mcgurk: great question. they have to work with the iraqi state. that is a principle. we think most of these popular mobilization forces do operate under the control of the iraqi state, that about 15% or 20% do not, in those groups are a fundamental problem. another thing we want to do is make sure they stay out of sunni areas, where they can cause real problems. militias areia not there. this is one thing that gave the population the confidence to return. we have a principle when we support iraqi forces in the military campaign, we only support forces on the ground operating strictly under command and control. that means going through an iraqi chain of command were we are working with iraqi commanders. if there is a unit that is not operating under that structure -- senator cardin: are you confident they will be able to maintain the safety of the sunni civilians? mr. mcgurk: falluja, they just completed the liberation of the last neighborhood this weekend. we have 80,000 displaced people. there is one of the

mcgurk: yeah. representative higgins: the one thing that's can assistant in michael weiss' book, and "the black flag" the one thing constant about isis is change. evolved its reach and organizational ability. the isis presence in libya, i think, is particularly disturbing. stronghold inl north africa. africa is -- there's a lot of to exploit. you've got 55 countries. many of which are very, very to --le from south sudan just there's a lot of countries. concern is that while we may be influencing a loss of territorial control in iraq and the isisat about expanding in to other countries and the continent of africa. is a great it question. as we analyze this and discuss it with intelligence servicing all of governments and the different capitols around the world, the common theme that i mean i've heard this from malaysia to brussels the gulf is that this notion so many youngwing dangerousthis movement. that's why we're focused on the overall shh ringing the territory. in the narrative, it was one of t

mcgurk: we are in syria. together with partners. that is the basis for our coalition and having partners. if we look at the situation in osco last week, the attempted prison break, our forces have lent assistance to retake the british prison from isis fighters, it is a reminder isis remains a serious threat. that is why we are there. that is the only reason we are there. we will defend our forces from all threats. we have made that very clear to iranians and others. i should stay one more thing before leaving syria. syria activity remain a real threat to israel. we support israel's freedom of action to defending themselves. there are a lot of signs that a lot of these are tired of the regime. we support the action and we will defend our people,. -- people, period. that is the only mission, the only objective. miller: saudi arabia, the president candidate had some very tough words. a special meaning of characterization in the middle east. has that happened and if in fact it has happened, how would you differentiate the bidens adminis

brett mcgurk: it's a great question. and got real insight knowledge into their finances, an operation or special forces did, again, over into syria into a town shadadi, which is no and it n isil's hands was an obligation to isil's main financier.their main and our heroic special forces, incredible.are they pulled more information off that site than any raid in history. we learned more about how funding themselves throughout that operation than anything else we've done. they were generating about a year, about rs a $500 million from oil and gas nd about $500 million from antiquities trade, from extortion, from what they call revenues t extracting off the population. but based on that information rom that raid we were able to systematically develop all of that intelligence information in working across the u.s. government into the military progress to go after how they're getting oil out of the ground and how they're selling it. reduced their production by at least 30%. we've substantially reduced to generate revenue. the

mcgurk? mr. mcgurk: i have been to turkey more than any other country. we cannot defeat isis without turkey and i consult with our colleagues there all the time. there are talks right now in the geneva about the political way ahead. and there is a military campaign at is the track in a complex situation and something we are coordinated with. and the post-raqqa phase, stabilization and we will be coordinating with turkey. we can't do this without turkey and we work with them every single day. we have some differences, but they are close allies. reporter: the turkish foreign inister was on the record -- mr. mcgurk: but i have great respect for the foreign minister and great colleague and look for that relationship to continue. reporter: one for you, mr. secretary and the latest north korean launch, it was more successful than anything they have done so far and went to a high altitude. my question to you. how has this missile launch impacted your thinking, your assessment about the north korean missile threat. and if i may, mr. chairman, a separate question

