A new protest movement is gathering strength in Iran, driven by public outrage over the death of 19-year-old Amir Mohammad Khaleghi, an undergraduate business student at the University of Tehran who was robbed and killed near the dormitory last week.
The post Protests Resurge in Iran After Teen Student Killed near Dorm appeared first on Breitbart.
South Africa has responded to President Donald Trump's criticism of its expropriation legislation and its foreign policy by suggesting that it is prepared to work with Iran and Russia in developing domestic nuclear power plants.
The post In Slap at Trump, South Africa Hints at Nuclear Deals with Iran, Russia appeared first on Breitbart.
FIRST ON FOX: Europe must reinstate harsh United Nations sanctions on Iran, U.S. lawmakers insisted in a new resolution that accused Tehran of repeated violations of the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration.
The bipartisan legislation calls on the U.K., France and Germany to invoke "snapback" sanctions on Iran through the UN Security Council immediately – and follow the U.S.’s lead under President Donald Trump’s "maximum pressure" executive order to isolate Iran over its nuclear activity.
"Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and their actions have led to the murder of American servicemembers," said Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., the number two Republican on Senate Foreign Relations Committee and lead sponsor of the bill, which has 11 cosponsors in the Senate.
"Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon would threaten our security and the security of our allies. Snapback sanctions are key to ensuring that President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign is successful."
IRAN'S COVERT NUCLEAR AGENCY FOUND OPERATING OUT OF TOP SPACE PROGRAM LAUNCH SITES
Reps. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., issued companion legislation in the House.
Under the 2015 Iran deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran evaded U.N., U.S. and E.U. sanctions in exchange for promises not to pursue a nuclear weapon. But Iran eventually cut off independent inspectors' access to its sites and resumed nuclear activities.
A "snapback" provision of the agreement said that any of the nations privy to the deal – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, U.S. or Germany – could demand the export controls, travel bans and asset freezes be reimposed.
But the U.S. pulled out of the nuclear deal entirely under President Donald Trump’s first administration and imposed its own "maximum pressure" sanctions regime. The Biden administration subsequently issued sanctions waivers and toyed with the idea of returning to a nuclear deal with Iran, but ultimately those efforts faltered.
Tenney urged the European nations to invoke the snapback sanctions before the deal expires in October 2025.
"Invoking snapback sanctions will restore all the UN sanctions on Iran that were lifted by the Obama administration’s failed Iran nuclear deal," she said.
Iran is "dramatically" accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, below the 90% needed for a nuclear weapon, according to U.N. nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi. Western states have said there is no civilian use for 60% uranium.
TRUMP REINSTATES ‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE’ CAMPAIGN AGAINST IRAN
Britain, France and Germany told the U.N. Security Council in December they were ready to trigger the snapback of all international sanctions on Iran if necessary.
Trump himself said he was "torn" over a recent executive order that triggered harsh sanctions on Iran’s oil sector, adding that he was "unhappy to do it."
"Hopefully, we're not going to have to use it very much," Trump told reporters.
But he reiterated, "We're not going to let them get a nuclear weapon."
Trump suggested first trying a "verified nuclear peace agreement" over military escalation. "I would much rather do a deal that’s not gonna hurt them," the president told Fox News on Monday, adding that "I’d love to make a deal with them without bombing them."
Iran viewed the president’s remarks as a threat and took negotiations off the table.
"No problem will be solved by negotiating with America," said Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khameni, citing past "experience."
He called for the country to further develop its military capabilities.
"We cannot be satisfied," Khamenei said. "Say that we previously set a limit for the accuracy of our missiles, but we now feel this limit is no longer enough. We have to go forward."
"Today, our defensive power is well known, our enemies are afraid of this. This is very important for our country," he said.
Novelist Salman Rushdie described Tuesday the moment a knife-wielding attacker stormed on stage and attempted to kill him with a frenzied attack that left him blind in one eye.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Breitbart News exclusively that he and President Donald Trump are completely in agreement that the Islamic Republic of Iran should never get a nuclear weapon.
The post Exclusive— Netanyahu: Iran with Nuclear Weapon Would Be ‘Clear and Present Danger to the Peace of the World’ appeared first on Breitbart.
