[applause] thank you very much. C with him back to the afternoon session of the National Security forum. My name is juan zarate and im the chairman of ft center and sanctions and finance but if you are here morning i was privileged to be able to sit down with director pompeo for what i thought was a really interesting conversation and i hope you did as well. Bear in mind that we are not just people in this room, great goodlooking crowd by the way but we are being livestream so we need to be on our best behavior. I have the distinct honor and privilege of introducing this afternoon session and first of all kudos to have ftd and cliff may in the whole team for settling this discussion with two of the most important if not the most important figures in National Security is circling now with the National Security adviser h. R. Mcmaster with us this afternoon so a real honor and privilege i think for olivas to have general mcmaster with us today. I have been asked to introduce general mcmaster as well as mark who will conduct the interview. Mark do with as you know is the ceo of the foundation for defense of democracy and one of the great minds in the world of National Security and in particular on iran policy. Hes the financial pressure in power in our National Security so no doubt hes going to do a great job. Let me introduce general mcmaster for those of you who dont know him. He of course is the assistant to the president for National Security affairs. He is the presence National Security adviser. Generally faster has led a life of service to this country in the army and in the military and graduated from west point in 1984 taking command of various units in command in iraq afghanistan and the United States on behalf of the army and the u. S. Military. General mcmaster is one of the great warrior scholars of our day and its a great privilege that he sits where he does next to the oval office at the side site of the president. As you know hes the author of dereliction of duty which is one of the great studies on military political relations during the johnson period. Yields a ph. D. In military history and is again one of the great scholars of National Security. Finally just a point of privilege i noted my relationship with director pompeo earlier today. I have a personal relationship with general mike astor and very pushed to know him his entire career and this is not just a great Public Servant not just a great patriot and not just an incredible warrior scholar but he is a great man. A great father great husband and i have the privilege to call him a great friend. I think all of us as americans regardless of where you are politically and regardless of where you stand on National Security issues should incredibly proud that we have somebody of his caliber and character in a position of National Security adviser especially in this time of so many challenges. With that, allow me to introduce Lieutenant General h. Armour asked her National Security adviser and mark for the afternoon discussion. Thank you. [applause] thank you one for that kind introduction. I may extreme admirer of juan is well and the groundbreaking work you did on countering threats and terrorist financing and he has been a friend for example for me as he is mentioned across my entire professional life and its just a real privilege to be here alongside him. I heard him say that he loves mike pompeo. Makes me a bit jealous. I love juan zarate more. I love mark and i love fdd. Its a real privilege to be with all of you and i want to thank the foundation for hosting this event and giving me the opportunity to be part of this discussion and say a few words upfront about where the prisons most recent decisions which is to improve a comprehensive strategy for the problems associated with iran. I want to thank fdd for the work of some over the years. So many Critical Issues including the threat posed by radical islamist ideology and more recently the threat from adversaries who use the internet to wage Economic Warfare against the United States. We have drawn heavily on scholarship and analysis of fdd and other academic institutions as well but as we develop integrated strategies over the past month. Of course theres no shortage of topics to discuss and i look forward to the discussion with mark on a broad range of topics but i thought i would outline a few of them in general terms and then talk about the iran strategy. First we face the challenge of revisionist powers who are subverting the postworld war ii cold war, postcold war Political Economic insecurity order that the United States helped to create and lead, and order that has prevented great power conflict for over 70 years and expanded a free and Prosperous Community democratic state. Second we face a challenge from rogue regimes. Rogue regimes that International Norms pursue weapons of mass destruction and export terror to extend their influence and extort concessions from responsible nations. Third, we face barbaric nonstate actors who perpetuate ignorance, foment hatred and use that hatred as justification for mass murder and unspeakable brutality against innocents and they do this under a cloak of any year religious wicked ideology. These disparate actors often appear in the same battlegrounds battlegrounds. They often operate in parallel but at times they cooperate when their interests align. For example russia and iran aid, abet and sustain the murderous assad regime in syria. That access perpetuates a sick terry and civil war that strengthens islamist