Former Ambassador to Turkey discusses Iran

It has been nearly one month since the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran. Now, other countries are being involved in this war, and a global energy crisis is in effect.

The U.S. has created a 15-point peace plan; however, Iran has publicly dismissed this plan.
Former Ambassador Jeff Flake joins “Arizona Horizon” for a discussion about the latest with Iran.

“Anything that weakens Iran is good for the region, and for the world,” Flake said, “…anybody who spent any time in the region realizes the malignant force that Iran has been.”

Flake explained that he had expected the President to go to Congress with his plans, so they could be more transparent with their allies.

“There’s the element of surprise,” Flake discussed, “…we would have been a lot better off…had we enlisted the support of our allies…legalistically, the President had the ability, if he believes there’s an imminent threat, he can go in…i’m just arguing for the wisdom of going to Congress…laid out the intelligence that he had.”

Flake emphasized how the United States does have some challenging allies, including Turkey, which is a powerful and reliable ally.

“They’re a challenging ally,” Flake said, “…they’re with us on just about everything, and instead we’re ridiculing them. We’re talking about taking over sovereign territory…doing this kind of thing that really offends those allies that have been with us through thick and thin.”

According to Flake, an apt analogy to this is in Afghanistan, where the public resented the Taliban for their tough rule that they enforce. However, while people were frustrated, it was still difficult for them to rise and take over.

“In Iran, that’s difficult to do,” Flake said, “…you have paramilitaries…you have other forces that are going to make it very difficult.”