mcgurk? >> first, the leadership in command of these units have all been fired. we immediately were in conversations with iraqi leaders, security and political leaders in the wake of mosul and recommended a wholesale change in the command. new commanders have been appointed. those are commanders we know very well. they're also quite effective. iraqis, just in the past month in terms of fighting units, they've suffered almost 1,000 killed in action and they are holding the line and beginning to conduct some very rudimentry operations to clear some highways. i will not underestimate the extreme challenge here. what we saw in mosul was not indicative of a force as a whole. the units, many of them, are balanced. there's about an average -- i was just on the phone to our folks out there today. the composition of the force is about 55% shia, 23% sunni, by and large. within the units there is no fracturing within the units themselves. now there are very incompetent, incapable units with poor leaders

mcgurk: accountability is fundamental.enator markey: accountability can be just saying don't do it again. mr. mcgurk: they have to have a process and a have to be punished when violations occur. senator murphy: i know we consider mr. mcgurk to be a global citizen, but he's a graduate of connecticut and is -- has overcome the rivalry. let me try to recover from that. thank you for being here, mr. mcgurk, and thank you for taking on what is frankly a nightmare of a job trying to manage this crisis and coalition and we are lucky to have you at the helm. in response to a question from senator corker earlier, you were talking about some of our coalition partners not being as involved as we would like, especially with the air campaign. i want to ask you a question relative to the reason members of the coalition are not participating at the level we would expect. when i was in abu dhabi at the and of last year, i went to get relief from the ministry of defense and i was there to oversee our counter isis campaign. knowing i was th

of mcgurk: the level influence is something we look at. the russians were seen as the , and moreencer recently, we have started to see the armenians eclipse them a little bit, and both of them are backing the assad regime, and we say to the russians, look at this. you guys are in bed with the assad regime, with hezbollah, with the quds force. you guys, what is your long-term strategy here, and, friendly, i do not think they have one, so they came in to try to bolster up the assad regime, and i thought they would find a path out of syria, but that is not the case. the only way to have a sustainable solution is where our forces can organize against these extremist threats. myator isakson: and that is point. given the fact that there is not one, given the fact that syria has been decimated with a civil war over four or five years, given that the armenians are backing assad pretty steadily all of the way through, there assad's to be no end on ability to stay in place. am i correct? i think you have hit the nail on the head with a very difficul

without further do, brett mcgurk . brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i want to do today, we

mcgurk: great question. got real insight and knowledge into their finances because of an operation are special forces did over a year ago into deep into syria into a town no longer in isil's hands. theas an operation against deputy of the main leader and their main financier. our heroic special forces -- these guys are incredible -- they told more information off that site than any raid in their history. we learn more about how they are funding than anything else we have done. they were generating about $500 million from oil and gas and $500 million from antiquities, extractingrtion, revenue from the population. we were able to systematically develop all of that intelligence information and working across the u.s. government into the military targeting process to go after how they are getting oil off the ground and how they are selling it. we have reduced the production by at least 30%. we are produced their ability to generate revenue. the numbers are fuzzy, but it continues to go down. as we see it, we the

mcgurk? or miss slotkin? >> i'll attack a first sttake a. it's important to review the history that both brett and i worked on the original 2008 with iraq that did say by the end of 2011 that we would be out of iraq. so that timetable was set in 2008. there was quite a bit of discussion and debate about what should happen at that time. i really do think the point that brett made is critical. iraqi leaders could not get it through their parliament. we had iraqi leaders at that time saying i don't think it's necessary. we don't want you in. they're a sovereign country. we didn't have will on the other side. that's a critical factor. >> it's certainly a factor. the united states is a pretty substantial country on the globe and we have a lot of involvement there and our officials were meeting with their officials and there were relationships and, yes, they certainly have to degree with it. the effort that was made and the decision to pull all the troops out, it's mind boggling to think, looking b

