hose investments iran will have increasingly regional hegemony in countries like lebanon and syria, iraq, yemen and they are pushing the wherearabia provinces majority shiite population. They are working globally. They are working elsewhere with a have analyzed that their influence in latin america is growing. And have a lethal iranian stay in a decade. In a decade, not to worry, well have all issuance of American Power available to us today, that is misleading you. Iran will be stronger, richer, more dangerous, and they will and they will be at a more dangerous breakout. You do not sanction a country and stop them from developing Nuclear Weapons and screw away from Nuclear Weapons. It will be a military option that we have. It is not the jcp oa, or the jcp 08 and war. When that war comes the consequences will be much more devastating. What do we do . We have talked about the rollback shattered she recently. It is an incredibly difficult problem. , iery worried about syria have no good answers, but i think the Trump Administration inherited the mess, but i am not sure i see the way forward on these deals with the russians as the iranians continue to push forward in establishing this language. Moremore enthusiastic, and job mikeabout the pompeo is doing at the cia. I see embolden cia with the necessary resources and to movel backings aggressively against these networks. Regional approach an approach targeting networks we talked a lot about money issues. Clearly you will not be able to do anything about the iranian threat, lsu drained them of their resources and the jcp oa, as jim says has given only one hundred billion dollars in cash by has opened up the Global Financial system and opened up opportunities on industrial economyd a rainy and a in 2013 was negative six and a half gdp. At about four to six months before reaching payments crisis because they had no more than 20 billion in foreign a strange route Foreign Exchange resources. It was on a verge of collapse before president obama did a deal. That economy is growing growing at 4 , 5 or 6 . Inflation has gone down to single digits. It is an economy that is on the mend. As the economy grows it becomes much more difficult for us to mandatingic pressure terroristiced. Rganization in its entirety there are thousands and thousands of targets including opensource databases that if you do a lot of digging you will find these targets meet the designation threshold for treasury. This is a good time to do this designation and go after the thousands of companies that dominate the strategic factors of irans economy. On the democracy said, this is a time to strengthen the Democracy Forces in iran. Crushedrces that were in 2009. The gap between the rulers and. He rule is growing rightslity is the human abuses, massive corruption is only increasing the gap between the rulers and the role. Astride to the extent we can to intensify that. Lets get to what the Trump Administration should do. Frist of formals, the fundamental weakness of this deal, the fatal flaw, the notion that somehow, regardless of iranian behavior, restriction to go away over time should be unacceptable as a statement of u. S. Policy. The Trump Administration should a statementn with of u. S. Policy that provisions will not be honored by the United States. Takeall not allow iran to patient pathways to Nuclear Weapons and icbms. Told by theere Obama Administration over and over again that we would get access to military sites. Do you remember that . To thewere listening iranians back in 2013, 20 14, 2015, 2016, 2017, they said over and over again that you will never, ever get into our military sites. We repeat, you will never, ever, ever, ever get into our military sites. Recent delusional, as a official said. You are dreaming if you think youre ever going to get into our military sites. There is no way to verify this nuclear deal if we cannot get into the military sites. Guess where they will design warheads. Guess where they will manufacture advance centrifuges that exceed the limits from the jcp oa. Guess what they will do with that question mark it will do it at sites where they deny as access. Every site will be deemed a military site. If we cannot get into military sites, this deal is useless. As a matter of u. S. Policy, we have to make it clear that without physical iaea access to military sites, there is no deal. Very clear by this administration. The third issue is, longrange Ballistic Missiles capable of carrying warheads. The Obama Administration. Nitially demanded that the iranian said no. The Obama Administration took it off the table. In the jcp oa itself, the Ballistic Missile issue is not address. It is addressed in 20 to 31, the 2231. Ents allowed tonot be develop longrange Ballistic Missiles capable of carrying a warhead. That program will produce icbms as we have seen in north korea. There is no point in controlling iranian enrichments or plutonium reprocessing if you will allow to have those restrictions lifted over time while giving it a free pathway to develop icbms. It makes no sense. As a statement of u. S. Policy we should have an absolute prohibition against developments of these missiles. This whole notion of what iran has done in the past, with respect to the possible military military possible military mentions. The military mentions were completely swept under the carpet by the obama ministration who said, dont worry about the past. What iran has done in the past should be of no consequences. And aw there is about 11 half outstanding questions from the iaea report in 2011 about sites. An did in these lets not concern ourselves with that. But shes close the file and move ahead. We clan we can close the file. They have not technically close the file. We need to reopen the file and. E need to get into those sites there is no way that we can have an adequate baseline about if we are completely blind. Not only are we completely blind, or some may say that the intelligent timidity might know it probably dont know its going on, but lets assume they do. I run has succeeded in making in it. E that they are they have never admitted their guilt. They are from a nuclear perspective, innocent. It has been accepted and the international community. Permite to get iran to inspectors into the sites and to be interrogated because we need to make the International Case and iran has to be brought to the table