Lawfare Archive: Iran, the U.S. and the Middle East at a Turning Point
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2023
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
From February 16, 2021: The Biden administration has promised significant changes to the U.S. relationship with Iran that could have a marked impact on the Middle East. What is the likelihood that this new administration will be successful? And how will other regional developments—from the Abraham Accords between Israel and a few Arab states, to the healing of the rift within the Gulf Cooperation Council, to the ongoing morass in Syria—affect the dynamics here?
To address these questions, David Priess hosted a panel discussion on February 11 for the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. He sat down with Norman Roule, a 34-year veteran of the CIA, who served as the national intelligence manager for Iran for more than eight years; Kirsten Fontenrose, formerly the senior director for the Persian Gulf on the National Security Council staff and currently the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council; and Ambassador Dennis Ross, who has served in U.S. government positions pertaining to the Middle East for some 40 years, and who is now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast, become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.8 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:40.9 | I'm Caleb Benjamin, intern at LawFair, with an episode from the LawFair Archive for |
| 0:45.0 | September 16th, 2023. This week, the Biden administration notified Congress it has |
| 0:51.1 | proceeded with a prisoner exchange with Iran. Under the agreement, the administration |
| 0:55.7 | is giving Tehran access to $6 billion the US had frozen through sanctions and will free |
| 1:00.2 | five Iranians under detention in the US. In exchange, Iran will release five Americans. |
| 1:06.5 | Meanwhile, talk about a US-broken Israel Saudi deal continues to swirl around Washington, |
| 1:11.2 | as the Biden administration pursues what could be a historic change in the Middle East. |
| 1:15.9 | For today's Archive episode, I picked an episode from February 19th, 2021, in which David |
| 1:21.4 | Priest sat down with Norman Rule, Pearson Frontenrose, and Ambassador Dennis Ross to discuss |
| 1:26.4 | the then-new Biden administration's promise to significantly change the US relationship |
| 1:30.5 | with Iran, and how such a change might affect the rest of the Middle East, as well as the |
| 1:34.7 | US's role in the region. |
| 1:38.2 | First option. The US agrees to bend first. We agree to roll back nuclear-related sanctions |
| 1:43.7 | nuclear-related only sanctions instituted in the past four years, and to enter into a renewed |
| 1:49.3 | JCPOA that deals solely with the nuclear issue. |
| 1:53.9 | I'm David Priest, and this is the Law Fair Podcast, February 16th, 2021. The Biden administration |
| 2:01.2 | has promised significant changes to the US relationship with Iran that could have a market |
| 2:06.4 | impact on the Middle East. What is the likelihood this new administration will be successful? |
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