mcgurk: we are preparing for all contingencies. in part you spoke about damascus, isis has been able to infiltrate what has been an assad stronghold and talk to what you are seeing in libya. how is the growth of foreign fighters there and the kind of structure different than what is happening in syria? mr. mcgurk: isil took credit for the car bombings. and we have no reason to doubt it was isil. they have done a number of attacks in damascus before. isil is a threat to everybody. and all of our partners in the region, we try to make this point. there are different depth perceptions. but isil is a threat to everybody and a threat to the people in damascus. and we want to unite ranks as much as possible against isil. libya is a bit of a different situation. you don't have the sectarian dynamic like we have in iraq and syria, but we do see isil using the same tactics that it used in syria. it establishes itself, eliminates all competitors and tries to attract the migrants in rica and own open source propaganda, they are saying don't g

mcgurk, 192 t-walls were up. the big progress is that 43 t-walls are up, in addition 17,500 t walls. they save lives, put them up. number two, the iraqi jewish archives ted deutsche and i and many other members are concerned. i don't want them to be shipped back. the iraqi government incorrectly states these papers are theirs. that is not true. we hope you continue to work on that. the bigger issue that brings that together obviously since the departure of the troops, al qaeda's reemergence causes iraq to take a turn for the worse. and al qaeda safe haven so we've got to rebuild our influence there. thank you, mr. chairman, for calling this hearing. >> thank you, ms. ross slay ton. mr. deutsche of florida. >> thank mr. chairman and ranking member engle for holding this hearing. in the stability in the iraq government and the syria conflict, the number of al qaeda affiliated fighters in iraq has reached levels not seen since 2006. the off-shoot is now the primary perpetrator of violence. al qaeda disavowed the use

mcgurk, let's quick go back to the kurds. i've been made aware of the fact the baghdad government is basically in arrears on current budget by about $6 billion. is that accurate? >> there are a lot of ways to do the accounting and the math. baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. in that space is where a deal lies. i think that's going to be part of the conversation in forming a new government. >> if it is true baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, with u.s. support kurds ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parks of iraq. that is something we very strongly support we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up against the election

mcgurk: let me say turkey faces a real threat from the pkk. we have to recognize that. the conflict between turkey and the pkk, which flared up and began and run the timeline when they killed a number of turkish police officers. i've been clear about that. turkey has the right to respond in its own self-defense. at the same time, the conflict has escalated to the point where we want to work very hard to try to deescalate it. the vice president discussed this last week. the more it is going on, the more it drives people to the ranks of the extreme militarism. which is very dangerous. we want to protect turkey against the pkk. that's something we're going to continue to help them do. we also want to strengthen the kurds in northern syria. they are joined a conglomeration , build a coalition force with arabs and christians under the banner of the syrian democratic forces. they put out a political platform. it makes clear they want to be part of syria.

our special envoy to the global coalition for isis here us, brett mcgurk. i know you heard from him a couple of weeks ago and he wanted to come in today to update you on where things hand. without further do, brett mcgurk. brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i wanted to do today, you heard from the secretary, about a trip around the world. everything going on in the world in activity at the state department. what i thought i would do is drill in a little bit more about what he discussed, one of our key priorities here in the state department about the campaign , against isis. so, i want to focus on the overall campaign, it is a global campaign. but dive in a little bit to the so-called caliphate in iraq and syria. bring you into what we are doing every day and how it is working, interagency, throughout the government, and particularly with our diplomats here at the state department. some topline points, i think it is important, if you go back to when isis arrived on the international scene, back in 2014, we had 40,000 foreign fighters

mcgurk: i don't think the investigation has been concluded. markey: what is the answer to why are the shia allowed to be put in those positions where they can commit those kinds of atrocities? there is one unit of the mobilization forces on the shia side operating totally outside the law in some of the suburbs of falluja. i can't say specifically why the unit was there that government has taken measures to make sure it is addressed. those fivekey: if individuals and more are not punished in a way that is public and clear, then there will be no discouragement in the other cities. job is to makeal -- other militias will do it, get a slap on the wrist and --the end of the day, they in the years ahead, that we not have to revisit this thing. is that a goal that you have? mr. mcgurk: accountability is fundamental. markey: accountability can be just saying don't do it again. mr. mcgurk: they have to have a process and a have to be punished when violations occur. senator murphy: i know we consider mr. mcgurk to be a global citizen, but he's a isduate

