The Obama Administration and the Middle East: An Insider's View

War on the Rocks

News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2016

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

WOTR's Ryan Evans sat down with Colin Kahl, the National Security Advisor to Vice Present Joe Biden, to talk about the mess of the Middle East and what the Obama administration is doing about it. From Iran to the Gulf states to Syria to Iraq to Turkey and beyond, Kahl explains how the White House views the problems and opportunities there. He also discusses what it's like to be in a presidential administration in its final year. If you like this podcast, be sure to check out our last conversation with Kahl about the Iran nuclear agreement. Image: USAF, Senior Airman Matthew Bruch

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Warren the Rocks, a podcast on strategy, defense, and foreign affairs.
0:14.5	This is Ryan Evans, the editor-in-chief of War on the Rocks.
0:17.6	In this episode, our first of 2016, I sat down with Colin Call, the National Security
0:22.1	Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden.
0:24.4	Our topic, the most violent region in the world, the Middle East, and what the administration
0:28.7	is doing about it.
0:30.2	Don't forget to check out our written content at war on the rocks.
0:33.0	Thank you Colin for joining us for this war on the rocks podcast series.
0:39.6	We're going to talk about the administration's policy in the Middle East, which is part of the world, just to put it lightly where things generally aren't going very well.
0:47.0	And we're going to talk tonight about Iran, Gulf states, the fight against ISIL, Iraq, and Syria, and Turkey and a few other things.
0:56.4	So thanks for joining us.
0:58.0	Happy to be here.
0:59.0	So just to jump right into it, one of the things that's in the news today is how Iran is
1:04.9	being very sort of bullish with its ballistic missile tests and it doesn't need to be
1:09.6	because the way the UN Security Council resolution addressing that issue works is it
1:14.5	actually changes very soon so they could be according to international law
1:18.0	legally doing some of these tests in a couple months but they're choosing to do it
1:21.1	now and a lot of the a lot of folks in Congress
1:24.8	including Democrats are wondering why sanctions haven't been enacted against
1:29.7	Iran. Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I think for your listeners, you have to have to realize that
1:35.5	Iran has a large and diverse ballistic missile arsenal. In fact, I think they have the largest and
1:40.0	most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the entire region.
	...

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