Woke him. As it was laid out, we have a couple setting the scene for the conversation. Join the jcp o. A and a few months before the conventional arms embargo and the other two months from urging iran to make a big deal saying they would but it could get better terms and today the Supreme Leader rejected that offer saying no negotiation because it would help the reelection and many issues not the least of which the beirut explosion and what that says about the lebanese government, but it gives us a very quick answer to the fundamental question has the maximum pressure strategy worked. Let me thank you for having me on. Its a pleasure to be your. They are two and a half years into the strategy but it was approved back in may of 2017 and weve been executing against the strategy now for the entire administration. The president ordered a policy review when we came into office. You need to have a combination of economic pressures, diplomatic isolation and the critical threat of military force to suspend our interests. What weve done on the pressure side has been historically significant. It was admitted the sanctions caused the regime 200 billion. Our Oil Sanctions alone is where most of it gets its money so if you want to get serious about driving up the revenue you have to be serious about the oil. We could touch the Energy Sector that we have, after the Energy Sector and a number of areas and they are right they have deprived this regime of the love of money and it is the epicenter for terror finance, money laundering, but theyve also been organizing and training and in 2014, one of the officials backed that they own the three capitals so they see they are losing their grip in a lot of these places where only a few years ago they were bragging. New york times and Washington Post have from run a number of stories over the last couple of years documenting how proxies are weak and that is the consequence of the maximum pressure. We dried up the revenue that the regime would otherwise spend. Consider this. Since 2012, the regime spent over 10 million in iraq into syria and lebanon and there was a fighter in syria but said the golden days are gone and they are never coming back. Iran doesnt have the money to get used to. These are the headlines that they ought to be wanting to see. The regime having to choose between guns in damascus. Weve had to make very hard decisions now. So yes we would like to get to a new deal that dont loose sight of the fact of what we have been able to accomplish by putting this regime in maintaining so we are pleased with our strategy in and the door continues to be wide open for diplomacy. The Supreme Leader has chosen resistance over diplomacy. Thats his decision. Secretary pompeo won him two and a half years ago you can come to the table or manage the economic collapse. Im going to go about 15 minutes and we will go through the conventional weapons, covid, some explosions in iran and regional tension. A reminder when i opened this up hopefully in about 12 20 or a couple of minutes afterwards, please raise your hand and i will be able to call on you and you can ask your questions. There are critics of the strategy and there are some criticisms to you in terms of the overall approach since theyve increased the stockpiles and resumed its enrichment is ds that not mean that iran is closer to building a Nuclear Weapon than it was a few years ago. One thing i point out is as you described they would be free to dfreed to do it once the deal expires and so we moved forward the deal so they wouldnt have to deal with in your own that is much richer in its proxies are richer and it maintains most of its nuclear infrastructure. So the sunset over a few years from now rather than today. It starts in about two months. The deal is going to continue expiring and its great to keep expiring until there is no deal left. Whawhile we would like to do ist a permanent deal. Your question illustrates the problem for as long as iran is able to enrich we will be having this discussion. How close is iran to Nuclear Breakout and how close are they westernizing. We need to restore the enrichment and when i wa i was e council from 16208 we were able to negotiate him Binding International law and china and russia voted for it. That is the standard we have to restore and if you look at the list of 12 demands at the top of theirs no enrichment and its going to get us out of this debate how close iran is. Iran does use nuclear blackmail in order to win concessions so we are out of the deal and they are regularly threatening the europeans with the Nuclear Commitments no fewer than five times. We have now put in place the leverage necessary in terms of pressure and isolation and all that to get the kind of deal that would be necessary. It will take leverage to get the deal but weve got to get the enrichment and to be more specific to your question, we monitor that very closely. The timeline is always classified, but the president has made very clear iran will never get a Nuclear Weapon as long as he is president. Another criticism i want you to respond to come the Supreme Leader last week said one was to discredit the europeans. Critics argue the administration has lost the unity that existed leading up to the jcp away with europeans and russia and china. Its factored in iran has been pushed. Unity is always heard that it shouldnt be for the sake of unity. Heres how i look at it. I spend a lot of time with the industry but i was also in estonia last week as a part of the trip to europe and the middle east. Its on the un Security Council. I regularly discuss this with our european allies. We had the same threat assessment. They didnt want iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. They would like to be at peace with their neighbors in the scene and to the Ballistic Missile testing. They dont like the hostage taking. Weve had a tactical disagreement on how to achieve those. The europeans