mcgurk, let's quick go back to the kurds. i've been made aware of the fact the baghdad government is basically in arrears on current budget by about $6 billion. is that accurate? >> there are a lot of ways to do the accounting and the math. baghdad claims the kurds owe them money. kurds claim that baghdad owes them money. in that space is where a deal lies. i think that's going to be part of the conversation in forming a new government. >> if it is true baghdad owes them as much as $6 billion, with u.s. support kurds ability to export oil and obtain that revenue so they can keep themselves going? >> we want to get as much oil on to international markets as possible from all parks of iraq. that is something we very strongly support we worked very hard over the last six months to get a deal on the table by which the kurds would have exported as much oil as they possibly could through some of the existing arrangements with the revenue-sharing allocations that exist. that deal almost succeeded, but it ran up against the election

without further do, brett mcgurk . brett: thank you. ok, thank you everybody for coming. what i want to do today, we heard from the secretary about a trip around the world. everything going on in the world in activity at the state department. what i thought i would do is drill in on what he discussed about the key priorities here the department. about the campaign against isis. on theant to focus overall campaign, it is a global campaign. but dive in a little bit too the so-called caliphate in iraq and syria. bring you into what we are doing every day and how it is working, throughout the government, particularly with our diplomats at the state department. some topline points, i think it is important, if you go back to when isis arrived on the international scene, 2014, we had 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries going into syria and iraq. they were controlling to cause i state and they were able to maneuver force all around iraq and syria, taking entire cities and controlling millions under their domain. since that time they have lost about 70,000 square kilometers

secondly, senator mcgurk -- secretary mcgurk, you said a formal request for assistance was received in may. were there any informal requests through other avenues, including from the iraqi ambassador to the u.s. made before that? and how do you define formal request? if certain individuals are asking for help, what modeality needs to be employed to say oh, now they've actually asked? third thirdly, el baredai was in u.s. custody and he said i'll see you in new york. we know that he now has emerged as the leader of isil or isis, i should say and obviously has posed an enormous threat to life and liberty of iraqis, christians and perhaps even to the united states. my question is, especially in light of what has happened with guantanamo, as a result of the 2012 intelligence act, it was required for the administration to tell us how many of those who were released from gitmo went back into battle. and the report suggested that of the 613 released, 104 were confirmed to go back into the battle against americans and our allies, 74 probably went back, but they couldn't confirm it, for a total

a special thanks to my team, particularly brett mcgurk who spent weeks and months working nonstop to reach this deal, many of those weeks and months out of the country. today's a cease-fire in gaza and the release of hostages is the result of a principled and effective policy that we have presided over for months. we got here without a wider war in the middle east. now it falls to the next administration to help implement this deal. i was pleased to have our teams speak as one voice in the final days. it was necessary, effective and unprecedented. this will require persistence and continuing support for our friends in the region and the belief in the policy backed by deterrence. as we reflect on the news from gaza today, we must also remember the victims of this war. remain mindful that the pursuit of lasting peace while never easy or quick must always be our calling. may god bless you all and may god protect our troops. all look forward to this deal being fully implement the. i'm not going to take any questions now because there is a congregation waiting for me. thank you very much.

we heard from brett mcgurk yesterday. he is there. probably john bolton is, too, even though i don't agree with his views on a lot of stuff. we all know representative pompeo, when he was in the house, would be incensed with this defiance of congressional prerogatives. when he ran the benghazi hearings, many believe, extremely unfairly and in a partisan and biased way, he wanted everything to come out. now he's ducking, hiding. we need representative pompeo back here, the one who said things should be made public when it was a different administration. , not onlytters worse is secretary pompeo ducking, but maybe he is complicit in all of this. his name has surfaced on multiple occasions in the tail of the administration's very questionable dealings with ukraine. for instance, ambassador taylor's written statement states on august 20 ninth, at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton -- on august 29, at the secretary of national security -- at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton, the state department