to admit they were engaged in weaponization efforts. Otherwise their claims of Nuclear Innocence every 90 days only reinforces these claims of Nuclear Innocence. It took Ronald Reagan six years after an std 75 was introduced in 1973. We soviet union collapsed have a huge project ahead of us, Donald Reagan did trump i should say what reagan did to the communist, donald trump has to do. It is only a decade away. Using the moderators whatever your thoughts on north korea, a ron cooperation on Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Matters that obviously complicates it well beyond the axis of . Nspectors there has been a longstanding relationship between iran and north korea with respect to Ballistic Missile cooperation, that relationship continues. It would not be a surprise that the north korean icbm was renamed in farsi. The iranians found themselves with an icbm program. On ballisticon missiles is longstanding and is deeply problematic. Ourselves reminding what you need for deliverable Nuclear Weapons. And aed material, warhead missile. Temporarily deals with material that creates a huge hole, with respect to warhead design because you cannot get into military sites, and does not even address missiles, never mind iranian north korean i cooperation. I think there is tantalizing hints of cooperation, but something has not been yet nailed down. To what extent they are cooperating on the nuclear side. There i think it needs to be directed and is a typical intelligent challenge because it is difficult to follow these leads. The head of irans military theram at a nuclear test fact that the israelis bomb syria,orean reactor in who financed that . It was a financed by the north koreans, or was there a party iranians. Ay be the what are other tantalizing hints of this Nuclear Cooperation, which sounds only logical and needs to be backed up with evidence, because it may be that all of the focus on iran and its Nuclear Program on iranian soil is ahead shake. What is really happening is the cooperation between iran, north korea on north korean soil is where some of the more Dangerous Research and development is taking place. Anyone else on this issue . Thehere is no way syria had finance on this kind of project. It is clear to me, although it concerned, the iranians were behind it. If they are behind extraterritorial Nuclear Cooperation with north korea, why not in north korea . We know iranian scientists have at thedeserving Ballistic Missile launches, and i think some of the Nuclear Tests as well. I think that is a tremendous area for investigation. Raise her hand, i will call on you and we will bring you a microphone. If you will identify yourself, especially if you are a member of the media. Let us know who the question is i did is directed to. For jim phillips. One of the most interesting changes in the regional behavior has been the apparent shift and afghanistan where, not only have they been recruiting afghans and into the vacuum of the areas, but now they seem to be applying the russian relationship from syria to afghanistan. How do you see this change in iranian policy . Think there is an iranian saying about spreading your feet to the limits of your carpet. I think the iranians, especially under the Obama Administration perceived the u. S. To be on its way out the door, not only in the middle east but in afghanistan. Have been improving their relationships with the taliban, which has been historically fought with hostility and tension. Murdered 11 Iranian Revolutionary guards in northern. Fghanistan i think it was 1998. The two countries almost went to war. Actuallye iran stepping up shipments to the taliban, in addition to its. Istoric ties i think that can be explained with another iranian saying, which is, use the hand of your enemy to catch a snake. You guys painted a pretty gloomy picture here. A good job of that. What challenges is iran facing . Is there a potential overstretch because of their involvement in syria and iraq and yemen . Is there any good news in terms of slowing what your pretraining advance . What you are training advance . It has to be a major counter ship. That is one of the things President Trump did that really conference over tables. When he walks into situation he says, let these preconceived notions be gone. What if the saudis actually partnered in a real way. What if the saudis are not lying when they say they actually want to stop funding terrorism. A stockingm as course for the idea that you cannot do this. We are going to actually work with the guys that will work with us. Now the enemy of all of those guys if you look at the fact that he has now proven that he can at least, in some way, work productively with the saudis and uae, and some of the other gulf states, than those guys become irans problem in a big way. Because cutter and iran have been tap dancing a little bit, there is also turkey over there notg things that they are too thrilled about. I think the idea of at least engaging in an engaging in a way where we were to accept the sponsor ofnumber one terror, and pushing them on that in return for their efforts against what is a larger threat. I think that is something iran has to worry about. I would say, on the economic the bleakme to picture from our perspective of an iran economy that is slowly ofovering from the nadir 2013. The reality is is that economy. S fragile a lot of International Banks are unwilling to do business. They are filth they are fearful of going back into iran. We have huge economic influence and leverage. If weve used the power of our secondary sanctions and make it clear to International Companies that we have a 19 trillion market iranians have four and 50 billion market. The reality is, everybody in this town talks about the importance of keeping europeans on board. We dont want to lose the europeans. When it comes down to it, the europeans are not going to abandon the u. S. Markets for iraq. They will be screaming, they will be crying in their will be a lot of concern express. At the end of the day, the europeans agree will we europeans agree we will use the secondary hammer and they will choose u. S. Dollar access. With this, the most important thing that donald trump can do to all of this is maintain the credibility of the walk away options. Not only the credibility of the u. S. Military force, which i think is now being restored after eight years