President Donald Trump's decision to cut foreign aid funding could strengthen the president’s bargaining position as he looks to contain Iran.
"I look at the USAID cutoff and the praise that the Iranians have given as part of President Trump’s negotiating skills," EJ Kimball, director of Policy & Strategic Operations at the U.S. Israel Education Association, told Fox News Digital.
The comments come after Trump’s controversial decision to halt funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and send most of the employees of USAID packing, part of the administration’s plan to weed out what it considers wasteful government spending.
Despite the controversy, the decision has received praise from the Iranian regime, who have traditionally viewed U.S. aid to Iran as a threat to the country’s government.
According to a report from The Associated Press on Wednesday, Trump’s move has been "lauded" in Iranian state media, who view the cuts to foreign aid as a blow to pro-democracy activists Iran believes have benefited from U.S. foreign aid.
The favorable perception of Trump’s move by Iran comes at a critical time, with Trump recently renewing the U.S.’s "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran and reaffirming the U.S. position that Iran can never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.
While Trump has used harsh rhetoric on Iran in recent days, including a vow to "obliterate" the country if it successfully carries out an alleged plot to assassinate him, the president has also urged the regime to begin negotiating for a "nuclear peace agreement" with the United States.
"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED," Trump wrote in a post on social media Wednesday.
TRUMP'S LATEST HIRES AND FIRES RANKLE IRAN HAWKS AS NEW PRESIDENT SUGGESTS NUCLEAR DEAL
Kimball believes Trump can use the cuts to foreign aid as a bargaining chip in those potential negotiations, noting the president could change his mind and resume the funding if the Iranians fail to reach an acceptable deal.
"I would say that he’s teasing the Iranians at the moment, knowing that really at any moment’s notice, he could immediately turn back on the spigot of funding to the opposition groups if he doesn’t feel like they’re acquiescing to his demands or negotiation," Kimball said.
"It seems to me that he’s got a carrot-and-stick approach with the Iranian regime, and pausing funding for regime critics, teasing a deal, but also threatening sanctions, and talking to Israel about a military strike and how Iran will not get nuclear weapons is part of his master negotiating skills to keep his opponents off balance," Kimball added.
In the end, Kimball believes Trump’s ultimate goal is to cut a deal that would eliminate Iran’s nuclear program without putting U.S. service members in harm's way in another overseas conflict.
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"It’s been very clear he does not want to send U.S. troops to war, but he’s also not going to be soft about it and allow the taking of a bad deal to avoid war," Kimball said. "The end goal for President Trump is a deal that removes the threat that Iran poses to the United States, to Israel, to the region, and really to the entire world, not just in their nuclear program, but in their ballistic missile development and delivery systems to ensure that Iran can be great again."
A senior Iranian lawmaker and member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has openly declared his intent to assassinate President Donald Trump, stating he would “not hesitate” to kill the U.S. Commander in Chief after Trump warned he would “obliterate” the Islamic theocracy if it did so.
The post Iranian Lawmaker Publicly Threatens He ‘Will Not Hesitate’ to Assassinate President Trump appeared first on Breitbart.
JOHANNESBURG - President Donald Trump’s announcement that he plans to cut off all foreign aid to South Africa because he claimed it is "confiscating" land "and treating certain classes of people very badly" in "a massive human rights violation" has provoked strong reaction from the South African presidency and commentators.
"The South African government has not confiscated any land", South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responded in a statement, adding "We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters".
Last week, Ramaphosa signed a bill into law permitting national, provincial and local authorities to expropriate land – to take it -"for a public purpose or in the public interest," and, the government stated "subject to just and equitable compensation being paid". However, sources say no expropriation has happened yet.
SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT SIGNS CONTROVERSIAL LAND SEIZURE BILL, ERODING PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
On his Truth Social Media platform, President Trump hit out at South Africa, posting "It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!" Trump later repeated his comments while speaking to the press on Sunday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
Pieter du Toit, assistant editor of South African media group News 24, posted on X "The U.S. President, clearly advised by Elon Musk, really has no idea what he’s talking about."
