- War clouds looming.
Our CBN Middle East BureauChief, Chris Mitchell,
joins us now.
Chris, a few months ago,the president was talking
about pulling troops from Syria.
Now he's sending a carrierbattle group to the region.
What's your word on that?
- Well, the big difference,Pat, would be the intelligence
that the United States has received,
and I can confirm that it was Israel
that provided much of that intelligence
about credible support, credible attacks
by Iranian forces, or its proxies,
against US interests in the region,
or perhaps Israeli interests.
Pat, one thing, theperson people really know
about in this scenariois General Soleimani.
He's with the head of the IranianRevolutionary Guard Corps.
We know that the Trumpadministration, just a few days ago,
designated that as a terrorist group,
so he is one of the mainkey players in this region
preparing, from what weknow, some possible offensive
attacks against USinterests in the region.
- Well, Chris, the attack on those tankers
it looks like, for sure,that's being blamed on Iran,
and then they talk about theHouthi rebels out of Yemen,
are the ones who attacked the pipelines.
What could you tell us about that?
- Well, the Houthis are justone of these proxy armies
that Iran has in the region,
so they sent a drone againstSaudi Arabia oil pipeline
to destroy that; that'sjust one of the attacks.
And then, it's prettysure that it was Iran
behind the attacks againstthose four Saudi oil tankers.
One other thing to note, Pat, is that Iran
has station what call the Shiite militias,
they're called a PopularMobilization Units.
They're all over Syria and Iraq.
They can be used in anyscenario by General Soleimani
or the Supreme Leader,if they want to attack
either US interest, theyhave two to 5,000 forces
the US does in Iraq, 2000 in Syria.
So they can be used bySoleimani against US interests.
In fact, we saw that first hand, Pat,
we were there last week in anIraqi Kurdish town of Bashiqa
overlooking the Nineveh Plain.
We could see all that, that is controlled
by Shiite militias.
And these have been prepositioned with the pretext
of fighting ISIS severalyears ago, but they use it
in any potential scenario,by General Soleimani
the Supreme leader and Iran'sinterests in the region.
- Chris they've got the Iranian
oil refiners in what's called Kharg Island
and we can bomb the daylights out of them
and put Iran out of businesswhat can we do against Iran?
Are they actually developingnuclear weapons do you think?
- Well, I'm sure they'recontinuing Iranian enrichment
during even the JCOPAallowed them to do that
so they're continuing thatenrichment, so yes I think
their long term goals arecertainly a nuclear device,
but they wanna have theability to hit US interests
and possibly Israel, as well.
I think one thing peopleneed to watch, Pat,
is the Islamic Jihad and thePalestinian Islamic Jihad
in the Gaza Strip are alsoone of those Iranian proxies
here in the region, theywere the ones insticated
that 700 missiles againstIsrael just a few days ago.
Eurovision which is the largesttalent show in the world
is being hosted in TelAviv so it's a possible,
it's a possibility thatIslamic Jihad might use that
as a target this day.
And one thing I'd like to add, Pat,
is that you're such a friend of the Kurds
as you saw there onthat story we were just
on the Iranian border inan Iraqi Kurdish village.
Kurdistan is the key ally,potentially key ally,
in this geopolitical scenario.
They can be a barrier if the US chooses
to blunt the ambitions ofIran, to build a landbridge
all the way from Tehranto the Meditteranean.
The Kurds they loveIsrael, they love the US,
they love Christians and Jewsand they could be a potential
great ally in this battle against Iran
and its expansionistgoals here in the Middle.