of being significantly degraded, but the walk away option. Donald trump has to make it isar, i hate this deal, this a bad deal as u. S. National security, and i amthose concesso have to come from the europeans as well. And they have to be on notice that unless they begin to work with us to address the sunset provisions and the fatal flaws of the nuclear deal, donald trump may one day turn over the conference table and walk away from the deal. X one longterm problem that the Iranian Regime has that the tension between the National Interests of the Iranian State and the ideological thelutionary interests of iranian revolution. The soup later i think many people who cited this is focused on protecting and exporting irans revolution. The iranian people have it a heavy price for that in terms of of a long in terms bloody war with iraq that was proposed provoked by iranian attempts to subvert the iraqi shia. And itnsion is growing is a preventive leverage that the u. S. And others could use to say we have nothing against the iranian people, we have many parallel interests and allowing the free flow of iranian oil, if it is a friendly regime out of the persian gulf, but it is the actions of this regime in supporting and exporting terrorism and revolution that really hurt the longterm interests of the iranian people. I think back in 2009 we saw the Green Movement take that somewhat to heart. Resent theisen fact that the regime is spending billions of dollars in syria and rebuilding lebanon when iranians at home are really not in the best economic base. On that point, it is worth noting that the iranian people and the regime are different. It might be a good time for the president to remind those people that maybe it would be more fun to deal with a resurgent persia type state as opposed to the islamic look of iran. The u. S. Would not be displeased if that were to happen. We do not have to deal with a ttersday cult of 12 imam nu as the people running that country. That was close in 2009, obama through them under the bus. President trump could find out if that happened again we would not be mad about it. One of the brilliant things reagan did in implementing the strategy is he used the believe pulpit in an effective way to communicate to people who lived inside the iron curtain that america stood with them. I am critical of the administration so far. I think they missed a huge opportunity in the last statement that was put out, huge opportunity missed. Reminding iranian people help really oppressive their leaders are and we stand with the people and do what reagan did. There is some, good elements to the travel ban. One of the unfortunate elements is not sending a message that we want iranians to come to this country. We want them to live here, we want them to visit here. Were happy to facilitate a brain drain. Well vetted, people can come to this country, it took me 13 or 14 years to become a u. S. Citizen. It should be a tough process, this is the greatest country on earth. It should not be easy to be a u. S. Citizen but there should he a path they. A path they. I worry somehow the we are closing the have to the iranian people. That is where the president needs to step up and the next speech will i hope be a lot more clear. For one or two more questions. Why dont we take these questions and allow the panel to go ahead and answer them. Most recent evidence of iranian shipping soldiers, should iran be redesignated . Is that some sort of interior breach . You can. A question i have is with regards to minorities in iran. The remnants of the persian empire. The last they had was 50 of the country is minority. They are the remnants of this empire. Similar to your reagan analogy. It seems there should be a concerted effort to appeal to these whether it is voiced or fronting rail projects on the which terry at some of have been fighting isis inside iraq and syria where i just was. I would like to get your opinion on that and what you think could be done. The first question, yes, it ran air should be redesignated, it has been shipping thousands of fighters and kilograms of weaponry. It ran air has multibilliondollar deals with boeing and airbus and other airline companies. It should be redesignated, it is a breach of the jcp oa. It requires a licensing regime to be set up so the planes are used for peaceful purposes only. Sending shiite fighters and missiles to the site is not for peaceful purposes only. To answer your question, i would put it this way, iran does not respect the territorial integrity of its neighbors. Both near and far. I am 100 percent there. The Securities Group put out a paper stating most of the boundaries in that region are postcolonial global imperialist breakup and they are arbitrary and stupid. And they do not the intelligent reflect the wishes of the people. If you have got down trees that issues and forcing people to read each other to share a government, why . I realize that kicks over about as many conference tables and apple carts and rice walls as you can. It is worth considering and it would put pressure on the major powers to look at that as the potential next step. I would agree with the with what was previously said by the panelists especially on it ran air. This is very predictable, this was happening and if they are doing this on something that is so visit, you wonder what they are doing in stretching the boundaries of permissible activity on the nuclear issue. That is another comparison you can make between iran and the soviet empire is toward the end was when the Economic Situation imploded, those different nationalities naturally sought selfdetermination and freedom. Iran is no different. , the revolution has iranian resolution has ended up pressing many of these minorities, religious and ethnic. That in the long run is a weakness of the regime. Please join me in thanking the panel for a rich and thoughtful discussion. [applause] following the meeting between President Trump and military advisers concerning north koreas latest Nuclear Tests, defense secretary james mattis made a brief statement to reporters, accompanied by joint chiefs of staff chairman general joseph benford. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We had a small National Security meeting today with the president and the Vice President about the latest provocation on the korean peninsula. We have many military options and