have stayed in the deal. Weve left the deal after leaving to see if it could be fixed. But being out of the deal coming into this is the argument the president and secretary makes we need to get a new and better deal. Pray mr. Johnson has said publicly it has many deficiencies and he said maybe we should try to get to a trumped deal. I know the original plan was to start with the Nuclear Peace and then go out to the others. They didnt get to the other pieces. That is unfortunate but when you look at the threats to International Peace and security, it is one piece and we need to get on with the others. Next year if there is a larger negotiation but a more immediate negotiation happening right now with the end of conventional weapons ban octob october 18 the administration argued even though it is outside of the jcp away you have the legal right to tap the sanctio sanctions. In december of 2018, the secretary said the arms embargo was going to be expiring and we need to start addressing that in an earlier way so since 2018 weve been talking about this. I embrace the council a few weeks ago and circulated the test back in june i made a number of trips to new york before the covid. This resolution we have been working on has been pretty much dropping since october so this has been a rush to tabling the resolution. The lasin the last month ive bo in 11 countries. I got to the entire gulf and israel. If you listen to the countries and regions that are on the frontlines of iranian aggression they are speaking with one voice. The council has to extend the arms embargo. Its been in place for 13 years. Its served the cause of peace. While that doesnt mean we have interdicted the government weapons, but the un secretarygeneral gave a report to the council a few weeks ago confirming the missiles that landed in saudi arabia that the Worlds LargestOil Processing facility of iranian origin they are making the case themselves for extending the arms embargo with all of this kinetic activities of it have not heard a single country make the argument on National Security grounds that we should put the arms embargo expired. I guess people are going to have disagreements over procedures but im happy to talk about why we have the legally available option to stand back if they are not successful but its very important that we extend this arms embargo. It was a mistake to ever allow video to let it expire on the statesponsored terrorism. You may have unanimity in the golf as you just mentioned and despite your diplomatic efforts around the world is the truth administration willing to extinctions if it doesnt have the support of the other members in the Security Council . Hispanic that is an open question still. We have had to go get. Some have signaled their intentions one way but i dont give up on diplomacy until i see the hands go up in new york. In the case of the support for this, you have the saudis, yemen and israel in complete agreement innings to be extended and when the arabs and israelis come together on something i think its important for the International Communities to Pay Attention and we have to listen to what the region is saying. No one thinks that what is missing are more iranian weapons. Would you support it if it is a sixmonth extension . I dont negotiate with myself. Weve tabled a resolution that we think accomplishes what needs to be accomplished. The council is invested with the International Peace and security. This is diplomacy 101. There is no National Security requirements with to expire so we have the option available if we want to. To ease. Its not difficult. Theres all the reasons in the world to do it but they will do this one way or another. We have 300 attendees and only one questioner raised their hand as you have writing here for questions. Lets try to take through a few other topics. Since june 25 when there was an explosion in the military complex and dozens of explosions inside of iran by insurer by management, infrastructure but one that occurred inside. Do you know the source of the explosion . I dont have any observations to make on the incident you are describing. Hypothetically, responding to attacks because the ratings provided so they try to create the program or hypothetically trying some kind of a response and constrict the policy. Are either of those scenarios probable . Those are good questions for the iranians and the israelis. I will not speak on their behalf. Lets go to covid quickly. I want to take you back to the earthquake in iran that killed 30,000 people. The Bush Administration sent 200 personnel, 150 pounds of aid and the president even offered with the Trump Administration offered to iran after the covid outfit . As soon as it was clear that they were facing a health crisis, icon david diplomatic note interested please let us know the gaps in your system and we can help fill them. Were there any offers in the note . I wanted to reach out to them and say we have a policy for three and a half years of standing with the iranian people that includes when there is a crisis. You are right fighting what happened in the Bush Administration but it goes back further than that. The United States is the Worlds Largest donor of humanitarian assistance and that is something that is an evergreen across the administrations of imho very quickly, the white house did as well and after i completed the offer it was rejected within hours, or within the next day. The white house also through the nsc was rejected. Ive done it a few times and unfortunately this is another example of the regime not being able to get to yes and making sort of a common since normal decision. Secretary pompeo says that speak to the question kissinger asked is it a country or a cause and when the leaders behave like a cause its for the enormous detriment of the iranian people and President Trump said at his first General Assembly address the longest surviving victims are the iranian people so thats