South African-born Musk is trying to expand his Starlink internet service into South Africa, but President Ramaphosa has reportedly told him he must sell off 30% of his company here to local broad-based so-called Black empowerment interests.
In response to the South African president’s statement, Musk fired back on X, asking Ramaphosa, "Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?"
INCOMING TRUMP ADMIN, CONGRESS SHOWDOWN LOOMS WITH SOUTH AFRICA OVER SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA, US FOES
Analyst Frans Cronje told Fox News Digital that President Trump may be referring to the ongoing killing of farmers in South Africa when he posted that certain classes of people are being treated very badly.
"President Trump's recent comments on land seizures in South Africa cannot be divorced from his past comments on violent attacks directed at the country's farmers. Whilst these comments have often been dismissed as false, the latest South African data suggests that the country's commercial farmers are six times more likely to be violently attacked in their homes than is the case for the general population."
Cronje said there may be agendas in play behind President Trump’s statements.
"Such seizures may also apply to the property of American investors in South Africa. Cronje is an adviser at the U.S. Yorktown Foundation for Freedom. He added "with regards to land specifically, the legislation could enable the mass seizure of land which has been an oft expressed objective of senior political figures in the country. To date, however, there have been no mass seizures, in part because there was no legislative means through which to achieve such seizures."
Now, with the bill having been signed into law, Cronje says that has changed.
"The comments around property rights in South Africa must be read against broader and bipartisan US concern at developments in South Africa. In 2024 the US/South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act was introduced (in Congress) amid concerns that the South African government's relationships with Iran, Russia, and China threatened US national security interests."
Cronje, who also advises corporations and government departments on economic and political trajectory, continued. "Last week, South Africa’s government, together with that of Cuba, Belize and four other countries supported the formation of the ‘Hague Group’ in an apparent move to shore up the standing of the International Criminal Court, amid the passage through Congress of the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act that prescribes sanctions against any country that is seen to use the court to threaten US national security interests. South Africa has in recent years been prominent in employing both that court and the International Court of Justice in the Hague to press for action against Israel and Israeli leaders."
South Africa’s Ramaphosa played down the importance of U.S. aid, stating "with the exception of PEPFAR (The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) Aid, which constitutes 17% of South Africa’s HIVAids program, there is no other significant funding that is provided by the United States in South Africa." President George W. Bush introduced PEPFAR in 2003.
Analyst Justice Malala, speaking on South African news channel, ENCA, said that, under the Trump administration, "the United States is going to upend South Africa in many ways."
Iran is covertly developing long-range nuclear warheads at two heavily guarded missile sites, using its space program as a cover to advance its nuclear weapons capabilities, according to explosive new intelligence revealed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The post Bombshell Report: Iran’s Secret Nuclear Warhead Program Exposed at Space Program Sites appeared first on Breitbart.
Meghan McCain vowed to make it her "personal mission to help campaign and fundraise" against any Senator who does not vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
The post Meghan McCain Vows to Make It Her ‘Personal Mission’ to Campaign, Fundraise Against Senators Voting Against Tulsi Gabbard’s Confirmation appeared first on Breitbart.
After the disastrous foreign affairs failures of the Biden administration, many Americans were left wondering how a Trump administration could possibly correct course. Well, it’s finally Trump time, so here’s what one should expect.
In many ways, today’s Donald Trump resembles the one we saw in 2016. Now, as then, Trump is neither an isolationist nor an imperialist; rather, he pursues an America-first policy tempered by realism and the understanding that sometimes one must break a few eggs to make an omelet.
Similarities aside, though, the Trump of 2025 is not the same as the Trump of 2016. Today’s Trump is one of the most battle-tested leaders on the world stage, and he’s bringing that experience to bear on changing world circumstances.
While America faces the same enemies – Russia, Iran and China – those enemies are weaker than ever because of their own reckless imperial overreach. Moscow struggles to make headway on its fronts in Ukraine and beyond, Iran is stuck watching Israel take down its minions, and China faces economic woes and a tarnished global brand.
TRUMP'S TRIUMPH: FIRST WEEK PROVES PRESIDENT RIGHT IN ALL THESE WAYS
All this weakness gives Trump space to accomplish his foreign policy agenda.
