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