Today to hear testimony on the Trump Administrations budgetary and policy priorities in the middle east for fiscal year 2020. We look forward to hearing from witnesses about the fy 20 budgets for the department of state Near Eastern Affairs bureau as well usaid bureau for the middle east. Thank the witnesses for appearing today. I recognize myself for purposes of making an opening statement. Thank you assistant ebt secretary shanker and administrator harvey for testifying today. Nearly three years in the Trump Administration, the United States face as multitude of challenges in the middle east. While the administration touts maximum pressure policy, iran continues to detablize countries from iraq yemen and leb ondespite President Trumps rhetoric tehran that is laufrmd attacks on International Shipping and regional states. Undermining u. S. Deterrence and credibility in the process. The Iranian Nuclear program is more advanced today than the day that President Trump took office. And the
Operation in syria, humanitarian efforts in the region, and foreign aid to saudi arabia. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the chair will come to water. The subcommittee is meeting today to hear about the policy priorities for fiscal year 2020. We look forward to hearing from our witnesses about the fy 20 budgets, the Near Eastern Affairs bureau. We thank the witnesses for appearing today. Forw recognize myself making an opening statement. Thank you for testifying today. Nearly three years into the Trump Administration, we have faced a multitude of challenges in the middle east. While the administration counts its maximum pressure policy, iran continues to destabilize countries from iraq to yemen to lebanon. Despite bellicose rhetoric, iraq has iran has attacked regional shipping, undermined u. S. Credibility in the process. To
Senate return for legislative business next tuesday and now we continue our coverage of a conference on middle east strategy. And i think this counter goes of whoever is in par with regard to the presidency and regardless of who the resources available. So i think going back to what was mentioned in the Previous Panel with regard to the impact of maximum pressure and what max impression was intended to decide allegedly because of lack of clarity among u. S. Policy intention and strategy on iran but one of the argument was the position of sanction and maximum pressure, iran behave in a region would be contained. Unrest with diminished. We clery see the opposite. One of the reasons is iran continued its policy with regard to its support of allies and proxies but also its continuation of the interest. In syria with continuation, and iraq and lebanon the same, in yemen we have not seen any change since 2018 in particular. If anything weve seen a more by iran to showcase as was mentioned be
Now on bbc news, its hardtalk. Welcome to hardtalk. Im stephen sackur. All of the conflicts and tensions in the wider middle east coalesce in one small nation lebanon. Currently a quarter of the lebanese population is made up of refugees from syria. Iran wields huge influence in lebanon thanks to its sponsorship of the militant Group Hezbollah, and israel has a long history of intervention in its northern neighbour. My guest today is lebanons foreign minister gebran bassil. Is his government making lebanons problems worse . Gebran bassil, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Once again, it looks as though lebanon could be drawn in to a dangerous regional conflict, and your government appears to be doing nothing right now to reduce the tension. Why is that . Actually, we want to avoid getting into any trouble. Our policy is to be disassociated from any conflict in the region but we are obliged to protect our country and we are repeatedly aggressed by israeli violations of Un Resolution 1701.
With stephen sackur. Welcome too hard to talk. I am a stephen sackur. All of the conflicts and tensions in the wider middle east coalesce in the discordant politics of one small state lebanon. Currently a quarter of the lebanese population is made of syrians seeking refuge from war. Iran wields huge influence through its sponsorship of the Shia Islamist Group Hezbollah, while israel has a history of intervention in its northern neighbour. My guest today is Lebanese Foreign minister gebran bassil. Is his government making lebanons problems worse . Gebran bassil, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Once again, it looks as though lebanon could be drawn in to a dangerous regional conflict. And your government appears to be doing nothing right now to reduce the tension. Why is that . Actually, we wa nt to tension. Why is that . Actually, we want to avoid getting into any trouble. Our policy is to be disassociated from any conflict in the region but we are obliged to protect our country and we a