adding saudi arabia, the gulf states to that mix, not in an alliance but working with us. sharing intelligence. conducting exercises. maritime interception. cyber cooperation. becomes a powerful way to help isolate iran in the region. what does israel want from the united states in relation to iran? ? in relation it iran they want a strong activist united states who pushes back on iran in yemen who pushes back in syria, who pushes back in iraq. who pushes back in lebanon. all of these places we see the iranian machine moving forward. israel wants partner that can stand with them against that rising iranian threat. benjamin netanyahu is one world leader that president seems to have a very good relationship with. jared kushner has known him since he was a child. is the trump administration broad ranging backing or
have adopted a very hard line p position on iran since trump became president, ruling out any notion of a conversation with iran, any dialogue, and making no distinction between the moderate president and the hard-line revolutionary guard. i don t think they want a direct confrontation with iran, although the $110 billion arms deal will probably set off some kind of a regional arms race between iran and saudi arabia. iranians are now talking about buying weapons from russia, from building their missile program to counteract this kind of a deal. but i think the saudis are most interested to ally with the united states to push hard against iran in yemen, and then also to check iran s capabilities in syria. for instance, they would very much welcome the air attack that the united states carried out on a convoy of fighters that were backed by iran in southeastern
center is going to concentrate heavily on how to enter that space from the standpoint of experts that live in this part of the world and understand how to message to those who might be influenced by radical messaging. our partners in the gulf cooperation council including saudi arabia will be signing a new agreement tomorrow to close gaps in many of these areas, including the financial infrastructure, which terrorists can exploit, and we command them for refusing to let terrorists conduct operations in their countries. we are calling on all countries to crack down on the way financing and funds reach terrorist organizations. all these new initiatives will bolster our joint efforts to deter regional threats from iran, in syria, iran in yemen, and on saudi arabia s borders as i mentioned. these new steps forward will serve the national security interest of the american people in the kingdom both.
well it s a very difficult situation. it s delicate but i think the administration is approaching it correctly. the u.s. has to show its allies saurd rab ya that it backs what saudi arabia is doing in yemen. that s part of the reason the ships are there. it also has to show iran there are consequences to iran continuing to supply the shiite houthi rebels. at the same time it needs to be careful not to let the rhetoric get too out of control with iran. we don t want to go to war with iran over this. also the u.s. is trying to negotiate a nuclear agreement with iran. the u.s. says it is compartmentalizing its diplomacy. on one hand working towards an agreement, on the other hand confronting iran in yemen. so it s going to be very interesting to see what happens. the spin is the other way, that iran is controlling the game. they have you at the table for nukes and they are controlling that negotiation. and meanwhile because your hands are tied because you want the
breaking now, the deadly and deteriorating crisis in yemen where an american citizen has been killed in the escalating fighting. it s getting worse right now. we are back with the saudi ambassador to the united states. we talked about yemen. let s talk about the iran nuclear deal right now. if you read the wall street journal today which i assume you did, you saw richard hass current president of the council on foreign relations, a man you know saying the great fear that many u.s. officials have is that iran that israel might use its own military power to try to destroy iran s nuclear capability and that saudi arabia your country, will start buying bombs, nuclear bombs, from pakistan. is that realistic? i don t know that i would want to comment on something like this. what we understand is that the deal that is being worked on there is no deal as we speak and the president has said this very