Good afternoon welcome to the hearing did foundation and the auditorium and on the web site for our guest sees to a courtesy check for your mobile devices said in your questions or comments at any time. Leading a our discussion in is the senior fellow for National Security affairs and also in his fifth term as a head of Security Review Commission prior to harry j. J. Deputy assistant secretary of defense for asian and Pacific Affairs also serving on the Committee Staff with the cia and the state department and active duty naval officer. [applause] get afternoon welcome to heritage the Nuclear Agreement with iran has continued the troubling policies with syria against sirach antiemetic steadying the influence of these countries is the talent facilitated by a those nuclear question is like shed how should United States respond . How can they target the Iranian Regime at home . Joining us today with a Senior Research fellow for middle Eastern Affairs that the studies here at the Heritage Foundation is a specialist says written and spoken widely on National Terrorism since coming to a heritage offered dozens of papers and has testified on the Nuclear Program and other issues jim hansen is a president at the Security Studies group to conduct Counter Terrorism and counterinsurgency and humanitarian operations in with a dozen countries bader of cutdown of black flag and market is the ceo of the foundation receive these projects on iran and widely recognized as a key influence to shape the economic sanctions policies with its surrogates and featured as one of the key financial warriors by the wall street journal solomon. Ad had device trump and obama men and george w. Bush administration is mobile sides of the aisle and testified more than 20 times and with that can you start azov . Starting with the regional credit i am sorry to say the access of evil is alive and well if you like what north korea is doing today you like a few years down the road both of these of led by a rogue regime they cooperate closely on Ballistic Missile development and both regimes have repeatedly violated the nonproliferation commitments just in the 1994 framework with north korea with those ambitions they think a future historian will save the 2015 Nuclear Agreement failed to stop Irans Nuclear ambitions to be a regime of greater longterm threats the much more potent ideology with friends and allies and sarah gets around the world and around the region with a much more aggressive record of regional interventions in the persian gulf is the center of gravity so could establish dominance of the Energy Security and with as economic percussion repercussions contrary to the promises of the nuclear deal but to step up those activities in the region since 2015 as the Nuclear Agreement made a bad situation worse by boosting the dictatorship with a geopolitical sphere. And up to 100 billion nobody knows of those unfrozen assets in this economic transfusion has boosted the economy and enhance its ability to threaten the neighbors with conventional weapons and increase the support and for example, with the Defense Budget with 300 million of funding and that it is concerned for two of the most the worrisome aspects with those special forces to protect and advance and that is an important difference since the july 2015 Nuclear Agreement iran has escalated with close cooperation with russia with those surrogate militia to play the leading role to assist the voskhod regime iran has deployed made and 5,000 revolutionary guards as well as Technical Support and 20,000 foreign fighters the iraqi Shiite Militia and the recruits from afghanistan and pakistan. The intervention that has been partially eclipsed by the Russian Air Campaign with the balance of power inside syria and now the Islamic State is on the verge of defeat they must take steps to preclude air ron iran and prevented from repositioning with the next round of warfare for israel says those are issues target the jewish state those other capable longrange rockets 150,000 rockets and missiles to has a lot. In case the Israeli Government had any doubt for the hostility the revolutionary guard provided us sign on one of those missiles march 2016 that said in hebrew that israel must be wiped off the earth. Iran would also escalate the threats since the Nuclear Agreement was signed to the radical shiites and also to back the other parties along with hezbollah and other military camps. Also intercepted armed ships and that is in violation of u. N. Security Council Resolution 2231 which enshrines the Nuclear Agreement that prohibits these arms exports. The iranian hardware also has pressure cleaning it is a longlost province of iran next to the Islamic Republics though also coming under increasing pressure from hezbollah which has launched terrorist attacks inside the kingdom but also the rebels and yemen that have launched the intervention in support of yemen never a nationally recognized government with those muscles with those against the saudi territory on their side of the border. So to ease that diplomatic isolation with cooperation with russia to, it allows iran the opportunity to Purchase Advanced arms with the military. Russia has already delivered 300 missiles to greatly complicate the israeli or american preemptive strikes against the