terrorists who portray themselves as patrons and protectors of parties in that conflict. Iran intern uses that same conflict and conflicts in iraq and yemen to pursue hegemonic gains and threaten israel and saudi arabia and others with their terrorists and militia process. Yet as urgent threats like these to u. S. And interNational Security of increased our strategic competency has actually diminished. I think we have been prone in recent years to what we might describe as an almost narcissistic approach to National Security. Strategies are fritter away based on what we would refer rather than what the situation demands. In recent years we have allowed incomplete plans disconnected from the problems they were meant to address to masquerade the strategies. So what complex challenges like the three i just highlighted reflate the National Security and complex challenges like those that are manifest in syria demand are real integrated strategies to direct the purposeful employment of all instruments of power. So as we establish firstorder principles for president trumps National Security strategy the importance of using every element of National Power diplomatic, informational, military, economic, Law Enforcement, intelligence and an integrated way its at the top of that list. The persons new strategy toward iran is a good example. Instead of focusing almost exclusively on jcpoa the new strategy considers the full range of irans destabilizing behavior and maligned activities including his material and Financial Support for terrorism and extremism. Its complicity in the assad regimes atrocities against the Syrian People, its unrelenting hostility to israel, trippi did threats to freedom of navigation especially strategically in the persian gulf, it Cyber Attacks against the u. S. Israel and allies and partners in the gulf, its grievous human rights abuses and its arbitrary detection of foreigners including u. S. Citizens on speeches and false grounds but as the president made clear in his speech on october 13 our strategy and a great all elements of National Power and is oriented on neutralizing the government of irans destabilizing influence and constraining its aggression particularly his support for terrorism and militants. Second, revitalizing our traditional alliances and regional partnerships as bulwarks against iranian subversion and to restore a more stable balance of power in the region and this is an area where the president s leadership has paid off tremendously as you have seen with the growing together of Mutual Understanding understanding, much closer relationships and a common understanding of problems and common action with our traditional allies and partners in the region. And third denying the Iranian Regime and especially the Islamic Revolutionary guards corps funding for the maligned activities to support the work is extremely important and opposing the ire pc activities that distort the wealth of the iranian people and countering threats from Ballistic Missiles and other asymmetric weapons. What we must do is we must rally rally, rally the International Community to condemn the irgc gross violations of human rights and its unjust detention of american citizens and other foreigners. And lastly must deny iran all passed to a nuclear weapon. This is the Strategic Direction that the president has given us. Our next challenge is to execute and as i mentioned rallying all of our friends to the cause. As the secretary of state said secretary of state said that csis yesterday states that use terror as an instrument of policy will only see their International Reputation and standing diminished. It is the application, not choice of every civilized nation to combat the scourge of terrorism. So as we develop a strategy we begin work wherever we could with our partners and allies. Now we are mobilizing every element of National Power and efforts of our key partners to achieve our objectives or new resources or her priorities are required we will seek them. Our organizations must be reconfigured and retooled. We will change them and well proceed to work hard handinhand with our allies and partners and with members of congress to defend america and advanced our vital interest but we need your help. We need fdds help and we need the help of all of you hear. We need organizations like fdd to continue their scholarship on the threats that we face and we need our media, our press and investigative reporters to look hard at countries like iran and north korea and help inform the world about how these rogue regimes scourge sanctions allowed International Norms brutalize their own people and man is our neighbors. But the knowledge that you and others help bring to light about these threats america can act with confidence. That confidence comes not only from knowledge of threats but as we all know it comes from knowledge of who we are as a nation, what we stand for, what we value. That confidence is essential to generating the will and the commitment to prevail in the competitions we face and its part of regaining that strategic competence. Thank you and i really look forward to the conversation, mark. Thank you everybody. [applause] first of all general thank you for being here. Time time is precious. Thank you for your service to our nation and thank you for bringing an understanding of the nature and the gravity of the iranian threat. I want to start with a broader topic of how you develop integrated national strategies. Uk minister National Security adviser with the