First on the table is killing the Green New Deal – a completely unrealistic, unachievable policy that only benefited America’s enemies. While Iran and Russia sold fossil fuels and China bought them at cut-rate prices (and cornered the market on the sale of green technologies), the rest of the world was heading for energy poverty.
Trump plans to change all that by heading up a global campaign for reliable, affordable, abundant energy. In declaring a national energy emergency, he paved the way for America to unleash its vast oil supply more cheaply and efficiently than ever – a policy that will enable the U.S. to compete in and transform the global energy market.
Next, Trump will restore the long-standing American tradition of peace through strength. He’s already instructed his new secretary of Defense to this end, ordering him to implement more bayonet drills and fewer drag shows. He’s warned America’s enemies to stop warmongering or risk facing consequences for their actions.
HERE'S HOW REPUBLICANS SHOULD FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THEIR TOUGH TALK ON IMMIGRATION
Even before taking office, Trump’s team helped negotiate a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel. Now he’s working to secure a similar peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump believes in putting America first, and he knows that wars (in addition to the harm they cause to innocents) are bad for business – and that means they must stop.
Similarly, Trump is putting an end to America’s endless bankrolling of other countries, demanding instead that those countries step up and start pulling their own weight. He’s informed NATO members that they need to start contributing 5% of their GDP to national defense instead of relying on the U.S. to take care of them.
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Instead of throwing taxpayer money around, Trump says it’s time to start throwing America’s weight around. That means no more underwriting the U.N.’s globalist agenda – unless, of course, it’s in America’s best interests to do so.
Nor does Trump plan to continue allowing weaknesses and backdoors in America’s own backyard. Trump’s "new Monroe Doctrine" isn’t about establishing American imperialism, but rather about ensuring American safety.
Trump seeks to secure strategic waypoints like Greenland, encourage Canada to defend the Free North, and prevent China from obtaining control of the Panama Canal. That’s not building a wall around America – it’s mowing the grass and trimming the hedges.
Finally, Trump plans to put American growth first. That means tax cuts for American workers, tariffs for American enemies, and encouragement for American allies to invest in the American economy. He’s already announced significant Saudi investment in the United States (to the tune of $600 billion), and the pressure’s on for other allies to follow suit.
All told, Trump’s foreign policy sends the message that America’s back and better than ever. Friends should step up, and enemies should watch out.
It’s the second week of the second Trump presidency, and Mike Pence has some concerns.
Coming off a trip to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the former vice president is more convinced than ever of the need for the U.S. to stand strong against China and bolster Taiwan’s defenses.
"There seems to be this suggestion on both sides of a certain thawing in relations, which in principle I welcome, but not compromising on principles," he told a small group of reporters at the Advancing American Freedom office in Washington, D.C.
And in the new Trump 2.0, Pence is convinced that his brand of neoconservatism is not dead, at least not yet.
"There have been voices of isolationism that have been emerging in our party of late," he said. "I’m not yet convinced that they represent the president's views."
The former vice president does not believe the 2024 election was a referendum on interventionist policy.
TRUMP'S 'BLACKLIST': PRESIDENT-ELECT DESCRIBES THE TYPE OF PEOPLE HE DOESN'T WANT TO HIRE
"I don't think people were voting for isolationism in 2024."
But Pence refused to endorse President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Pence and Trump fell out after the January 6th Capitol riot, and Trump, in turn, recently suggested that he wouldn't hire anyone who had worked for his former second-in-command.
"There are loud voices, both inside and outside the administration that are calling on America to pull back from, whether it be Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific, and even some are calling for us to pull back on our longstanding support for Israel," Pence went on.
"One of the things we want to be, Advancing American Freedom and whatever remains of my bully pulpit, is to be an anchor to windward for traditional conservatism within the Republican Party."
In Hong Kong, Pence stood in front of 2,000 people and called for authorities to release Jimmy Lai, an imprisoned media mogul and pro-democracy activist, to the audible gasps of the crowd.
Back at home, he’s calling on Trump to "reconsider" the U.S.-Nippon Steel merger that Biden stopped.
