Braided two years and three months after the withdrawal for a few months before. This arms embargo for two months from President Trump urging i want to making a deal rated saying they would get better terms of the negotiated. And they rejected that offer sink new negotiations would help President Trumps reelection. And of course not the least of which the beirut explosion and what this is about the government. So very quick answer to the fundamental questions, as the maximum strategy or pressure strategy worked. For small the me think nick burns, and also munich for having me on pretty pleasure to be here virtually. We are two and half years into the strategy of living iran. But from the yard run strategy was approved by principal fact back in may of 2017 we been executing that strategy now for the entire administration. The president ordered the reassessment, policy review. When we came into office and what we concluded is that if you want to make progress, with this regime you need to have a combination of economic pressu pressure, diplomatic isolation in the credible threat of military force to defend our interests. So that is our theory of the case you might say. And what weve done on the pressure side has been historically significant. On december 31st, the president admitted that her sanctions have passed the regime 200 billion. Our Oil Sanctions alone, we have collapsed rns oil sector. Thats when they get the most of their money. So if you want to get serious about drying up the revenue for the red guards and the force. You have to be serious about the oil. And for as long as we were in the iran deal, we couldnt touch their energy sector. Though we have gone after a runs energy sector, its mineral sector. In a number of areas and romani is right, we have deprived his regime of a lot of money. And it is the epicenter for money laundering, but then they also have been organizing training on these parties. In 2014, one of the iranian official bragged that they owned free capital. Abc iran losing its grip and a lot of these places. Were only a few years ago, they were bragging. New york times and Washington Post have run the number of stories over the last couple of years documenting how irans proxy this weekend. That is a consequence of our maximum pressure. With right of the revenues regime that would otherwise have been spent in consider the statistic. Since 2012, the regime spent over 10 billion in iraq and in syria and lebanon. That there was a fire in syria who said that the golden days are gone and never coming back. Laurent just doesnt have the money that it used to predict these of the sort of headlines that we ought to be wanting to see. Run proxy weaker in the regime having to choose between guns and damascus braided and we put them to make it very hard decision now. So yes we would like to get to a new deal bit over the side of the fact that what we have been able to accomplish by really putting this regime on the and restoring military dependents and maintaining it. We are very pleased with our strategy rated and they continue to be wide open for diplomacy. Supreme leader has chosen resistance over diplomacy. That is his decision. Secretary pompeo warned him to a half years ago, you can either come to the table i can have an economic collapse. I will go about 15 minutes here. Were going to go through the convention up and standing trend 20 and explosions run. In some regional tension. Just a reminder, when they open this up, hopefully about 1220, or a couple months afterwards, please raise your hand and i will be able to you. And you can ask brian your questions greatest obrien, critics obviously of the strategy i dont want to posit to the criticisms to you in terms of the overall approach. Since the administration, theyve increased his stockpiles, fuel and resumed its enrichment of uranium predict does it mean is closer to building a Nuclear Weapon that was two years ago pretty. One thing that a point out is the various Nuclear Commitments nick, they were free to do once the deal expires. So we pull forward the Expiration Date of the Iran Nuclear Deal so we would not have to deal with it being much richer and its proxies richer and the infrastructure. So the Expiration Date. And since there was a few years from now rather. Brian will the sunset started about two months. This deals going to continue expiring, the missile restrictions expires in 2023 is going to keep expiring tomes no deal lofgren so what we would like to do is get a permit deal. I think with your question illustrates the problem. For as long as iran is allowed to enrich, were going to be having discussions. Causes run a Nuclear Breakout print how close are they to weapon rising a bomb. We need to restore the Un Security Council standard of known enrichment. And from oh 62 oh eight, when undersecretary god i remember this in the Bush Administration we were able to negotiate a prohibition on no enrichment. Binding international law. In china and russia voted for it. That is the standard that we have to resort if you look at secretary pompeo demands, there is no enrichment at the top and its going to get us out of this debate of how close is iran is in iran does used nuclear blackmail in order to win concessions over out of the deal in their threatening the europeans with the now, Nuclear Commitments five times. They have broken it. If we put in place the never isolation and all of that necessary in order to get the kind of deal that will be necessary. It will take a lot of leverage to get a comprehensive deal. Weve got to get that started. And to your question, more specifically, we monitor the very closely, the timeline is always classified. The president has made very clear, ron will never get a Nuclear Weapon as long as he is president. I think the iranian so his gospel thing. Supreme leader last week had an