Interested in. Oval office holders, how can they beat the countrys president . I suggest they listen, he just beat his nations populace in a landslide. I will have an exclusive interview with the new Prime Minister. Also, from swords to rifles from machine guns to nukes, the world is constantly adjusting to new ways of war. Set rules of the road for cyber war. Former counterterrorism chief Richard Clark says it needs to happen soon. But first, here is my take. You often hear in these polarized times republicans and democrats have deadlocked on almost everything but the real scandal is what both sides agree on. The best example of this is the Defense Budget. Last week, the Democratic House filled with radicals according to the republicans voted to appropriate 733 billion for 2020 defense spending. The republicans outrage because they along with President Trump want that number to be 750 billion. In other words, on the largest item of Discretionary Spending in the federal budget, accounting for more than half the total, democrats and republicans are divided by 2. 3 . That is a cancerous consensus today. Americas Defense Budget is out of control lacking strategy cow her rans a wasteful and eternally expanding. 14,000 toilet seat coverers and 100,000 cups are par for the course. Last year, a quarter century of resisting, the pentagon finally subjected itself to an audit which in true pentagon style cost 400 million. Most of its agencies, army, navy, air force, marines failed. The then Deputy Defense secretary Patrick Shanahan admitted we never expected to pass. Donald trump says hes a savvy businessman, yet his attitude towards the pentagon is that of an parent, we love and need our military and gave them everything and more he tweeted. Far from bringing defense spending into a system, hes simply open the piggy bank while at the same time trying to slash spending on almost every other government agency. The much deeper danger, however, is spotlighted by jessica tuck m. She points out we think about Defense Budgets in a fundamentally erroneous way tieing it to gdp but the budget should be related to the threats the country faces, not the size of the economy. If a countrys gdp grows by 30 she writes, it has no reason to spend 30 more to the military to the contrary unless threats worsen, you expect over time defense spending is a percentage of a growing economy should decline. The United States faces a world influx to be sure but surely not a more dangerous world enduring the cold wore. It now spends more than the next ten countries in the world put together, six are close allies like britain and france and the real threats of the future, cyber war space attacks require different strategies and spending and yet, washington keeps spending billions and billions on aircraft carriers and tanks. In the case of the latter, the army tried to get congress to stop spending on new ones and has more than 6,000 tanks, no luck. There are even more fund mental questions about the structure of the pentagon. Why do we have an air force if the army, navy and marines each has its own air force . Why does every service have its own representative to lobby for spend income congress. Dwight eisenhower had a skepticism about government. He was the kind of seasoned general who understood the peace game from a combination of military strength and diplomatic engageme engagement. That was why in his farewell address, he spoke about the dangers of the military industrial complex. 60 years later, it looks like one of the most warnings any president has made. For me read my Washington Post column this week and lets get started. Tensions between iran and the United States are at the highest level since President Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions. Last month, iran shut down an american drone prompting trump toretaliation but impose a fresh set of sanctions on irans leaders. It was in this highly charged atmosphere he arrived in new york last sunday for u. N. Meetings. Last weekend, the staff of irans u. N. Mission and minister were all put under severe Movement Restrictions by the United States government. He is not allowed to come to cnn studios, so we met on wednesday before the latest news at the iranian ambassadors residence. Pleasure to have you on again. Good to be back. You know a lot of people think that the iranian government is trying to raise tensions in the persian gulf by interjecting tankers, in a sense signaling it could in various ways block the floor of oil from the straights of hormuz. We are in the persian golf. We have 1500 miles of coastline within the gulf. We control the straight of horm hormuz. It is these waters are our lifeline. So their security is of paramount importance for iran. Throughout history, iran has provided security in these waters. The United States is intervening in order to make these waters insecure for iran. You cannot make these waters insecure for one country and secure for others. Do you believe that as a result of this, whoever is to blame, you could have an escalation which would result in a military incident . In such a smoall body of water, if you have so many foreign vessels, i mean, accidents will happen. Do you remember 1988 when a u. S. Warship in deep waters shot down an iranian civil airliner killing 290 passengers. So accidents, even catastrophes can happen. Is there a possibility of war . Well, you cannot simply disregard a possibility of a disaster but we all need to work in order to avoid one. There is a war going on right now. Its an economic war. An economic war against iran targets civilian population and President Trump is on the record saying that he is not engaged in military war but an economic war. Thats noting to be proud of because in a military confrontation, civilians may become Collateral Damage and economic war, civilians are the primary targets. Were you surprised by the ability of the United States to essentially stop you from engaging in any International Economic activity from even selling your oil on International Markets, this one country . Well, it is regrettable not just for iran but for the International Community that the United States can in fact bully important players in International Markets to obey its rules against both International Law and against their own interest. It is certainly regrettable. We continue to set our ways and you will find production is way down. It is way down but well find ways to mend the situation as you have seen our currency market stabilized now after a year of fluctuation and going i mean, its improving and it means that we will continue to face these difficulties with pride and with prudence. A lot of people who believe that your the noose is around your neck and the United States has you in a situation and the economy declined and shrunk by five or 6 and currency has gone down. Are you cornered . No. I think the United States has founded necessary because of its own mistakes to put excessive emphasis on its economic might to weaponize the u. S. Dollar and as any analyst would tell you in the media and longterm this is bound to have a negative impact on the predominance of u. S. Dollar in the global economy. You see now that many countries including u. S. Allies are moving away from dollar using their own National Currencies. Last year, iran and turkey used their National Currencies in 35 of their trade. Others are doing the same. China and russia decided to put aside dollar in the national by lateral endeavors. You now have a nondollar denomination oil market in shanghai. These are realities of the day because of the excessive use and weaponization of dollars so at the end of the day, because