Nuclear Facilities if the deal is violated. I am not a proponent of the deal if it was up to me i think we could find iran in violation of that deal of the security Council Resolution of the regardless of the policy the u. S. Has to push back stronger at a regional level. First and foremost, to draw a clear redline and enforcement is the nuclear redline and i would argue the deterrence is the chief barrier to iran proceeding down the nuclear path not a diplomatic agreement in the u. S. Needs to maintain forces of the gulf to launch a credible use of force against the Nuclear Facilities if called upon. Should strengthen the allies especially israel that faces the most immediate threats to build up the gcc defense capabilities and the submarine forces and intelligence and surveillance and the pentagon should have a joint planning and exercise is to develop a share of strategy for the Iranian Regime. Vessel defense should be a high priority the u. S. Can do more but the gcc states also face a private they have the patriot missiles but not into a Regional Defense system that needs to be done to prove the effectiveness on the of Ballistic Missile threat. Also for the Ballistic Missile activities and human rights abuses targeting the of revolutionary guard and those that have spun off to support that operation. The goal should be to force tehran to pay the increasing price for high style activities for the revolutionary guard. The bottom line is that the nuclear deal has not moderated iran and in fact, it has strengthened in emboldened hardliners within i run and washington must impose clear and increasing on the regime in order to dissuade it from continuing on its present path. Let me just stop there. I dont know if you caught this from jims remarks but he iran is the bad guys. Lets play that on the table and the funny thing is that actually needs to be said. We spent the past eight years watching president obama empower this regime and for some reason i am still stunned and i dont know where he read this, heard it or thought it or 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 and even before he took power he was making moves to make them the regional hegemon. Like i said, i can find no historical background of this and its not like they havent been doing bad things since 1979 does that ring a bell for anyone . That was a bad time for us iranian relationships. They been killing americans since then to the entire iraqi war they were one of the major producers and distributors of explosively formed projectiles that killed american troops somewhere between 500,000 troops were directly killed by weaponry provided by the irradiance to the Shiite Militias that were used by them and i kinda interact to kill us troops. Yet, somehow he decided that they were going to be the ones that we should back and that was the horse we should back so, now we are dealing with that. Were dealing with the fact that not only has they been empowered but they been returned to the international community, their banking privileges and their cash in 2016 they were the state departments leading sponsor of terrorism worldwide. That may not get too much in the Trump Administration but in the obama ministration it get you cash in the middle of the night. Theyre spending that money now on organizations that jim mentioned. I want to talk about them of their proxies, the main one is hezbollah obviously is a humanitarian group that operates in lebanon to feed the poor, as we are all well aware. Or has blood is a terrorist organization that apparently shares its illgotten gains with people to buy their allegiance. They are a bad actor. Theyre one of the main places that i iran to spend the money in there one of the main ways that they iran pushes the power and destabilizes the region. Hamas, theres another Wonderful Group of humanitarians. Iran backs them and they are causing no end of death and destruction. The other thing id like to note and put up another thing on its head is israel is a great ally. Can we get back to that again . We go from having iran as an ally in israel as a friend enemy under the Obama Administration unto israel being are only true friend in the region and iran being the enemy to peace in that region. Just as we have changed nothing else but that thought process i think we have established a much better and much more realistic world order. Some of the other groups are backing iran the disease in yemen and theres a bit of a dangerous situation there because you have the gulf arab states uae and the others helping and its not like theyre really helping the good guys there but there helping less bad guys in some cases against them but we have a shiite, sunni, little scrap going on there which is dangerous and that something we have to keep an eye on but the two places where i think the radiant influence right now is the most important to the United States is a rack in syria and afghanistan. We have wars going on in both of those. We have a plan where about the nice thing is we are at the end game in iraq and whats going on in syria . I dont know. Im pretty sure no one knows what the answer is there. It is not good and is not ended and its closer to the end but we need to be planning for a post isis phase in both of those countries. One of the things that has to happen