mandate. Talk about your vision and strategy and particularly with respect to the irans strategy. We begin with the president s guidance he said this white house by extension of the National Security council has become very tactical and we are very much involved in areas of responsibility actions and program initiatives that out to be within the purview of the departments agencies so he asked us to centralize where we can and support the department in executing our policies but think clearly about the problems and opportunities that face the nation. This was based on all of our understanding that the balance has shifted against United States in recent years and decades and we have to understand how to compete more effectively, compete more effectively to advance and protect u. S. Interests and to shift the balance back in favor of the United States from some of these critical competitions. To do that we have initiated and are well along in an effort to develop an integrated strategy for what we are calling National Security challenges, firstorder challenges that are relevant to protecting an dancing the American Interest which we define as really four fundamental interests. First is to protect the American People and protect the american homeland. Second is to advance prosperity and third to is achieved peace through strength and the fourth is to advance american influence. I would say the president has made great progress on all of these but then we use these vital interest has a lens through which we have used these National Security challenges and then we craft goals and objectives based on how these challenges relate to the American People. This is really foundational for American Foreign policy and National Security strategy. Will we do then is involved through the president s National Security cabinet and these problems and describing the situation understanding how its relevant to our vital interest laying out overarching goals and objectives and then getting guidance from the heads of their departments and agencies about how we can begin to get after this challenge in a way that advances and protects interest overcomes obstacles to progress and seizes on opportunities. That will refine this guidance into a strategy so you have seen us on north korea, south asia in the irans strategy and on cuba. I could go on so these are welldeveloped. Many of them have been an implementation for a while and others are still in development but without guidance from National Security counsel to president s cabinet up front it allows to beat to begin executing and coordinating their efforts. General lets talk about those firstorder challenges that you describe which is iran and the big announcement on friday at the president s speech laying out a comprehensive strategy and its fair to say a lot of that his telescope down on exactly which the president s refusal to certify are. I want to take the conversation to bridle broader level. I want to go to the operation were iran represents a threat to the United States and our allies allies. What are you trying to achieve to begin with in iraq . In iraq its easy to say and it may be hard to do so what we would like to see in iraq is a stable iraq that is not aligned with iran and what we would like to do is assist the iraqis to do with the president has told us to work with allies and partners which is to destroy isis and to not permit another group like isis or je jad a script to come back by doing key fundamental things. Denying them safe haven, cut off their funding and eliminates this draw of vulnerable populations into these kinds of organizations. The fight in iraq is relevant to that but its also relevant to ensuring that iraq emerges from this horrible period of conflict strong. The United States has a strong interest in a strong iraq. I would say the others who are operating within iraq who are subverting iraq, iran in particular are attempting to keep iran perpetually weak and apply to iraq what you might call a hezbollah product where you have with government does deliberately weakened and a government that is reliant on iran for support while iran grows militias and armed groups that lie outside of the governments control. Militias and terrorist groups if they can be turned against the government if the government takes action against iranian interests of this is a model we see sadly in the country of lebanon. You see it in syria where 80 of those that are fighting on behalf of of the assad regime. Its a model applied in iraq and its something you see may be trying to play out in yemen as well. So its easy to say as i mentioned in hard to do. Takes this is a sophisticated sustained effort but its a stable iraq and emerging strong and is not aligned and of course its got to have a relationship with its neighbor cannot aligned with iran. Would you say to the allegation that the president gave a speech on friday rolling at a conference of policy on National Power to neutralize their aggression in the region and on monday sula money to have the fake guard court quds force shows up in kirkuk . So what you have is a greater level of complexity now associated with the kurdish referendum and the actions that followed the kurdish referendum. What we want to see in iraq as i mentioned is a strong iraq and of course a strong kurdish region where we have longtime partners and a partnership with value tremendously who bore the brunt of saddam husseins brutality over many years and who interviewed. Everyone else after 1991 they use the safety a