of u. S. Desperation of this obsession with iran they want to put aside this nuclear deed negotiated, they are using overusing their Dollar Strength and at the end of the day, it would cost them. Do you think that you will be able to sell oil to china and india in the next few months . Well continue ll continue t. To who and how is going to be a state secret because otherwise, u. S. Will go and prevent us from doing that. But we will continue to sell oil. The International Oil markets cannot survive without our oil. Secretary pompeo has restricted tightly your movement and actually the movement of Iranian Embassy staff even. He says he doesnt want to give a platform to you to spew iranian propaganda. Why should he not get a chance to speak on iranian tv . Will you hear secretary pompeo can go on iranian tv . Im grateful for you to come to our residence to do the interview instead of me coming to your studio. Thats a burden on you and not on me. Im very happy to be here with you. I think the restrictions that have been put on our staff, not on me, remember, i come here for a few days, three buildings is usual what i stay in here. Our mission and the united nations. I dont have any other business here in new york. I dont come here for sightseeing. Ive done enough during my student days here in the United States so i dont need to do sightseeing but the restrictions they have put on staff of our mission are inhuman. The children cannot go to school. These are unacceptable. They are limited to an undiplomatic neighborhood for residents. This is unheard of. These are against it. The headquarters agreement and United States agreed to hold to have the honor of hosting the u. N. Headquarters. It comes with some commitments and obligations but as far as secretary pompeos appearance on Iranian Television is concerned, hes been rejecting requests for interviews by iranian journalists and im sure he will find enough requests from him, from iranian tv and other iranian media and if he decides to accept them on the same terms that i accept appearing on american media, im sure he get a chance. More with zarif in a moment. When we come back, i asked whether he thinks donald trump wants war or regime change. Johnson johnson is a baby company. 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Our liquid has a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no nextday grogginess. Zzzquil pure zzzs. Naturally superior sleep. Were back more of my intervi interview. Donald trump says he doesnt want war with iran. He also says most recently he does not want regime change. Do you believe him . I think he doesnt want war with iran. I think he doesnt care about who rules iran. He doesnt want regime change, but thats not what the people around him are interested in, and i think it is important for President Trump to look at the people around him. We take him at his word, that he doesnt want war. He doesnt want regime change but i can assure him that there are a few people around him who are on the record saying that they want war and regime change. Ive been told that President Trump sent a letter to the Supreme Leader of iran in which he essentially offered to restart negotiations. Well, President Trump did not send the letter but Prime Minister abe brought his message, verbal message and Supreme Leader very carefully. The problem is we cannot start negotiating with every new american administration. Any country will deed with another country based on the facts representatives represent their countries. We just had an election here in the United States. We didnt have a revolution. You didnt have a revolution here in the u. S. President trump succeeded president obama. Administrations have executive agreements, they have treaties but have all sorts of agreements that continue to be binding on the country. You cannot simply say i dont like the Previous Administration and i want to renegotiate evening they did. That may be an internal issue for you but for us, we spent several years, hours, days, weeks, months, nights, one of negotiating sessions that we had with secretary kerry started at 9 00 in the evening and ended without a pause at 6 00 the following morning. This is not something to renegotiate. Now if President Trump says that this is this was not a treaty, this was just an executive agreement, these are domestic issues. But he has violated enough treaties. Do you remember inf . Do you remember nafta . Remember many others. Let me propose a win, win. He has to win something, too. And the win would be that you agree to go back to the negotiating table, there is a suspension of these new sanctions, the u. S. Suspends while you talk but you agree to talk about the nuclear deal Ballistic Missiles and irans regional activities. Well, first of all, we did not need the negotiating table. We are at the negotiating table. The United States left the negotiating table so if they put sanctions aside, they can come back to the negotiating table and they can start discussing with us at the negotiating table we have always discussed the nuclear issue. How to implement the agreement that we have. So they are more than welcome to do that. On missiles and regional issues, we have not seen the seriousness of the United States in implementing what they already agreed to. We have to see the seriousness of the United States. We are not going to negotiate about our defense. Its a historical emotional attachment for our people. Our people went through eight years of war when they were being targeted, when they were being showered with missiles and bombs and even chemical weapons and nobody gave us the minimum means of defense. Everybody from the soviets who gave the iraqis midair planes to the americans that gave them recognizance to the french who gave them missiles to the brits who gave them tanks to the germans who gave them chemical weapons. Everybody helped them. Nobody even allowed us to buy a single missile to defend ourselves. So its impossible to tell iranian people that while the United States is selling 87 billion worth of military equipment, why saudi arabia is buying 87 billion worth of military equipment and the United States is selling over 50 billion worth to the region to the persian gulf every year they expect us to abandon our only and most important means of defense. Let me ask you, we dont have much time. What is the win for President Trump . You says the on way that youre going to get out of this is a win, win, not a lose, lose. How do you give President Trump a win . Well, President Trump can in fact find a mechanism to have International Peace and security through agreement, through understanding rather than through confrontation. He made the very prudent decision not to start a war by deciding not to attack iran in retaliation because he knew that he we would have responded and then as i said, you can start the war but you cannot end it. That was a very prudent decision and he can take credit for it. He can take credit for restoring a good treaty that made both iran and the United States and the rest of the world safer. He can also take credit for the fact that he has been able to make sure that International Agreements are abided by. These are all important wins for President Trump and for the United States and im sure this is going to be a very important legacy for him. But that sounds like there is going to be a long cold war right now. Well, we have been under pressure from the United States for 40 years. Thats not new for us. Weve been to safeguard our interest to safeguard our people in spite of that. But what you the United States you see prevented us from getting means of defense, they presented