Ed Royce on Saudi-Iran Conflict: ‘We Need a Policy of Backbone, Not Backing Down’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
GIEST: “Chairman good to see you. Let’s talk about Iran and Saudi Arabia as they relate to one another. Do you have concerns about the execution just a couple of days ago, 47 people in Saudi Arabia?”
ROYCE: “We do have concerns, of course, about the way this was carried out. Frankly the effective overthrow of the government in Yemen in terms of the forces in Yemen. The entire instability there I think is a problem as Sunni and shia begin to separate into separate blocks and it makes it much more difficult and this is part of the fallacy in leading from behind. We see a lack of leadership. As a consequence people don’t listen to us. They perceive we tilted towards Iran and this created problems in terms of our credibility.”
GEIST: “What could this thread. This conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia what happens next?”
ROYCE: “My concern, first of all Syria. The consequences there in terms of trying to broker any kind of agreement at a time when Iran feels that they have been empowered. If you see the actions of Iran recently, whether it’s taking additional U.S. Hostage or whether it’s, you know, violating the U.N. Sanctions, shooting off these ballistic missiles and remember Jordan and other U.S. Allies of the region don’t see a reaction from this administration. As a matter of fact the administration was about to take action and as soon as Iran pushed back in terms of enforcement on the sanctions the U.N. Sanctions, all of that evaporated. And so we need a policy of back bone not backing done. As a consequence of that constantly backing down in the face of Iran I think there’s this perception now that it will make it much harder to get people to the table because instead what you see is a reaction to them lashing out against Iran’s growing power in the region.”
HALPERIN: “The American administration, what aspects of Saudi behavior do you think have contributed to deterioration in the relationship?”
ROYUCE: “In terms of Saudi behavior I think the long term problem has been the support of—“
HALPERIN: “The government turned a blind eye to that?”
ROYCE: “That’s our problem. We believe problem. We believe the government hasn’t done enough.”
SCARBOROUGH: “But the government has made progress, though, right? The Saudi government has made progress in Syria over the past several years.”
ROYCE: “This is true but the 600 schools in Pakistan still get the funding somehow from individuals in the gulf states and in Saudi Arabia, in that region of the world, we still have a problem of money funding coming to Nigeria, north Africa.
SCARBOROUGH: “At the same time, though, we had this discussion a couple of hours ago on this show. The show, by the way, goes for like 18 hours. I think Mike Barnicle says doesn’t it make sense for the long-term bet to be on Iran instead of Saudi Arabia.”
ROYCE: “That’s the administration’s bet.”
SCARBOROUGH: “It is but you see Saudis, like me, as our allies. Trouble at times but compared to Iran, it’s a close call, isn’t it?”
ROYCE: “The chance to change the Middle East was in 2009 when the people in Iran went to the streets. And the administration made the decision at that point not to support the people in the streets in Iran. Instead they’ve gone forward to engage the ayatollah. That was a blunder.”
SCARBOROUGH: “At the same time you were saying bore — our ally must go.”
ROYCE: “push Iraq, and they’ve launched these ballistic missile, which are obviously a threat to the other countries in the region beside ultimately to us and our failure to push back on that has been duly noted. So the main problem in the region is Iranian power and growing influence and their chance of death to America, death to Israel.”
