McMaster: Chances ‘Quite High’ of Middle East Conflict Including Israeli Strike on Iran

Former Trump National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that chances were “quite high of a significant conflict in the Middle East, maybe entailing an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program.”

Partial transcript as follows:

H.R. MCMASTER: Well, I think where it heads next is support for Russia’s war-making machine more broadly. I think you’re going to see missiles. You already have reports of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps trainers and assemblers of these drones. And I think what we’re recognizing is these problem sets that we’re facing with the theocratic dictatorship in Iran, and- and the revanchist hyper-nationalist Putin. They’re connected to each other, and they’re connected to China, which of course, also has just doubled down on — on his relationship, Xi Jinping, his relationship with Vladimir Putin and support for Putin. So I, I think we are hopefully now in full recognition that we are in really consequential competitions with authoritarian regimes who are hostile to us, and- and we have to respond much more effectively than we responded in the past. And that’s a broad range of I think, preparations for potential military conflicts where we can deter a widening of war, but there’s also very significant economic and diplomatic aspects of these interconnected problems.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they are interconnected problems. I’m guessing one of the things you’re saying there is recognize that the attempt to broker a nuclear deal with Iran is dead.

H.R. MCMASTER: It’s a pipe dream. It’s trying to revive something that is completely dead. And I couldn’t believe it, Margaret, as- as we were supplicating to the Iranian regime as they’re intensifying their proxy war in the region, and attacking some of our- of our long-standing partners there, the- the Saudi- Saudi Arabia and, and the UAE. And I think we lost a lot of ground in the Middle East, because we’re chasing this pipe dream of trying to revive this- this nuclear agreement. And if we didn’t Margaret, what would happen- what would happen is we’d give Iran a pass on- on the destructive effect that the dictatorship has had on the Iranian economy. And you know, where that money would go, that money would go into the bonyads, which are these collectives controlled by the theocratic dictatorship, who extend their patronage network and control and that money would go to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who would, as they did after the first Iran nuclear deal, intensify their proxy war against us, their Arab neighbors, and especially against Israel. And I think, Margaret, if we’re going to be in the business of making predictions, I think the chances are quite high of a significant conflict in the Middle East, maybe entailing an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program.

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