As the Trump administration moves to negotiate the end of the Ukraine-Russia war, national security advisor Michael Waltz rejected the notion that European allies are not being consulted on the matter. 

Talks between the U.S. and Russia are reportedly to begin in Saudi Arabia this week, while French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly to host what is being billed as an emergency summit on Ukraine between European leaders in Paris starting Monday. Trump said he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, reportedly doing so without consulting NATO members. 

In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Waltz said that in back-to-back calls, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin separately agreed that "only President Trump could get them to the table, only President Trump could drive peace." 

Waltz noted that Trump spoke to Macron last week and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has an upcoming trip to the United States. 

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"We had no less than our vice president, our secretary of state, our secretary of defense, our secretary of treasury, who was in Kyiv personally, and our special envoy {Keith} Kellogg all in Europe this week, all engaging our allies," Waltz said. "Now, they may not like some of the sequencing that is going on in these negotiations, but I have to push back on any notion that they aren't being consulted. They absolutely are." 

"At the end of the day though, this is going to be under President Trump's leadership that we get this war to an end," he added. 

Among the critics of the Trump administration's handling of the negotiations was Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who said the president's inability to "even identify Ukraine as an equal bargaining power, after the blood Ukraine has shed, [is] just a shocking surrender of American values and interests." Noting how Zelenskyy said he would not be bound by any deal negotiated between Russia and the U.S., "Fox News Sunday" host Shannon Bream asked Waltz if Kyiv would have a seat at the table. 

In response, Waltz said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice President JD Vance stressed in talks with Zelenskyy "entering into a partnership with the United States," and being "co-invested with President Trump, with the American people going forward." 

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"The American people deserve to be recouped, deserve to have some type of payback for the billions they have invested in this war," Waltz said. "I can't think of anything that would make the American people more comfortable with future investments than if we were able to be in a partnership and have the American people made whole. And I'll point out that much of the European aid is actually in the form of a loan. That is repaid. It's repaid with interest on Russian assets. So President Trump is rethinking the entire dynamic here. That has some people uncomfortable, but I think Zelenskyy would be very wise to enter into this agreement with the United States. There's no better way to secure them going forward, and further, there was a question of whether Putin would come to the table. He has now done so under President Trump's leadership, and we're going to continue those talks in the coming weeks at President Trump's direction."

Asked why Ukraine won't be directly part of the Saudi Arabia talks, Waltz said, "The Ukrainian people have fought valiantly. They have seen entire cities destroyed. The United States and Europe have supported this effort, but the United States unquestionably has borne the brunt of that support over the years, but now President Trump is clear it needs to come to an end." 

Waltz added that the negotiations will be driven by "key tenants," including ensuring that there's a "permanent end to the war" and that the conflict "can't be ended on the battlefield." 

"This has turned into a World War I-style meat grinder of human beings," he said, adding that economic integration going forward would be the "best arbiter of peace" and long-term military security guarantees have to be European-led. 

"When a third of NATO members still are not contributing – a third – are still not contributing the minimum they all committed to a decade ago, I think that leaves a lot of Americans questioning the level of their commitment to back the rhetoric we're seeing," Waltz said. 

Iran is reported to have launched a new crackdown against Iranian Christians this month following the re-arrest of two men.

According to a Feb. 10 report on the website of the U.K.-based NGO Article18, which seeks to protect religious freedom in Iran, "Two Christians in their 60s who were released after a combined six years in prison on charges related to their leadership of house-churches have been re-arrested."

Iranian regime intelligence agents re-arrested the two Christians, Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Joseph Shahbazian, and incarcerated both men in Tehran’s brutal Evin Prison. Gol-Tapeh is reportedly on a hunger strike over "unlawful re-arrest," noted Article 18, which advocates on behalf of persecuted Iranian Christians.

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Article18 said a "number of other Tehran Christians were also arrested at the same time and remain in custody."

Iranian-Americans and Iranian dissidents are urging the Trump administration to shine a spotlight on the ubiquitous Iranian regime human rights violations while imposing punitive measures on the clerical state in Tehran.

Alireza Nader, an Iran expert, told Fox News Digital, "Christians in Iran are relentlessly persecuted by the Islamist regime. The Trump administration should highlight their plight publicly while putting maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime."

Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a German-Iranian political scientist, who is a leading expert on religious minorities in Iran, told Fox News Digital, according to the Christian advocacy organization OpenDoors 2025 annual report, "Christian discrimination in Iran remains extremely severe, scoring 86 out of 100 points and ranking 9th among the worst countries for Christian persecution."

He added, "The government views Christian converts as a threat to national security, believing they are influenced by Western nations to undermine Islam and the regime. As a result, Christian converts face severe religious freedom violations, including arrests [and] long prison sentences."

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Wahdat-Hagh continued, "Those who leave Islam to follow Christianity are the most vulnerable. They are denied legal recognition and are frequently targeted by security forces."

One Iranian Christian who fled Iran to Germany to practice her faith free from persecution is Sheina Vojoudi.

She told Fox News Digital, "As the belief in Islam keeps going down in Iran, the important growth of Christianity has deeply alarmed the Islamic Republic, a theocratic dictatorship. Iran has seen an outstanding rise in the number of Christian converts, despite the decidedly oppressive environment. International human rights groups often consider Christian converts to be political prisoners of conscience, meaning that even after arrest and release, they remain in constant danger of re-arrest and severe punishment."

The dire situation of Iranian Christians prompted the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, to sound the alarm bells in a video presentation organized by Article 18. "The situation of Christians in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a matter of serious concern that demands our continued attention," she said.