is we have to stop the advance of iran into both of those areas and we have to push them back. One of the main dangers in one 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 mediterranean and that would be the irans greatest dreams along with nukes and other bad things. That is what they want. They want to control that swath of territory, they like to control all of it but if they can at least have the ability to move from iran to the mediterranean or the other way they have accomplished something that we cant tolerate. Know what he can. Thats a bad scenario for everyone. Theyve been very, very good at feeding that area with militia. We always hear about the Shiite Militia that has been involved first in iraq war and in killing americans and a destabilizing force there but once we left and he iran moved into that vacuum they started creating alliances with local Shiite Militias in what could become a shiite crescent. Thats a horribly bad thing for everybody. They been a smart about it. These are local shiite image geordie sunni areas and theyve done a reversal sons of iraq where during the search we went in and we worked with the tribal leaders and made friends with them and said this is your territory, we will help you, al qaeda is in iraq and an enemy to all of us we want stability so we basically made them the local constables and said we will back you as you try to take control of your own areas from al qaeda and iraq. What iran has done is in these areas where there were pockets of shiite villages and people they started paying them and they said we are protecting you against isis and were protecting you against the other imperialist, the coalition and we will be your friend. They built alliances with these people, and allegiance from these people, that goes to nine and not even baghdad and that is something we now have to deal with. They are there and they are armed and they feel empowered and unless we and the other folks in the region can do something to push him back they will be at least the foundation of that land bridge to the mediterranean and that cant happen. So, ive got an idea. Lets do something about it. Lets not just admire the problem and say this is awfully horrible. There are ways we can deal with us. The areas they are in are in majority sunni areas so the same place that isis decimated their essentially part of the regions that now have to come back under control. Iraq in syria are both broken states. The baghdad government exists and theyre fine and doing things but the idea that they alone can go into the sunni areas and provide governance in a way that will be accepted by the people there is a fantasy. Its not going to happen. They dont trust them. The party got burned once and we promise them after the surge that we make sure that the majority shiite permitted by dead which is highly influenced by iran would treat them well and would do fine by them and would share wealth and do all the things they need to do. That didnt happen in the iranians took more control and essentially those guys got burned. Now we will ask them to do it again and trust us again, really . In the Central Government will do fine by you and dont worry about the iranian influence on the Shiite Militias that slaughtered their way across that territory to push isis out. One thing it has not been covered much is just exactly how bad that was. The humanitarians and secretary and slaughter during the reconquest there was outrageous. So, we need help their. Theres two countries that have a border on southern iraq who could help us, the saudis in jordan. They have a dog in this fight. Now the president has a new best friend with mohammed, the new Saudi Crown Prince who said maybe it wasnt such a great idea to back all those women killing everyone because at this point hes afraid theyll shut down his monarchy and then he will have his lamborghini, suv, and all the other things he likes so much. Hes looking more realistically. If we can bring some of the gulf arabs in for rebuilding they can put the bell and President Trump liked it when other people pay for things. If we can get the saudis and the other gulf arabs to kick in reconstruction money to start commerce with the sunni areas and potentially provide peacekeeping forces i think were in a position to provide a counterweight to irans move into those areas and to stop that land bridge from solidifying. It will be tough and is not an easy thing and you have sunni and shiite and last time i heard the kurds are having a referendum on independence so its messy. It was easy, it would be taken care of already. We need to look right now it was the best way to stop either iranian domination of those regions or a third sunni insurgency and neither one of those is a particularly good idea so, if you can get help from the gulf arab states and push the iran out of those areas. Thank you, jim. Thank you jim and thank you to the heritage. Heritage is in many respects of the house of reagan and i dont know how many of you know but heritage had a huge influence in the Reagan Administration both in terms of ideas and policies and people who went into the Reagan Administration. The reason i mention president reagan is when you deal with iran have to take a page from the reagan playbook. I think it is worth remembering