as the world awaits the historic meeting between President Trump and North
Korea's Kim jong-un president Trump's self-imposed deadline to decide whether
to stay in the Iran nuclear deal is also fast approaching joining me here in
Washington the chair of the House Armed Services Committee congressman Mac
Thornberry mr. chairman welcome back to Fox News Sunday thanks for having me
here was President Trump this week talking very positively about what seems
like an almost certain summit with North Korea's Kim I think you're going to see
very good things the trip is being scheduled we now have a date and we have
a location we'll be announcing a trip you have expressed serious reservations
about the possibility of this summit how concerned are you that the North Koreans
may be trying to play Donald Trump the way they have played previous US
presidents I think the history of these negotiations through several
administrations shows that they try to manipulate world opinion for their
benefit and it may also be that they have conducted enough nuclear tests
enough missile tests that they're pretty confident with what they're with their
capabilities but at the same time because of sanctions because of Chinese
pressure because of the president's rather unconventional rhetoric they may
feel a need to have a PR offensive and and I have no doubt their hope is to
divide us from our allies in South Korea to ease some of the sanctions to ease
the pressure coming from China so that they are not so isolated in the world
it's it's so there's a military aspect and then there's a world opinion aspect
of what's going on here so when there's talk about complete denuclearization and
according to the trunk camp we had john bolton on last sunday
that would mean shipping all of the of the nuclear bombs out all of the fuel
all of the missiles you don't think they're going to do that i'm very
skeptical what it also means is inspections to make sure they do not
restart a a program so i think you can hope for the best
but we have to prepare for the worst and that means of beefing up our ability to
defend against missile attack modernizing our own nuclear deterrent
increasing our defense for ships and other military capabilities in that
region so we have to go into this clear-eyed but also understand this
other battlefield of world public opinion which is one of the things the
president has his eye on the New York Times reports that the president has
asked the Pentagon for options on not eliminating but reducing the 28 thousand
troops who are now in US troops that are now in South Korea while the u.s. denies
that that is part of any negotiation now as part of a summit if you were to get a
peace deal between the two Koreas wouldn't a reduction in troops naturally
follow at the end of the day maybe and the president may be dangling a carrot
out there to try to entice the North Koreans I think the the wisest thing
I've ever heard though on this topic came from former senator Phil Gramm
where he said if the lion and the lamb are to lie down together we have to make
sure that America is the lion so maybe everything will history is is wrong that
maybe everything will come together they will voluntarily permanently verifiably
give up their whole nuclear program I'm a skeptic if that happens we can talk
about troop reductions but in the meantime we have to be militarily strong
I want to switch to another very hot topic the president has a deadline next
Saturday as to whether or not to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran and
pull out of the nuclear deal Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and you
defense secretary Jim mattis had very different takes this week on the merits
of the deal take a look the Iran deal the nuclear deal is based on lies it's
based on Iranian lies an Iranian deception heat is written almost with an
assumption that Iran would try to cheat so the verification what what is in
there is is actually pretty robust should president Trump pull out of the
Iran nuclear deal next Saturday by next Saturday
even if the Europeans decide to stay in it and continued to do business with
Tehran I would counsel against it I was opposed to the Iran deal I thought it
was a bad deal Iran got most of the benefit up front with relief of
sanctions and a plane load of cash that President Obama sent over there so we
lost a lot of our leverage but the key question is okay now we are where we are
what happens next if the u.s. pulls out do the secretary mattis talked about the
inspectors that are in there does Iran kick those inspectors out so that we
lose what visibility we have there the Europeans are not going to reimpose
sanctions so where does that leave us and and Iran so I'm not necessarily
opposed to sticking with this deal forever but you need to have a clear
idea about next steps if we are going to pull out and and especially given the
larger context of Iran's aggressive activity in the Middle East well so
let's pick up on that because the French and the Germans and the British are all
basically pleading with President Trump stay in the Iran deal and we will add
some toughening side agreements that will agree on unilaterally without going
to the Iranians and these side agreements would be to limit Iran's
ballistic missile program sanction regional aggression and n the 2025
sunset clause when Iran can start resuming some of its program I guess the
question is is the Iran deal fixable and if so should the president stay in
it if he can get these add-ons with his European allies well I think these
add-ons would be very important is it possible it's hard to say until you try
so maybe the best thing is for the president to delay a bit more his
deadline of this month and put the French and the British up to the test
about whether it is possible to get this other sort of agreement I think one of
the key things going on here and and Prime Minister Netanyahu is exactly
right the Iranians always cheat and lie one of the other things they're doing is
they are shipping in arms to Hezbollah right on Israel's doorstep and and the
the temperature is being turned up there the possibility of conflict is probably
greater than it's been in quite some time and it will be very important for
the international community to be united to prevent that conflict which is
another reason staying with our allies and trying to curtail all of these
aggressive actions from Iran is important right now all right I got two
minutes left I want to get into one last issue with you a delegation of top US
officials has just returned from trade talks in Beijing and the Chinese at the
end of the talks said that quote big differences remain how concern to you
about a possible trade war with China I Balat of countries are very concerned
about Chinese trade practices and working with them I think we have the
best chance of pushing back against a lot of what China is doing one example
in the defense world is China is stealing and obtaining through all sorts
of ways critical intellectual property that they are going to use for their
defence purposes we have to close the door on that what I worry about is that
the steel and aluminum tariffs have alienated some of our friends that we
need to work with to push back against the Chinese trade tactics so again we've
to be more effective we've got to have allies and we need to not alienate
allies in order to push back on so briefly I want to pick
up on that because the president is talking about imposing tariffs not just
on China but other countries around the world including the European Union how
how concerned to you about the fact that the president has apparently decided to
use tariffs in general as part of this trade policy well I believe that we are
better off with free and fair trade I also have seen firsthand what China is
doing around the world I was in East Africa not long ago as they are
extending their tentacles out to all sorts of places we have to have a group
of allies working together to push back against what China is doing and and so
that comes from having folks on the same page not alienating our friends I hope
the president follows through in in his statement that he would like to consider
getting back into the trans-pacific partnership because those sorts of trade
agreements are the most effective way we can push back Trevin Thornbury thank you
thanks for joining with us always good to talk with you sir thank you sure


For more infomation >> SDA Ecumenical Unity. National Day of Prayer. Trump Empowered Evangelicals to Legislate Morality - Duration: 1:52:41. 

For more infomation >> Giuliani: Trump Could Plead Fifth In Mueller Probe - Duration: 1:35.
For more infomation >> Federal Judge Drops Crushing Anvil On Mueller Investigation, Delivers Trump Victory - Duration: 5:46.
For more infomation >> BAD MOVE! 8 Huge Retailers Just Turned On Trump, Will Now Never Be The Same – Backlash Has Begun! - Duration: 4:21. 




For more infomation >> Trump Taunts Gun-Grabby Liberals at NRA Conference 'Come and Take It!' - Duration: 3:57.
For more infomation >> Newt Gingrich: Trump should 'just say no' to Mueller's absurd questions - Duration: 11:16. 
No comments:
Post a Comment