accomplishment of the maximum Pressure Campaign was to get credit to the europeans. And the argument is that have lost the unity. With russia and europeans and with china. And iran has been pushed into chinas arms. Will unity should not be mistaken unity for unity. Heres how i look at the party to spend a lot of time, i was also an estonia last week as part of the trip to europe and the middle east and north africa. There in the Un Security Council so i regularly discuss this with our european allies. We have the same info. The trick did not want iran to have a nuclear open. They would like to the iran to be a piece of the neighbors. Witit would like to see an end h missile testing. They dont like the hostage taking. We have had a tactical disagreement about how to achieve those things. The europeans the state in the deal, we left the deal. After being in it from some period of time to see if it could be fixed. Being out of the deal, this is the argument that the president the secretary makes to the members who are still in it. We need to get a new and better deal. On Prime Minister johnson has said publicly that this deal as many deficiencies pretty he said the maybe we should try to get to a tough deal. And i know that the original plan in the Prior Administration was to start with a nuclear piece and then build up to the others. They did not get to the other pieces. Thats unfortunate. But when you look at irans threats to interNational Security, the nuclear piece. We need to get on with the others. Working with allies, as you say, if there is a larger negotiation but there is a more immediate negotiation is happening right now. At the end of the conventional weapons on october 18th. The administration is argued that even those outside, you have the legal right to have those sanctions. We need to start addressing that and way. Please circulate our text back in june. I made a number of trips up to new york before covid. This resolution that we have been working on has pretty much been in the draft since october. So this has been no rush to tabling the resolution. In the last month have been to the country. In israel, if you listen to the countries in the region that are on the front lines of iranian aggression, counsel has to extend the arms embargo. It has been a place for 13 years. It has served the cause of peace very well. That doesnt mean we solved the problems of weapon smuggling by iran. But the un secretarygeneral gave a report to the council a few weeks ago confirming that the missiles that landed in saudi arabia at the Worlds LargestOil Processing facility were of iranian origin. The iranians are making the case themselves for extending the arms embargo with all of the kinetic activity. So i have not heard a single country make the argued engine argument on National Security grounds we should let the arms embargo expire. And i guess that people are going to have disagreements over procedures. Im happy to talk about why we have the legally obligation. But it is very important that we extend this 13 year arms embargo. It was a mistake to ever allow in year five of the eye iranian to let the arms embargo expire on the leading statesponsored terrorism. You may have anonymity in the gulf, a country you just mentioned and despite your diplomatic efforts are of the world, you do not among the permanent members of the Security Council purred so is the Trump Administration willing to step back sanctions if it does not have the support of the other permanent members of the Security Council . I think thats still an open question probing have the vote yet. Some people have signaled their intentions when way. I dont give up on diplomacy until i see the hands go up in new york. And in the case of the support for this, you have the saudis , the bahrainis, yemen, and israel all in complete agreement that the arms embargo needs to be extended. When the arabs and israelis come together on something i really think its important for the International Community to pay attention. We have to listen to what the region is saying. The region does not want look no one thanks what is missing from the middle east are more iranian weapons. Would you support the european effort of sixmonth extension . I dont negotiate with mysel myself. We have tabled a resolution that we think accomplishes what needs to be accomplished. The council, by charter is with International Peace and security. This is diplomacy 101. Its a test for the council in many ways. There is no National Security argument to let it expire. And so we have the legally available option if we need to pretty want to do with the easy way. The easy way is to do a rollover of the arms embargo. Not difficult, there are all the reasons the world to do it. But we will do this one way or the other. We have 300 attendees only one question, raise your hand, bryant woods try to pick through a few other topics. Since june 25 when there was an explosion in the military complex inside iran some of them im sure that infrastructure, one of them course occurred inside purging of the source of the explosion . Have any observations to make on the incident you describe in iran. Hypothetically . Israel believes iran wont respond to attacks because are waiting for biden or the trying to goad iran to help with conventional weapons van strict by the policy any of those possible . I think those are two good questions for the iranians and the israelis. I will not speak on their behalf. Spheric lets get it covid quickly. 