that when Ronald Reagan came into office in 1980 he also inherited a mess, a global dogs breakfast, as it were. Reagan had to shift us policy from the policy of containment visavis the soviet union to one of aggressive neutralization and rollback. He identified the soviet union, in many respects, very similar to the revolutionary iran. It was an aggressive regime, a revolutionary regime and internally fragile. The Reagan Administration by 1983 had developed something called the National Security decision directive 75 and that was all of government approach using all instruments of American Power to roll back in subvert the soviet power globally. The elements were important. It was a massive defense buildup and i know heritage played a significant role in recommendations on how to build and expand our military potency. There was an element of economic advantage and warfare and heritage played a significant role in during the resources of the soviet state. There was support for anti soviet properties and dissidents and reaching out to run the world for those who were under soviet domination and figure out ways to support them. There was an offense of against the ideological legitimacy of communism and president reagan was brilliant in articulating the case against communism. But what it didnt do was it didnt have a myopic focus on arms control. He didnt see in the first few years, certainly not until 1986, the Reagan Administration accessing over these deeply flawed arms control agreements that present reagan processors had signed. Think of that as we think about iran. What we need when it comes to iran question that we need to move away from the same myopic focus on the joint company is a plan of action. The enron deal that the Obama Administration reached and we need to move to an iran policy and in an ist 75 for the Trump Administration used all insurance of American Power to utilize and rollback iranian influence and hit some of the same areas that president reagan had at. The problem with where we are today is that the jcp oh eight is not only taken our energy and resources in this town but its also created policy paralysis and that policy paralysis was exploited by iran for the past eight years and we are so afraid of the iranian shadow and were so afraid when we reached a nuclear deal that we would walk away from the nuclear deal that we werent willing to counter iranian aggression and i would argue that the administration has to move away from this myopic focus on the jcpoa and moved to countering the a radiant and state where the regime is headed. What is the legal and state . It is about ten years time iran will have thanks to the steel and industrial size with your program. All they have to do is wait until the key restrictions on the Program Sunset and they will emerge with a legal internationally recognized and compliant Nuclear Program and that program will be powered by centrifuges and it will have a clear break out and will have an easier linda stein breakout option and it will have icbms and it will have an economy which if it grows at five6 a year will be at about a trillion dollars within a decade so it will be increasingly against our ability to sanctions and other forms of economic pressure particularly as the europeans make significant investments in iran and are afraid to lose those investments and resist our ability to impose sanctions and snapback sanctions. Iran will have as jim and jim have articulated, hegemony. A trend in countries like lebanon, syria, yemen and they are pushing at the saudi arabia eastern provinces where the majority of the shiite population and they are pushing in bahrain and are working globally. Theyre working in our backyard in latin america as many people in heritage have analyzed. Their influence in latin america is growing. You will have a lethal iranian and state in a decade and anyone was how that too in a decade not to worry will have all instruments of American Power available to us today is misleading you because iran will be stronger and richer and more dangerous and they will be at a near zero breakout. The last time i checked you dont sanction a country and stop them from actually developing Nuclear Weapons when they are at the turn of the screw away from having a nuclear weapon. Will have a option but it will be a military option. So its the jcpoa and war and when the war comes the consequences will be much more devastating. All right. What do we do . We have talked about the rollback strategy recently and jim and jim have done a very good job of explaining that. Its an extremely difficult problem and im very worried about syria and i dont have any good answers but the Trump Administration inherited the mess and im not sure that i quite see the way forward on these deals with the russians as the iranians continue to push forward in forward in establishing this land bridge. Im more enthusiastic and more positive about the job mike pompeo is doing at the cia and the agency has been put on a war footing against iranian influences and i see an emboldened cia with the necessary resources and political backing to go move aggressively against these networks. At least the regional approach targeting networks and certainly we talked about the money issue here and clearly youre not going to be able to do