He is also worried his former boss does not fully grasp the dangers of TikTok, after Trump’s newfound embrace of the video-sharing platform where he enjoys 15 million followers. He signed an executive order this week giving TikTok another 75 days in operation after Congress passed a law last year forcing them to divest from Chinese-owned ByteDance or face a ban in the U.S.
"I am concerned that the administration doesn't fully appreciate the issues that animated the need for divestment," said Pence.
"People that are in their 20s and 30s today could be in the Senate – in the House in 10 years. The fact that the Chinese Communist Party is collecting data on Americans, whatever their age or experience is, is not something to be dismissed."
The former vice president said that China is trying to infiltrate public opinion in Taiwan ahead of a possible invasion to try to take over the island.
"The CCP thinks the principal value of TikTok is the ability to impact public opinion at a critical moment," he said. "When I met with leadership in Taiwan, on TikTok they said, in effect, they're dealing with an onslaught of social media propaganda coming out of China into Taiwan, trying to set the stage for whatever action, economic, political or hard power may be coming their way."
It was the first Trump administration that made tough-on-China policies go mainstream, according to Pence.
TRUMP'S LATEST HIRES AND FIRES RANKLE IRAN HAWKS AS NEW PRESIDENT SUGGESTS NUCLEAR DEAL
"I am convinced that our administration changed the national consensus on China," he said. "I would point out that President Biden never undid the $250 billion in tariffs that we imposed."
Pence said he is also worried about Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman-turned Republican whom Trump has nominated to be his director of national intelligence.
She has "at times over the last two years, been an apologist for Putin. And, you know, has a history of being critical of the use of American power," said Pence.
"I think, if memory serves, she actually criticized when we took out [top Iranian general] Qassem Soleimani."
Trump suggested that he might want to sit down with Iran and work on a new nuclear deal on Thursday. But Pence said he trusts the new administration, particularly officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Michael Waltz, not to get taken for a ride by Iran.
"The first order of business is to go back to isolating around economically, and diplomatically, and making it clear that different from the Iran nuclear deal there, there would have to be a sea change in any policy regarding nuclear weapons or the state of Israel."
"I trust that the administration will be very cautious in any of those interactions."
Pence's group has already come out with a campaign in opposition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
To do that, the former vice president said he would be anything but retired from public life. He plans to continue to advocate for increasing defense spending – 5% of GDP is his current goal – and to use his voice to convince elected officials to stand strong with America's friends and boost deterrent measures to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
The U.S. has a longstanding policy of ambiguity when it comes to whether it would actually stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the ground with Taiwan if China were to invade. Even in private life, Pence isn't ready to say whether that would be the right move.
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"There's an old saying, 'Never say what you'll never do,'" he said.
"We ought to have one hand extended in friendship in exchange, and the other hand resting comfortably on the holster of the arsenal of democracy."
President Donald Trump’s decision to issue an executive order to redesignate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization is a bold move to protect Americans and global stability, according to Republican Congressman Abe Hamadeh of Arizona, who commended the returning president while slamming the Biden administration’s earlier decision to reverse the designation as a “disastrous mistake.”
The post Exclusive — Arizona Rep. Abe Hamadeh Hails Trump’s Houthi Terror Redesignation: ‘A New Sheriff in Town’ appeared first on Breitbart.
If President Donald Trump’s personnel moves are any tell, he may come out of the gate toward Iran with a tone that is more diplomatic than combative.
And Trump on Thursday evening suggested he was open to a nuclear deal with Iran.
Asked if he would support Israel striking Iran's nuclear facilities, Trump told reporters, "We'll have to see. I'm going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days. We'll see, but hopefully that could be worked out without having to worry about it."
"Iran hopefully will make a deal. I mean, they don't make a deal, I guess that's OK, too."
Iran, at least, is hoping for just that. The Tehran Times, a regime-linked English language newspaper, questioned in a recent article whether the firing of Brian Hook, the architect of the "maximum pressure" policy on Iran during Trump’s first term, could "signal a change in [Trump’s] Iran policy."
In November, news outlets reported that Hook was running the transition at the State Department. But Hook was relieved from the transition team shortly after in December, sources familiar with the move confirmed to Fox News Digital.
This week, Trump knocked Hook back a step further by posting on social media that he’d be removed from his position at a U.S. government-owned think tank.
"Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars... YOU'RE FIRED!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
And after taking office, Trump removed the government-sponsored security details of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton told CNN his detail was also pulled, as was Hook’s.
"You can't have [protection] for the rest of your life. Do you want to have a large deal of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there's risks to everything," Trump said.
Trump recently put his Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, in charge of addressing U.S. concerns about Iran, according to a Financial Times report.
Witkoff most recently helped seal negotiations on a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, suggesting he may test Iran’s willingness to engage at the negotiating table on nuclear issues before ramping up pressure, sources told the Financial Times.
Experts warn that Iran is enriching hundreds of pounds of uranium to the 60% purity threshold, shy of the 90% purity levels needed to develop a nuclear bomb.
At the same time, the president hired Michael Dimino as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, a foreign policy expert who has said the Middle East doesn’t "really matter" to U.S. interests any longer.
Dimino is cut from the same cloth as undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby, who has argued for the U.S. to focus military resources on countering China and devote fewer resources to other regions.
Dimino, a former expert at the Koch-funded restraint advocacy think tank Defense Priorities, has strongly advocated for pulling U.S. resources out of the Middle East.
"The core question is: Does the Middle East still matter?" Dimino said during a panel last February. "The answer is: not really, not really for U.S. interests. What I would say is that vital or existential U.S. interests in the Middle East are best characterized as minimal to non-existent."
"We are really there to counter Iran and that is really at the behest of the Israelis and Saudis," he added.
"Iranian power remains both exaggerated and misunderstood. Its economy continues to underperform, and its conventional military is antiquated and untested. Tehran simply doesn’t have the financial capital or hard power capabilities to dominate the Middle East or directly threaten core U.S. interests," he wrote in a 2023 article.
Dimino has also argued the U.S. does not need to focus resources on an offensive campaign against the Houthis amid attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
"Put simply, there are no existential or vital U.S. national interests at stake in Yemen and very little is at stake for the U.S. economically in the Red Sea."
Instead, he argued in a 2023 op-ed that working to increase aid into Gaza would rid the Houthis of their stated reason for their attacks in the Red Sea, which they’ve said are a means of fighting on behalf of Gaza.
"Working to increase aid shipments to Gaza would not just help to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there but would deprive the Houthis of their claimed justification for attacks in the Red Sea and provide the group with an off-ramp for de-escalation that would also serve to prevent indefinite U.S. participation in a broader regional war."
Others in Trump's foreign policy orbit historically have struck a more hawkish tone toward Iran, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
Rubio has already said he will work to bring back the snapback sanctions that were suspended in the 2015 Iran deal, as indicated by written responses he provided to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
"A policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy," Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Russia and Ukraine, recently said.
The Dimino hiring – along with other recent personnel moves – has caused rumblings from prominent Iran hawks.
Mark Levin, a radio host who has the ear of Trump, has posted on X multiple times in opposition to Dimino: "How’d this creep get a top DoD position?" he asked in one post.
"While Dimino and Witkoff are very different issues, Witkoff is Trump’s best friend, [it] seems difficult to detangle, very concerning," said one Iran expert. "Dimino is a mystery and does not align with Hegseth or Trump values on Iran or Israel."
"There is an ongoing coordinated effort by Iran’s regime and its lobby network in the West to cause divisions in President Trump’s administration over policy towards Tehran," Kasra Aarabi, director of research on Iran's Revolutionary Guard at the group United Against a Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital.
"Having spent the past four years trying – and failing – to assassinate President Trump, the ayatollah has now instructed his propagandists to cause fissures between President Trump and his advisors so as to weaken the new administration’s policy towards [the] Islamist regime."
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Aarabi warned, "In the past 48 hours, Ayatollah Khamenei-run entities in Iran’s regime – such as the "Islamic Propaganda Organization" – have been celebrating certain appointments across the broader administration in the same way as they praised some of former president Biden’s appointments."
On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” Mike Huckabee, President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel, stated that the responsibility of rebuilding Gaza is “the responsibility of the people who messed this up,
The post Huckabee: Rebuilding Gaza Is Responsibility of Hamas, Iran appeared first on Breitbart.
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