topic there. it looks like the iranian delegation who are supposed to be heading there haven t been given visas and iran s president, hassan rouhani, says he may not show up at all. the u.n. general assembly happening here in new york city next week. thank you, ali. i want to bring in ambassador wendy sherman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs, now at harvard s kennedy school, also an msnbc global after first contributor. ambassador, iran has denied this we saw the evidence there from saudi arabia i know you ve been following the story closely. what s your assessment is there any reason to believe that iran is not behind the attack over the weekend? well, there certainly are lots of indications that iran was behind this attack, but we find ourselves in a very difficult place for a lot of reasons. given the assassination of jam ma am khashoggi and saudi
he s got more details. ali, what exactly are the saudi arabian officials saying reporter: well, they re blaming iran squarery for this they re saying this was an iranian uav drone, there were iranian missiles launched. they say they have the evidence that all points back to iran they re saying the yemenese don t have the office case to launch an attack like this, nor do they have the hardware to launch an attack like this they re even saying the attack did not come from yemen. i don t think they say directly the attack came from iran, but they were certainly alluding the that fact, and they basically said the yemenese are acting as a fall guy for the iranians. they re taking their orders from the revolutionary guard who are trying to cover up their tracks, as the spokesman for the saudi arabian defense ministry said. they re trying to put all the
arabia s other actions, particularly in yemen, their word and their credibility is questionable donald trump, the president of the united states, is known to fabricate all kinds of things on his tweets and when he gives his rally speeches, so his word is questionable of course, iran which tries to do things behind a cloak of the regime, their word is questionable so finding the facts here and having the world community believe those facts is going to be quite a challenge but indeed there is reason to be concerned that, in fact, iran was behind this, at least with the equipment, the ordnance, if not the actual act itself. what would their motivation be, ambassador why would they attack oil fields in saudi arabia? i think it s many things, craig. first of all, it s the united
for using her voice to spur change on such a critical issue. greta, how are you? i m good. it s very good to see you again. good to see you thank you so much you and me were a team do you know about fist bumping do you believe in fist bumping yes greta also told the former president about the massive climate strike that she is leading involving kids and adults from 150 different countries, at the united nations general assembly here in new york kudos to greta that will wrap up this hour of msnbc live. i ll see you tomorrow morning on today. right now, andrea mitchell reports. and thank you, craig melvin. right now on andrea mitchell reports, pressure tactics president trump ordering more economic sanctions against iran. and a new national security adviser today, even as the president s closest senate ally says sanctions alone won t stop iran from attacking the saudis
has gotten to know o brien, and he has also had an opportunity to get to work with mike pompeo. both of those things are key because advisers here want a sort of no-drama approach after the position involving national security adviser has certainly been drama-filled throughout the trump years. of course, timing is important the president will go to the u.n. general assembly later this month, and that is high stakes to be sure it comes at a time when there s increased tension with iran and, of course, with the attacks on the saudi arabian oil fields when you look at who is robert o brien, in part, it s parent to look at his background he s worked in the past for the campaigns of mitt romney and scott walker, a more traditional republican background in that way. he s also described by the washington post as the highest ranking mormon in the u.s. government now because of this position of course, being national