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The most recent U.S. State Department report on religious freedom in Iran (2023) states, "The government continued to regulate Christian religious practices. Christian worship in Farsi was forbidden and official reports and state-run media continued to characterize private Christian churches in homes as ‘illegal networks’ and ‘Zionist propaganda institutions."’

The number of Christians in Iran is difficult to pinpoint because of the widespread repression of the faith. According to the State Department report, the Iranian regime’s Statistical Center claims there are 117,700 Christians of recognized denominations as of the 2016 census.

Boston University’s 2020 World Religion Database notes there are roughly 579,000 Christians in Iran, while Article 18 estimates there are 500,000 to 800,000. Open Doors reports the number at 1.24 million.

The Trump administration re-imposed, in early February, its maximum economic pressure campaign on Iran’s regime to reverse Tehran’s drive to build a nuclear weapon and stop its spread of Islamist terrorism.

Vojoudi, an associate fellow at the U.S.-based Gold Institute for International Strategy, told Fox News Digital, "Now is the time for European nations and the United States to take meaningful action, not only by holding the Islamic Republic accountable for its support of terrorism and extremist groups, but also by prosecuting it on the international stage for violating one of the most fundamental human rights: the freedom of religion.

"This is critical not only for the safety of Christian converts but also to reaffirm the values of freedom and human dignity that these nations claim to uphold." 

Multiple Fox News Digital press queries to Iran’s foreign ministry and its U.N. mission in New York were not returned. Fox News Digital asked if the government would release Iranians imprisoned for merely practicing their Christian faith.

Instead of the big game, DOGE leader Elon Musk was focused on U.S. government-funded media. He backed Trump ally Richard Grenell’s call to shut down VOA and Radio Free Europe, replying on X: "Yes, shut them down." Kari Lake, Trump’s nominee for VOA Director, responded, advocating for keeping them open but making them pro-American.  

Lake strongly denied liberal media fears that she would turn VOA into "Trump TV," clarifying that even President Donald Trump wants it to present a fair and accurate portrayal of America — the real Voice of America. To further shake up the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), Trump also nominated a fierce conservative media watchdog and Media Research Center President Brent Bozell to lead the USAGM, the parent agency of the Voice of America and other taxpayer-funded international broadcasters.  

With an annual budget of nearly $1 billion, USAGM has rightfully caught Musk’s attention. Despite then-President Joe Biden’s $950 million budget proposal for these media outlets in 2025, most Americans remain unaware of VOA’s role. Outside the U.S., however, VOA is a widely recognized international broadcaster, reaching a weekly audience of 354 million people in 49 languages.  

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Its reach is so extensive that it makes America’s largest domestic radio and TV networks "look like small fry," according to The Guardian. The real concern is that VOA often spreads anti-American narratives instead of promoting U.S. values. The left fears losing a well-funded, poorly monitored and highly influential tools for criticizing American values globally. 

Founded in 1942 during World War II, Voice of America aimed to communicate U.S. policies and counter enemy propaganda. Joined by Radio Free Europe in 1950 and four other federally owned outlets, they played a key role in shaping global perceptions through WWII, the Korean War and the Cold War, until the Soviet Union's collapse.  

However, on April 30, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the International Broadcasting Act, establishing the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to oversee non-military international broadcasting.  

Since then, concerns have risen about some programs favoring adversarial regimes like Iran, China, Russia and Cuba. In May 2020, Trump State Department’s Iran envoy, Brian Hook, criticized VOA in a New York Post article titled "Why Are U.S. Taxpayers Funding a ‘Voice of the Mullahs’ in Iran?" accusing it of promoting hostile regime narratives over American interests. 

The campaign to reform VOA began in 2006, led by then-Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn. Coburn invited to testify about how U.S. taxpayer-funded broadcasts to Iran were undermining U.S. policy and proving ineffective.   

In a letter to then-President George W. Bush, Coburn credited me as the initiator of efforts to reform VOA and Radio Farda, arguing that these media outlets "may actually be harming American interests rather than helping." A report commissioned by the State Department and National Security Council mirrored my testimony, despite resistance from VOA insiders. 

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I became involved in this issue shortly after escaping Evin Prison and fleeing Iran with the help of Bush’s administration. Having endured over five years of torture, I was recognized by Amnesty International as the first known victim of "white torture" in Iran. Before leaving Iran, I briefly watched VOA, shocked by their respect for the Islamic regime and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), downplaying brutality while promoting internal reform. In my testimony, I urged VOA to stop misleading Iranians with so-called balanced reporting. 

Under President Barack Obama, Coburn continued his campaign to reform VOA, leveraging his strong relationship with the president. He successfully helped appoint eight new BBG members — equally split between Republicans and Democrats.  

On April 6, 2011, I testified again before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee titled: "Is America’s Overseas Broadcasting Undermining our National Interest and the Fight Against Tyrannical Regimes?", alongside BBG governors and John Lenczowski, the founder of The Institute of World Politics, where I was a research fellow and visiting lecturer.  

Despite initial hopes that new leadership at BBG and VOA would resolve the issues, corruption persisted. Coburn’s illness prevented him from completing his efforts, and after the resignation of the VOA Persian service director and some BBG members, VOA returned to its usual anti-American bias. 

USAGM has 4,000 employees and 1,500 stringers, including over 2,000 at VOA, many of whom are bureaucrats shielded by union protections. The most effective way to bypass these obstacles is to shut down these corrupt services. Dissolving VOA and Radio Farda would remove taxpayer-funded platforms for far-left activists pushing anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-China, pro-Russia, and pro-Iranian Mullah agendas. These services could then be rebuilt with a leaner, dedicated team of pro-American journalists, ensuring VOA truly represents America — a key step in Trump’s strategy to counter adversaries without military intervention. 

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