anything about the iranian threat unless you drain them of their resources in the jcpoa, as jim said, has given them not only 100 billion in cash but has opened up oil markets and the Global Financial system opened up opportunities on industrial trade and the uranian economy which was in 2013 at negative six and half gdp and 40 or 50 official inflation rates had four to six months before it was reaching a balance of peace and crisis because it had no more than billion resources it was on the verge of collapse before president obama decided to do the interim deal and a final deal. That economy is growing at four or five and 6 and iranians have access to another hundred billion dollars to show up there Foreign Exchange reserves. Its an economy that is on the mend and as that economy grows, as i said, it becomes much more difficult for us to use economic pressure. This is the time to put on the pressure and this is the time to follow the recent congressional sanctions, mandating the irg seat be designated as a terrorist organization in its entirety and this is the time to go full throttle. There may be 80 or so designations that have ever been done in all these years and yet there are thousands and thousands of a rgc targets including an open Source Database that if you do digging you can find many, many of these targets that meet the designation settled for treasury. Certainly, this is a good time to do this designation and go after the thousands of companies that dominate the strategic sector of irans economy. On a democracy side this is the time to spend from the horses and those horses that were crashed in 2009 but still exist in the gap between the rulers and the ruled is only growing and the notion that he leads a stable government and country where he has tremendous support the reality is the brutal oppression of the radiant oppression untrained people is increasing the gap between the rules in the ruled. Lets try to the extent that we can intensify that. Now we get to the nuclear deal and what the Trump Administration should do. First and foremost, as i made clear, the fundamental weakness of this field, the fatal flaw, the notion that somehow regardless of iranian behavior the restrictions go way over time is unacceptable and should be unacceptable as a statement of us policy. The Trump Administration should come out soon with a clear statement of us policy that the sunset provisions will not be honored by the United States. We shall not allow iran to take patient pathways to Nuclear Weapons and icbms. Second, we were told by the Obama Administration over and over again that we would get access to all sites including military sites. Due to member that . If you listen to the iranians way back in 2013, 14, 15, 16 and 17, they have said repeatedly over and over again from that you will never, ever get into our military sites. We repeat, you will never, ever, ever get into our military sites. You are delusional, i think, as a recent iranian official said yesterday you are dreaming if you think youll ever get into our military sites. There is no way to verify this with your deal if you get into their military sites because guess where they will actually conduct illicit activities . Guess where they will design warheads guess where they will manufacture advanced centrifuges that exceed the limit permitted under the jcp oa . Guess where they will do that for sure they will do that in sites where they deny us access every site where they deny us access will be deemed a military site so that we cant get into military sites this deal is useless. We have to, as a matter of us policy make it very clear that without physical access to military sites there is no deal. That has to be made very clear by this administration. The third issue is Ballistic Missiles capable of carrying warheads. The Obama Administration initially demanded that but the iranian said no and the Obama Administration took it off the table. In the jcpoa itself, the Ballistic Missile is not in the draft but it is a draft in the un Council Resolution. We need to use that as a predicate to insist as a matter of us policy that iran shall not be allowed to develop longrange Ballistic Missiles capable of carrying a warhead because that program will produce icbms as we seen in north korea and there is no point in controlling iranian enrichment or plutonium processing if youll allow iran to have those sections listed over time while giving it every pathway to develop icbms. It makes no sense and as a statement of us policy we should have an absolute prohibition against development of these missiles. Finally, this whole notion of what the rant is done in the past with respect to the possible military dimensions of this program the military dimensions of this program they were completely swept under the carpet by the Obama Administration and said dont worry about but lets be concerned about the future. What. Dot iran is done in the past should be of no consequence and we know theres about 11 and a half outstanding questions from the report of 2011 about what i granted in these sites with respect to Nuclear Weaponization but lets not concern ourselves with that and lets just close the file and move ahead. We can and cant close the file. They havent actually technically close the file from what i