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Source: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ctw/date/2024-11-07/segment/02
"President Trump Understands that the Chief Driver of Instability in Today's Middle East Is the Iranian Regime"
(CNN) Brian Hook interviewed by Becky Anderson - Brian Hook, who oversaw Iran policy at the State Department in Trump's first term, told CNN on Nov. 7: "I think it's quite significant that, the day after his historic win, he had conversations with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel and Egypt. And so these were day-one phone calls." "If the United States, working with our Gulf partners and Israel, are not able to deter Iran and its proxies, you have war and violence and bloodshed in the Middle East. And if you take a policy of appeasement and accommodation with Iran and increase the daylight between America's partners, calling countries pariahs and lecturing them on how they're supposed to live, you lose deterrence. And if nobody believes that you have a credible threat of military force, then you're going to lose deterrence." During his first term, President Trump "weakened Iran economically and militarily and weakened its proxies. And he deepened his alliances with Israel and Gulf partners. And if you do that, it's a winning formula." "Israel has had enormous success against Hamas and Hizbullah, which are two terrorist proxies of Iran, Muslim Brotherhood offshoots, and part of the sort of extremist ideology that President Trump worked with leaders in Saudi Arabia and UAE and Egypt to combat. I have no reason to think that he won't do that again." "President Trump understands that the chief driver of instability in today's Middle East is the Iranian regime....In my personal experience, I know that when we deter the Iranian regime, you have the countries...who are on the front lines of Iranian aggression doing everything they can to be a part of that deterring Iran." When Jared Kushner "was essentially leading so much of the diplomacy in the Middle East, he put forward a political and economic vision for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians that many Arab governments officially said was a credible, good faith effort....I think so much of that work is still relevant today....That plan...had a path to a two-state solution." "The Oct. 7th attack by Hamas has really not put anybody in much of a mood to be talking about this subject. Because, obviously, Hamas doesn't believe in a two-state solution, nor do they want a ceasefire. And after what Hamas did on Oct. 7th, there are many Israelis right now who are focused on other things, specifically keeping them safe from this kind of evil terrorism that they endured."