yeah, i think this is 1 -- i saw brett mcgurk make these remarks recently, and i think he has got it right. thes a special envoy for counter isis coalition, both under president obama and now under president trump, and there is no better, and longer career expert on these issues, and brett said recently now is not the time because of their we areous point at which just trying to focus on the stabilization operations after , and trying toul make sure that continues a pace. his point was now is not the time in the next, what, two weeks? for this vote. i think he is right. i think we are a particularly sensitive time on that, and our goal has been, both in the obama administration, and now in the sure administration, to be that we are working with the iraqi government, and i think we have to continue in that vein for a little while. i did not answer before your question about winning the peace in syria. david: yeah. lisa: we can't be ignoring that. look, similar response, though, in terms of what is the peace -- ce going to be rooted in? int is in local control these areas isis has been

. >> brett mcgurk, deputy assistant to the president and middle east coordinator for the national security council talked to the biden administration's foreign policy agenda for the region. topics include discussions with iran and the return to the jcpoa. >> good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are in this world, i hope you are safe and healthy. welcome to carnegie connects, a set of virtual discussions, at least for now, of issues on importance to america and the world. i am pleased this morning and honored to host brett mcgurk, deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for the middle east and north africa at the national security council. brett, it's great to see you again and welcome to carnegie connects. >> thank you for having me. >> terrific. we have a lot of ground to cover, but before we get to the granular tour of the region, i want to go to the thematic altitude and talk about some big picture stuff. in an interview you gave last november, i believe, he reflected on your tenure under three, maybe four presidents and talked about the challenge of over c

brett mcgurk has talked about some of the options. they are ready, they are on the shelf and it will give them an overall slice of resources while bringing them back into the system. that's real important. there needs to be real revenue sharing. they've already tried this. up until recently, the kurds were getting 17%. some of the either oil-producing provinces, kirkuk, are those with a lot of pilgrims and they are getting slices of the iraqi government budget to execute their own programs and they were very, very successful. there's a model also on the shelf to have more economic federalism. so it's not just a list of things. if you want inclusiveness, you get a guy that lacks inclusiveness. that will do any more economic plan. if you want a more economic i can federalism, you introduce financial and energy policies that will see to that. if you want to have a security force that is capable of doing what general barbero said, let's have commanding control which is the no the case now. >> dr. pollack, do you have anything to add? >> i

lisa: brett mcgurk makes these remarks recently, and i think he's got it right. a voice for the counter isis coalition under president obama and president trump. there is no better and longer career expert on these issues. brett said recently that now is not the time because of the precarious point at which we are just trying to focus on the stabilization operations after mosul and trying to make sure that that continues apace. his point was now is not the time in the next two weeks for this vote. and i think he is right. we are at a particular sensitive time. the goal has been in the obama and trump administration to be clear we are working with the iraqi government. i think we have to continue in that vein for a little while. i did not answer before your question about winning the peace in syria. we can't be ignoring that. look, similar response, though, in terms of what so-called is peace going to be rooted in? that is in local control in these areas isis has been pushed out of. one of the reasons the syria problem has been so hard that and unlike in iraq, we

brett mcgurk said that some 30% of the territory that has that isis has been pushed out of occurred in the last seven or eight months. i think you can not argue with those kinds of metrics that that delegation has had something to do with it if you look into the -- listen to the commanders. and i am not opposed to that, because i think every commander-in-chief should be able to take a look at how is -- he is managing the operations, right, and sitting down with the commanders to decide how are we going to do -- handle the decision-making in our national security apparatus. but i want to make sure if there is no process to the decision-making -- in other words, if the experts are not being consulted, if there is not a clear process for deciding where should that authority be delegated to. so, the long and short of it is i think the delegation down has probably born some fruit, and that is a good thing in terms of what it has done in the isis campaign. but there has got to be some rigor around deciding where you draw that line. >> i am a very nervous first year, in professor schanzner's