understand but we need to reopen the file and get into those sites and to interview those scientists and we need to see the documentation because there is no way we can have an adequate baseline about irans Nuclear Program if were completely blind. Not only are we completely blind or some may say in the Intelligence Community may know whats going on but lets assume for the sake of argument they do and they probably dont know exactly what is going on but lets assume they do and around his succeeded in making the case that they are innocent. They had never admitted their guilt and they are from a Nuclear Perspective innocent in that narrative has been accepted by the United States and international community. So, you have to get iran to permit inspectors into the sites, scientist to th to be interrogated so we need to make the International Case in iran as we brought to the table to admit that they were engaged in weaponization efforts otherwise their claims of Nuclear Innocence and their recertification every 90 days enforces these claims of are innocent. It took Ronald Reagan six years after an std 75 was introduced in 1983, the soviet union collapsed. We have a huge project at a bus but what reagan did, donald trump i should say, what reagan did to the communist, donald trump has to do to the. [inaudible] thank you, mark. Using the moderators prerogative what are your thoughts on north korea, he iran cooperation on Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Matters . It obviously competed well beyond the access of international inspectors. Any thoughts on that. Yeah, peter, as you know and both at heritage have outlined in detail in other places has been a longstanding relationship between iran and north korea with respect to Ballistic Missile corporation. That relationship continues and it certainly would be a surprise at the north korean icbm was renamed in farsi and the iranians found themselves with an instant icbm program. The cooperation on Ballistic Missiles is longstanding and deeply pragmatic. Again, lets keep reminding ourselves what we need for deliverable with their weapon. You need a warhead and you need a missile. The jcpoa temporarily deals with the material, creates a huge hole with respect to warhead design because we cant get into the military sites and doesnt even address missiles. Nevermind iranian, north korean cooperation. The other aspect that intrigues me and theres tantalizing hints of cooperation but something hasnt yet been nailed down is to what extent he iran in north korean are cooperating on the nuclear side. There i think the ic needs to be directed and its been difficult for the intelligence challenge to follow some of these leads. No one was ahead of their Nuclear Program at a north Korean Nuclear test . If so, why . The fact that that the israelis from the north Korean Nuclear reactor in syria and to finance that . It certainly does make was it financed by the syrians or the north koreans question what are the other tantalizing hints of this Nuclear Cooperation. We found only logical but it needs to be backed up with evidence because it may be that all of the focus on iran in its Nuclear Program honoring soil is a head fake because whats really happening is the cooperation between iran and north korea in a north korean soil is where some of the more Dangerous Research and development is taking place. Anyone else on that issue . There is no way that syria had the economic wherewithal to finance that kind of project and it is clear to me although it hasnt been confirmed as far as i know by intelligence assets that the iranian was behind and if theyre behind extraterritorial Nuclear Cooperation with korea why not in north korea. We do know that iranian scientists have been observers of the Ballistic Missile launches and i think some of the nuclear test, as well. So, i think thats a tremendous area for investigation. Lets move to questionandanswer. Raise your hand, i will call on you and we will bring you a microphone. Please identify yourself, especially if your media associate and who the question is directed to. I would appreciate it. Are there any questions . We solved all the problems. Hello. My name is david. For jim phillips. One of the most interesting changes in their regional behavior has been the apparent shift in afghanistan when not only have they been recruiting afghans and taking up into the vacuum in the shiite areas especially but now they seem to be applying the russian relationship from serbia to afghanistan. How do you see this change in iranian policy . Theres an iranian saying about spreading your feet to the limits of your carpet and i think the iranians especially under the Obama Administration perceive the us to be on its way out the door not only in the middle east but in afghanistan and they have been improving their relationship with the delavan which has been historically fraught with hostility and the delavan murdered 11 revolutionary guards in northern afghanistan and it was 1998 and the two countries almost went to war but now we see iran actually stepping up shipments to the tele man in addition to its historic tides as you mentioned and that convicts play with another iranian saying which is use the hand of your enemy to catch a snake. You guys painted a pretty gloomy picture here. I