welcome to the journal editorial report I'm Paul Gigot
president Trump up ending the foreign policy status quo again this week with
an announcement Tuesday that the United States would exit President Obama's 2015
around nuclear accord and reinstate sanctions on the rogue regime this as
three Americans detained in North Korea arrived home early Thursday ahead of a
summit now set for June 12th in Singapore between President Trump and
Kim Jong the president voicing optimism that the meeting would be a success
bring country into the real believe that have a success
joining the panel this week Wall Street Journal columnist and deputy of their
dad henagar columnist bill McGurn and in London editorial board member Mary
Kissel so Dan let's start with you you agreed first with the decision to
withdraw oh I absolutely agree with that decision Paul I think it had to be done
to drive negotiations with the Europeans were basically dragging their heels on I
mean there was a kind of basic agreement that the deal that Obama and John Kerry
did had imperfections it did nothing to limit the Iran's missile program it did
nothing to limit Iran's hegemonic activities in the Middle East and there
was a problem with the sunset provision at the end that it was going to expire
in 2025 now the European said they were willing to talk about that but we were
making no progress on those talks okay so this is something that this decision
Mary is likely to drive the Europeans they're gonna have to do something but
they should very cautious statement they said they were disappointed by it but
what options do they have now moving forward well the Europeans have a very
clear choice to make Paul they can either trade with Iran a very small
economy in a state sponsor of terrorism or they can decide the trade with the
United States and US financial institutions I think you see saw two
very different responses from Brussels where the chief diplomat said that the
Iran deal was the greatest diplomatic achievement of all time ever and the
response that you saw from Britain Germany and France it's also important
to remember that Britain has very strong links to the US financial system so I
think they're much more inclined to do a deal with the United States and trying
to close some of these loopholes that Dan talked about I think France and
Germany will protest a little more they have many more business ties to Iran but
I think ultimately all the Europeans will have to come around because the
economics are on the side of the United States not Iran do you think that
explains Mary the the relatively mild response to the Europeans and one thing
I don't know if you saw it but there was an op-ed and
petter is paper by a couple of former obama officials on friday saying what
the Europeans should do is they should house I mean just should call back their
ambassadors from the United States and maybe if it escalates even get rid
basically sever immediate diplomatic ties normal diplomatic relations with
the United States to try to rebuke America for this for this decision now
what a remarkable thing to read Paul and you know I called Iran a state sponsor
of terror but of course there's so much more than that
they're fomenting unrest across the Middle East and to see former White
House officials side with them instead of on the side of the free and liberal
Western world is really something to behold but again I think it's incumbent
also on the Trump administration to explain continually why it was important
to get out of this deal you saw the Europeans talk a lot for example about
the UN nuclear watchdog and how that watchdog has given its stamp of approval
to the Iran deal multiple times well the Trump administration needs to
explain that that watchdog does not have access to all of Iran's and nuclear
sites and that Iran is repeatedly lied to that watchdog called the
International Atomic Energy Agency the IAEA Trump administration officials
should keep making an issue of that and talk a lot about it and often bill what
impact do you think this is going to have on the North Koreans and the
message going into that summit well in one sense it's it's a little different
because Iran the bed in Iran is that the world will want to be in the US
financial system right that's the bed that's the less there's probably some
guy in Tehran calling his you know would be partner in Paris thing you know we're
waiting for that why it's perfect it's not coming like last night in in Elkhart
is for North Korea President Trump said I'm not gonna go to Singapore with kim
jeong-hoon and come out with the deal like John Kerry made so look it's good
to show strength I think we should be encouraged by what we see in North Korea
but again the goal isn't to sit down with Kim the goal isn't even to to
release prisoners the goal is to prevent them from having the capacity to strike
America with the nuclear arm and we're you know we still haven't got there yet
and Dan on Iran the Iran the Iranian have said they're not going to withdraw
immediately those are a lot of debate back and forth in the media and in in
Iran do you think that their incentives are to stay in or you know some because
some people predicted they would now get out and sprint to get a bomb what do you
think is gonna happen there I think the Iranian isn't incentive mmm
as Mary was suggesting earlier excuse me the Iranian incentive is at this point
primarily economic they got into this deal because they needed to get revenue
flows from Europe to help their economy just last weekend there were riots and
protests across Iran by lower middle-class Iranians who were saying
explicitly they had not benefited from the revenue resulting from the end of
the sanctions so the mullahs have a problem internally and I think their
primary goal here is going to try to do whatever they need to do to preserve
those economic relationships and if the sanctions start tightening on those
European companies Europeans in the Iranians as they are going to have to do
something to adjust to make the economy and Iran survive all right thank you all
still ahead a look at what's next following president Trump's decision to
exit the Iran Accord can the president reach an agreement with European allies
to fix the deals flaws and will Congress have a role well as Senator Ron Johnson
next
it is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the
decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement the Iran deal is
defective at its core president Trump's decision
this week to leave the Iran nuclear accord drawing a mixed reaction on
Capitol Hill with Democrats largely condemning the president's decision
claiming it would trigger a nuclear crisis or could and lead to even greater
tensions in the Middle East Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is a member of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he joins me now from beautiful Milwaukee
Wisconsin senator good to have you with us thanks for coming in do you do you
agree with the president's decision on on Iran I do the world is less safe
because of the Iranian agreement that funneled about a hundred billion dollars
plus into not only the economy but even worse the military of the largest
state-sponsored terror terror and we've seen how they use that money to
destabilize Yemen to destabilize Syria provide Hezbollah more support they're
starting to lob rockets into Israel right and the deal did nothing to stop
their ballistic missile technology advancement either so I would say the
Iranian agreement made the world less safe so getting out of it will give us
the opportunity to ratchet up sanctions and hopefully come up with a better deal
are you worried at all though about the the rift with Europe because they're
disappointed obviously with with the president's decision they said so in a
statement and you know you could have some more transatlantic tensions
particularly you've got already fighting over tariffs on steel and aluminum does
that concern you at all sure I'm concerned we want to have a strong
relationship with our NATO allies and our European friends as well means the
Western democracies has kept a peace and security throughout the world we need to
hang together but the fact the matter is those same countries Britain France
Germany knew full well when President Obama entered this unilaterally did not
consult with Congress didn't ratify this through treaty process that that
agreement was really worth you know no more than the paper was
written on and they're recognized that right now so hopefully French president
McCrone is certainly talking about the working out a better deal that's the
better attitude to take so if such a deal did come to fruition you know
adding couple of the provisions that you mentioned before like the sunset
provision and intrusive inspections do you think that you guys in the in the
Senate would be able and willing to put those provisions into your legislation
that's that monitors and cause a review of the Irani clear core that's corker
car do you think you could get bipartisan support to do that I guess
what I'd rather do is come up with a new deal and send it through application of
the Senate that President Obama had done that first of all the the Iranian
agreement would have been far better and might have stood the test of time it
certainly would have had bipartisan support so that that's the danger in any
president acting unilaterally doing these executive agreements that are
clearly rise the level of treaties and not really going through the
ratification process all right I'd much rather see president Trump come up with
a new deal and have it ratified by the Senate all right that's very interesting
and because of obviously the Senate treaty you got to have 67 votes with
quarter Cardin you'd only have to have 60 votes harder to so you'd have to get
President Trump would have to get an enormous number of Democrats to sign on
to that kind of a deal well you know during the corker Cardin debate the
Iranian agreement act I think it was called the first event we voted on was
mine which would have deemed that a treaty I remember Paul from my
standpoint but from my standpoint if if Sanders really were upholding their oath
of office and defending the Constitution that amendment should have passed 100 to
zero but it didn't we actually had Republicans lobbying
against it unfortunately but again from so from my standpoint something so
significant certainly is a treaty and it should be ratified and we would be in a
far better place today have you done that is there is there what what's the
mood generally speaking in the Senate about this withdrawal decision I mean
the Democrats I remember when you had this debate there was bipartisan
opposition even among Democrats some opposed I think Chuck Schumer voted
against it or he was opposed to it in in some of the crucial votes on
Capitol Hill but now Democrats say well we should stay in anyway what's what's
changed well they circle the right wagons even
back then to end up passing the corker Cardin agreement act but from my
standpoint I think a lot of people are in Berlin I could have actually argued
this both ways state stay in the agreement try and strengthen it we've
already given up all of our leverage there's you know the fiction of snapback
sanctions was just that it was a fiction there's no way you're gonna get the 100
billion dollars plus back right and there's no way to put the Iran's
behavior back in the bottle so you know you could argue this both ways but I
have no problem with what President Trump has done you'll particularly start
ratcheting up sanctions at this point in time yep Prime Minister Netanyahu made a
very strong case that when you see these spontaneous demonstrations in Iran you
know obviously that money's not floating there economy for the benefit of the
Iranian people and this is probably a pretty good point in time to start
really ratcheting up pressure on the Iranian regime alright just another
quick subject Jena Haspel are you gonna vote to confirm her as CIA director and
you think she's going to be confirmed I'm absolutely gonna support her and
hopefully she will be confirmed you think she's going to be confirmed well
yeah there they are there's toxin even our conference it was
not helpful Senator McCain came out against her again I've got a great deal
respect for Senator McCain but that was not helpful in terms of her confirmation
okay all right Thank You senator appreciate your being here have a great
day when we come back a showdown between
House Republicans and the Justice Department taking a new turn this week
what the documents saw it by Devon Nunez
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