mcgurk. a couple of questions first. authorization to use military force, the administration has indicated would not oppose the repeal of that is the issue the timing with respect to, say, pending elections in iraq? might it disrupt things you are doing in iraq if we were to do that now? >> congressman, i do not think there is much focus on that. i do not think it would make much of a difference. >> that is good to know, ok. elections in april. still on schedule? >> we, our team at the embassy is talking every day to the united nations mission in iraq. and the iraqi high electoral commission. and the information i received recently is that elections remain on track. we have tens of thousands of displaced families from anbar province. we have been assured by that -- that displaced people will be able to vote and the vote will count. l confident the election will be held on april 30, and our firm position is that those elections have to be held on april 30. there should not be a delay. >> what a novel thought. allowing peo

mcgurk is a former special presidential enjoy. he talks about the impact of the president's decision to withdraw troops from syria and the implications for u.s. national security. he served in the president for president obama and trump from 2015 to 2018. this is an 1:15. 2018. 1:15.is an >> welcome, everyone. i'm pleased to welcome you to marking the roggio's book. you can information find online our latest analysis nd subscribe to receive information on our latest research. this event is hosted by the and politicaltary power which seeks to promote understanding of the military strategies, c policies and capabilities to our threats while advancing american influence. members ur audience nonpolicy ow it's a institute. we're glad to be joined today by distinguished audience of diplomats, representatives from congress, the department of state, the pentagon, active military, and experts from the policy community. of course, the media. we encourage guests both here online to join us in today's conversation on twitter at fdd. way of ho

. >> i read the article, and a bigsly, mcgurk's champion of the relationship .p.g. he y the argument is based on i think the press reports a couple of weeks ago about turkey asking the u.s. to give a lot of military support, to be able to hold the territory. but i think it is a bit represented in the fact that these are discussions about how to do a u.s. withdrawal. i do want to get into the general's expertise area, but the air zone that the u.s. is controlling -- >> the euphrates? host: at the u.s. for example not leave that airbase. ypg exactly goes to reassure turkey along the border, i think you could -- these kinds of discussions by saying, oh, turkey is requiring too much, and we need to actually stay even more. think that is true. that is a push back by people are looking for a continued u.s. presence and continued u.s. relationship by the whit -- by .g. y.p turkey does work with opposition forces. it is not on the state actors. -- someate actors nonstate actors are also in engagement come about turkey is the one with forces on the ground that have fought is

brett mcgurk is going to be there. travel continues.ked about hochstein who is also in the region. you see many of my colleagues are in the region. diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy is what we see as the way forward. we have given you readouts of the president talking to heads of state whether it is egypt, qatar and jordan over the past week or so. and european counterparts as well very recently this week. he believes in having those diplomatic conversations is important. it was the military as well working to deter the escalations. you have seen the statements from the department of defense and what they are doing to bolster forces in the region to be ready. >> another topic. the president in contrasting content creators with the press he said the biggest thing you have going for you and i hope you keep it is you are trusted. and it makes a difference. does the president believe influencers and content creators is nonpartisan? >> i don't have the full context . i did not see the back and forth of what the president was saying there. i th

host: let me share a tweet with the president, brett mcgurk announced he would step down early. the president writing "brad miller, who i did not know, was inointed by president obama 2015," calling him a grandstand such a big deal about this nothing event. why wouldn't he have known him? guest: right, that was the question, and this happens a lot with the president on twitter, that he is making it look like he has nothing to do with a decision, and in doing so, he raises more questions about his level of awareness in his administration. i do not know why he would send or why helike that would admit to not knowing something like that, but i think the way he thinks about how we all perceive him is very different than the way people in washington and journalists tend to think. host: "the only way to stop drugs, gangs, human trafficking from coming into the united states is a barrier. fun, but it is only a good old-fashioned wall that works." good morning. caller: good morning. want to say it seems like that lady does not like donald trump. i lived by the order, and i can ,ee all t