iran on the role and i think youve done a good job of that. What challenges is iran facing and are they worried about a potential overstretch because of their involvement in syria and iraq and yemen. What is there any good news in terms of slowing what you are to train advanced . I think they have to be looking at the growing gulf cooperation council, Us Partnership as a major counterweight and good. Is needed. I think that is one of the things that President Trump did that he has a habit of deciding to kick over conference tables. When he walks into a situation he will say lets let the pre to the ideas be gone and what is the partner in a real way and what if the saudis arent lying when they say they actually want to stop funding terrorism. He cut them loose on qatar. He use them as a stopping horse for the idea that you cant do this and we will work with the guys who will work with us. Now, the enemy of all of those guys is iran. If you look at the fact that hes now proven that he can at least in some way work productively with the saudis in uae and some of the other gulf states than those guys become a rams problem in a big way because the tar in iran event tap dancing a little bit and theres turkeys over there during some things there were not too thrilled about so i think the idea of at least engaging in a way where we werent just accepting the saudis as number 18 largest state sponsor of terror and pushing on them that in return for their efforts against what is a larger threat and that something he iran his to work on. I would say certainly on the economic side i painted a bleak picture and it is slowly recovering from 2013 but the reality is that economy is slowly recovering from the fragile International Banks are unwilling are fearful of doing back into a run because we stole command command influence and leverage toolset. If we use the power of our secondary sanctions that we make it clear to our International Companies that we have a 19 trilliondollar market, the iranians have a 450 billiondollar market, you choose. The reality is everyone in this town talks about the importance of keeping the europeans on board and we dont want to lose the europeans and i think that is true but i think when it comes down to it the europeans are not going to abandon the us market for iran. There will be screaming and crying and a lot of concerns expressed but at the end of the day if the europeans believe will use our secondary section hammer able to use us market access. They will choose us dollar access. I just cant do this. The most important thing that donald trump can do through all of this is maintain the credibility of the walkaway option. Not only do credibility of military force which is now being restored after eight years of being significantly degraded but the walkaway option, donald trump has to make it clear that i hate this deal and its a bad deal for us National Security and i am prepared to walk away unless i get certain concessions. Those concessions will have to come from the european europeans as well. They happen to be put on notice that unless they begin to notice the sunset provision of the nuclear deal that donald trump may one day turn over. I think one longterm problem would be of the Iranian Regime is the attention between the National Interest of the Iranian State and the ideological revolutionary interest of the iranian revolution and the supreme leader, i think many people inside of this, is focused on protecting and exporting irans revolution. The iranian people have paid a heavy price for that in terms of sanctions and in terms of a long buddy war with iraq that was provoked by iranian attempts to subvert the Iraqi Shiites and i think this tension is growing and its a point of leverage that the us and others could use to say we have nothing against the iranian people and we have many parallel interest in allowing the free flow of iranian oil. If it is a friendly regime out of the persian gulf but its the actions of this regime in its supporting and exporting terrorism and revolution that really hurt the longterm interest of the reading people. I think back in 2009 we sought the Green Movement take that somewhat to heart and i think the iranians are present the fact that the regime is spending billions of dollars in syria and rebuilding lebanon when irradiance at home are not the best economic place. On that point, i think it is worth noting that the radiant people in the regime. [inaudible] and 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 Republic of iran and say the United States would not be displeased if that were to happen. We dont have to deal with a doomsday cult of the 12th imam as the people running the country. They almost got it. As you mentioned, that was close in 2009 in obama through them under the bus. Resident trumpet point out that if that happened again we wouldnt be mad about it. Yeah, i would add to that that if you want to look at what reagan did in implementing the strategy is used a bully strategy in a an effective way to communicate to people who lived inside the iron curtain that america stood with them. Im critical of the administration so far on that. I think they missed a huge opportunity, the statement that was put out, it was a huge opportunity missed. To remind the reigning people how