why weve stood with them and weve done it again. We did support and we rape to get i set up the humanitarian channel is now processed with few transactions and organ treatment therapies so we will continue doing that. They rejected our offer on covid but that is a problem for the regime. We do the right thing. Theres more to ask on that play of a little more time. One of the main u. S. International complaints about iran is its regional activities. Let me highlight a few recently. They came to power with some helpful if you believe iran has pulled back in that region. We have seen a change in their tens of and with their proxies. The president has done the strikes in iraq and syria after an american was killed december 27 and an attack organized, the president then struck some sites and help israel striking iran and syria so youve seen the tactical displacement of troops in the forces in syria that is all for the better. We are very pleased with how hes organized his government. He cracked down fairly early. We have seen it its for tolerance of the interference and iran if nozick is in expression of that. In october there were protests in lebanon and iran in november and also protests in iraq. We see people rejecting this model of sectarian violence, lack of opportunity, the usual lack of transparency and corruption. Weve traveled through there many times and the book of vision 2030 days lost decades of progress so we like the golf ball and investing in the future and their people we see the model was rejected in the region dont have a comment on that. Ic five questions right now. Its losing influence in the region. What i see is something different. It seems to its doing very well in. I just answered that. I think we look at the region very differently. We had a glass halfempty view of it and i disagree with your assessment of what is happening. We have seen a pretty remarkable shift since. He was the indispensable man and he spoke arabic fluently, he had a genius for organizing so i suggest you talk to people in the region. He is responsible for the deaths of 603 americans in iraq. That obviously means thousand were injured, some permanently. To sort of accept your analysis in rejecting the model you have to look at some of the polls and other things in iraq some of this is facing an economic crisis worse than 41 years and a crisis of legitimacy and credibility with their own people. The regime today clings to power the force and these are not things we were talking about three and a half years ago. Representative jane harmon, you have the floor. You can start your video if you like. Im doing fine. The center is lucky to have you as a friend. I have a question and i asked the first part of it yesterday in another panel and that is how you accept the capacity now of our intelligence community. I think a lot of senior folks have left the region and i worry weve lost the experience to not only collect the truth, but speak truth to power and that is crucially important. My second question how are you handling the choices of the arms race in the greater middle east if they start to move ahead . Sorry to interrupt you have less than two minutes to answer. I remember working with jane harmon on the intelligence committee. She served with distinction. I remember testing before the committee. On the intelligence side, i think that we are fostered with a lot of good people. We have a new dni director. I think ther there are a lot of efforts underway and the priority theres no such thing as the mission and intelligence, but i do think on the subject its given a great deal of priority. Thats been my judgment for being in this world and i think that will continue. On the arms race this is what worries me about lifting the arms embargo expired. They will see it purchasing fighter jets. This is what they will be allowed to do. Fighter jets and attack helicopters, submarines, missiles range 3 kilometers this arms embargo needs to be extended. I think that its important to make the case to the pronouncements of the council and to the ten elected members this needs to continue. Will do respect they are talking about the Nuclear Arms Race rather than conventional. Thats what we need to be supporting. They deserve a great deal of credit for doing the right thing on the nuclear side. Over half the countries in the world that have the power do not enrich. The Iran Nuclear Deal by allowing its Nuclear Capabilities signal to the other countries in the region this is why we have to restore the standard of enrichment. Theres a lot more to discuss. Sorry i didnt get to all of your questions. Thank you very much for taking time out and for this purpose. Im going to throw you one last question you are absolutely right that the saudi monarchy is united but we have been down this road before especially in the arab monarchy what are you doing about that and it but are they doing to be hopeful . The Saudi Embassy yesterday put out a couple of videos explaining the rationale for extending the arms embargo. I would have you take a look the first trip overseas as president there were 57 that came together. The president said we need to improve the competencies and capabilities of the partners in the region so they can be better posture to deal with regional threats. It was increased by 15,000. They were very much focused but then started getting attacked from the north directly so i think we have done a good balance of trying to increase burden sharing in the region in the press conference is with the ministers and they are very clear they are speaking with great clarity in helping to organize the diplomatic effort especially to get the arms embargo extended. Thank you very much. We could talk about this all day. Thank you again. Thank you both. We continue at the aspen security for him with remarks from the former under secretary of state. She spoke about the current u. S. Relations with iran and china and the strategiewe