that on the announcement that brett mcgurk is stepping down. the present tweeting, brett mcgurk, who i did not know, was appointed by president obama in 2015, was supposed to leave in february, but he just resigned. grain stander? the fake news is making a big deal about this nothing event. this follows james mattis resigning, the first resignation of a defense secretary in protest in our history. you support the shutdown. why? caller: i support the shutdown because we need something on the border. the main reason i call is you made a mistake where you said the border was 7000 miles long. according to national geographic , the mexico border is 1954. thank you for that clarification. you are absolutely right. the point of the story i'm should have mentioned is that the $5 billion according to senator ted cruz would provide about 215 miles of border, half of which would be replacement walls for what is already there. , i go: one of the things to our local township meetings, and i'm amazed at the cost of public projects because of all the permitti

. >> these press reports of having brett mcgurk and president trump's envoy for the middle east togethermeetings with foreign country talking about the gaza disengagement is really impressive and i've not heard of that before. speaks well for this transition. i'm going to ask you to view the samequestion-,- each of you the same question and see how the answers compare. the current national security advisor, what do you think of the most pressing challenges the trump administration will face and what should they be most worried about in the first six months? >> it is like a very strange slightly awkward version of the dating game. you wrote down your aunts the other person wrote down the answer and you see how much they matter. going first is funny because i will give an answer and mike will say, that is not right at all. it is totally other thing but i will do my best. >> i'll go first next time. >> so, right. look, there are obviously the immediate crises and the wildfires in california, that is something that will demand a n all hands on deck effort. there is closing at the cease-fire

and the regime at the end of this, including, i think mcgurk, he talked about it. he talked about the fabric of syrian society. i think it was the timing of the decision, which was of concern. that is why you see people coming out of the different political spectrum, who said, i think it is great to leave syria. it becomes a political hot potato, so to speak because it is likely, unfortunately, that we will have more of these kinds of attacks by isis. they are desperate, they are militarily being defeated. they have sleeper cells with the ability to carry out these attacks. you get a lot of bang for the buck. so i think it will be an issue in 2020, but unless it is tied to something much larger, llc it being the issue. >> i don't think it's going to,. up.ome first of all, foreign policy is really an issue in presidential elections. i think if they do talk foreign policy, it will be much larger issues -- china, with russia, so on so forth. the democrats completely agree with trump on the issue of foreign intervention in the first place. president trump's rationale f

ask greg mcgurk. the money is always been an issue. it never went back to the iranian people. when you hear the protesters, they tout that. they say the $100 billion never came back to us. even ahmadinejad, someone we always worried about as a hardliner and death to america that, said the supreme leaders ts is this so company conglomerate worth $90 million that was delisted. it had nothing to do with the nuclear program, but it was something we gave the regime in order for them to sign it. that feels all this terrorism. -- off myigital dinner jed -- after dinner jed -- you just cannot make this stuff up. caller: you guys are stealing my questions and answers. , if you are on the right side, you are saying that we gave iran $150 billion. if you are on the left side -- not partisan. before obama, everybody was against the regime. caller: but if you're someone on the left side, everyone says iran sold oil to north korea, south korea, china, and then the sanctions were imposed. money and was their when the sanctions were lifted, we gave them their money back, and then the cash tha

officials from the obama administration, and i suspect mcgurk, who i want to thank for joining us would ikely push back on this assertion. this is a debate i hope we hear more about today but in the reports of war crimes, cease-fire violations, isis prison breaks, israeli assad regime advances one gets a sense that new dangers lurk so in addition points in ng the key mike's book, today's conversation promises to cover a lot of ground. moderating today's event is salama. she's worked as a correspondent countries.an 50 she deserved as the baghdad 2014-2016, in om april she published a children's long journey home about a syrian boy whose family the orced to flee when civil war erupted. she currently covers the white house for the "wall street journal." vivian will introduce the rest of the panel. vivian, over to you. you so much. it's great to be here. ncluding with all these distinguished gentlemen. wo of whom i cross with in the middle east. mike and i covered the air spring together and brett and i had the aq and i pleasure of meeting bill today o it will be a great conversation for su