2004 after the Bush Administration sent 200 personnel, one in 50000 pounds of aid, i believe the president has been offered to defend a Family Member and elizabeth senator dole. What did Trump Administration offer to iran . As soon as it was clear there facing a health crisis. I personally headed diplomatic notice to the iranians when i said please let us know the gaps in your system. And we can help fill them. [inaudible] placement i will give you the full picture. So i just wanted to reach out to them and say we have had a policy for three to half years of standing with the iranian people and you are right citing what happened in the Bush Administration goes back further than that United States is the Worlds Largest donor of humanitarian assistance. That is something that is an evergreen across administration sprayed so reached up very quickly, the the white house did as well. After i conveyed the offer was rejected within hours. If not hours it was within the next day prayed the white house also to the nsc also rejected. Ive done it a few times. Unfortunately this is the regime, another example of the regime not being able to get to yes. And making sort of a commonsense normal decision. They like iran to behave like a normal country. So is ironic country or cause . And when its leaders behave like a cause, it is for the enormous detriment of the iranian people. President trump said in 2017 in his first Un General Assembly address. They are the iranian people. Once we stick with that weve done the regime doesnt allow sin. We did support so we were able i set up with the treasury of the swiss humanitarian channel. Its process a few prop transactions with cancer drugs and organ treatment therapies. So we are going to continue doing that. That worked. They rejected our offer encoded. Thats really a problem for the regime. Is more to ask on that but im running out of time surreal quick at the region one of the complaints about iran is the activity, let me highlight a few recently. In iraq the Prime Minister of course it was a u. S. Supported came to power with the help of semi iranians. Iran is supporting detox. We are seeing some ambiguous but some positive moves out of yemen. Do you believe iran is pulled back in the region since soleimani was killed . We have seen a change in their tempo. With their proxies. I think the president , he did the strikes on has below, he had a few strikes in iran and syria. After the americans were killed on december twice seventh and attack organized by soleimani, the president hit some has below sites. Israel striking so we have seen the tactical displacement of troops and Iranian Forces in syria we are very pleased with how the has organized his government crackdown has below early. We have seen a collapse among the iraqi people for tolerance of our iranian interference. And iran knows its now playing a very weak hand and iraq. A tone of me as an expression of that. There were huge, and october massive protests in lebanon and also had a huge protest and ira iraq. What we see are people rejecting this iranian model of revolution, violence the usual lack of transparency, the corruption, when i am in the gulf and i have traveled all through their many, many times to buy you look at from the saudis, these are governments and are investing in their own people but you look across gulf to get this profound sense that the eye iranian people have one decades of progress. We like the gulf model. Investing in the future come investing in their people. The iranian people went that. You see the eye iranian model, its increasingly rejected in the region. So i see a lot of sort of positive trend lines are. Plan 30 seconds of saudi arabia constructed a facility for extracting uranium yellowcake with the help of Chinese Technology . Guest dont have any comments on that. Just dont have any comments on it. figure we can do that a few seconds. [laughter] lets turn it over to questions for i see five right now. Barbara first. Please omit yourself and start your video if you want and go ahead. Caller start video. Hello, how are you, nice to see you both. The question i have is to dispute iran is losing influence in the region. What i see is something different. There been attempts seems like the leadership is very strong iraq. Theyre doing extremely wellin yemen. Outside of damascus. I dont attacks a morning how you come to your conclusion that iran. [inaudible] three to well i just answered i think you and i just look at the region very differently, have a class half empty view of i just disagree with your assessment of whats happening in iraq. We have seen a pretty market shift since the killing of soleimani. His indispensable man. He spoke arabic fluently, he was a genius for organizing. Once a barbara i suggest you talk to people in the region. They see it much differently. There has been a big change he is responsible for 603 americans in iraq for that 70 of the total deaths that obviously means thousands that are injured some permanently. To kind of accept your analysis, you have to ignore all of the protests in lebanon, iraq, iran, rejecting the model. You have to look at some of the polls and the other things in iraq. Things are not going well. For the iranians in iraq. So, we are very hopeful. Some of this, iran is facing economic crisis. Its the worst in 41 years. They are facing a crisis of legitimacy with their own people. The regime today cling to power on the basis of brute force. These are not things we are talking about three and a half years ago. Host james harmon, representative harmon, you have the floor you can unmute start video. Caller that idea . Supplied yes hello jane. How are you doing . Caller im doing fine. I applaud your service you know this. We are very lucky to have you. I have a twopart question. And i asked the first part of it yesterday. At another panel. How do you test the capacity now of our Intelligence Community . I think a lot of senior folks have left for various reasons. I know worry that we have lost the experience that we not only collect the truth but the power, is crucially important as we test iran. My second question i heard you did not answer you enter the saudi question. How do you han