brutally repressive their leaders are that we stand with the people and do what reagan did. Again, the travel ban and theres good elements for the travel ban. One of the importunate elements is in not sending a message that we want iranians to come to this country and we want them to live here and visit here and we are happy to facilitate a brain drain. Obviously, well vetted, people come this country. Im an immigrant to this country and it took me 1314 years to become a us citizen. Its a tough process and it should be a tough process in its greatest country on earth. It shouldnt be easy to become a us citizen. There should be a pathway to becoming a us citizen. A patient pathway to being a citizen. I worry that somehow we are closing it off to the iranian people. That is what the president needs to step up and the next speech i hope will be a lot more clear in supporting the people than the last one. I think we have time for one or two more questions. I dont we take these two questions and then we will allow the panel to go ahead and answer them. The recent photo evidence of a ram air continuing to shift iranian soldiers to syria. Should it be redesignated . Is that some type of material breach let us take the other questions and then you can chat up. Brandon from the research foundation. The question i have is regards to minorities within iran. Iran the remnants of the persian empire you have the. [inaudible] in the last census they had was 50 of the country was minorities. They are the remnants of the supplier. Similar to your reagan analogy it seems there should be a concerted effort to appeal to these whether its voice or actually running Real Products on the ground to support them some of which have been fighting isis inside iraq in syria where i just was. And like to get your opinion on that in what you think could be done. Panel, i will leave it open to you. The first question yes, a run air should be redesignated and they been shipping thousands of fighters and hundreds of thousands of kilograms of weaponry to assad and us on trend they have deals with boeing and other Airline Companies and it should be redesignated and it is a breach of the current eight and its a breach by iran for the jcpoa. Jcpoa requires a licensing regime to be set up so that the planes are used for peaceful purposes only. Sending shiite fighters and missiles to assad is not for peaceful purposes only. Real quickly to answer your question i would put it this way. Iran does not respect the territorial integrity of its neighbors both near and far. Im 100 that their Security Studies put out that most of the boundaries in that region are postcolonial global imperial breakups and they are arbitrary and stupid. They dont reflect the wishes of the people. If youve got boundaries that are causing issues and forcing people who hate each other to share a government why . I realized that kicks over about as many conference tables, apple cards, as you can but so what . Its been going so well before hand that is worth considering and it would put pressure on all the major powers to look at that as the potential next step. I would agree with what was previously said by the panelist, especially on iran air. This was very predictable and if they are doing this on something that is so visible you wonder what they are doing and stretching the boundaries on permissible activity on the Nuclear Issue and in the long run, i think, thats another comparison is to make between iran and the soviet empire. Towards the end the russians were less than 50 of the population and when the Economic Situation imploded those different nationalities, naturally sought selfdetermination and freedom and iran is no different. There revolution, the iranian revolution has ended up oppressing many of these minorities, religious and ethnic. I think in the long run that as a weakness of the regime. Pay. We will conclude there. Please join me in thanking the panel for the rich and thoughtful discussion. [applause] [inaudible conversations] coming up in about 15 minutes we will have a National Affairs writer for the nation john nichols talking about his book on the people who make up President Trumps inner circle. The book is called horseman of the trump apocalypse, a field guide to the most dangerous people in america. Alive booktv coverage gets underway at 7 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan2. Booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading the summer. Tell us about the books you are reading this summer . Im delighted. Im going to try to undertake something of great value. The three books about Eleanor Roosevelt written by blanche wise and, the early years, the middle years and the prewar in the postwar years. That will be my project for the summer to try to read all three of these volumes. I think that Eleanor Roosevelt was an extraordinary influence on Public Policy and in her way of what she espoused in the differences between herself and franklin roosevelt. Theres also another one but i dont know ill get to it about the firebrand in the first lady. As i say, its a big undertaking and im excited to be able to do it and to learn from a great role model. Booktv wants to know what you are reading. Send us your Summer Reading list via twitter or instagram or posted to our facebook page