By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D., Vice President, Lexington Institute.
January 29, 2025 – Host Brian Kilmeade and I discussed the Gaza hostage deal, the heavy U.S. military pressure on Iran including rotation of five separate aircraft carriers, the defense of Israel with U.S. Navy destroyers, Saudi Arabia’s plans for investment in AI, and the status of Iran’s nuclear enrichment. The interview wrapped up with a discussion of the number one geo-strategic problem left by Biden: the Russia-China alliance, with North Korea and Iran tacked on. Highlights from the Jan. 15 interview follow or listen here.
On the Gaza hostage deal, Kilmeade pointed out: Abu Sinwar was in prison for 20 years. He ends up heading up the biggest death and destruction to Israel in modern times. I’m worried about the thousands of prisoners about to be released. Are you?
Grant: Of course I’m worried. Hamas is going to continue to fire rockets until the last minute, and possibly afterwards, but there’s no question Israel has really diminished their capability and wiped-out Hamas. What we want long term is to get back to the Abraham Accords. The real prize here is normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Trump wants peace in the Middle East; he can get it, and that is the crucial steppingstone.
Kilmeade: The Trump Administration has a blueprint to put maximum pressure on Iran. But this is a much different Iran, thanks to Israel. Your thoughts on what Trump inherited?
Grant: The good news on Iran is that Israel flattened their S-300 air defenses, hit some of their missile research facilities. The bad news is that Iran has enriched a lot of uranium and is within sprinting distance of developing a handful of nuclear weapons. Top priority is Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. You know, Brian, that is why we still see over 30,000 U.S. forces positioned in Central Command, everything from the Marines off the coast of Lebanon, through to the aircraft carrier strike group and destroyers down in the Red Sea. There’s got to be pressure on Iran so they don’t go towards that nuclear weapon. I also think the Houthi crisis is something we’ve got to resolve right away. I’d be in favor of enough airstrikes into that area to make sure the Houthis can’t continue to shoot at shipping in the Red Sea. But there’s no question Trump and his defense team are going to have hot button issues to deal with on day one as they look at the Middle East.
Kilmeade: Are the Russians on their way out of Syria, and should we make sure that’s the case?
Grant: Right, the two Russian bases are behind the lines of the rebels and no use to the Russians right now. I also want to see Russia stop buying Iranian drones. And you are right, the Russians are helping with Iran to supply the Houthis. So, this is a major step we need to take to stamp out the rest of Russia’s influence and access in the Middle East. Fortunately, what Israel has done has taken a big step toward that, and the fall of the Assad government, too. But we’ve got to clean Russia out of the Middle East.
Kilmeade: Saudi was going after the Houthis. We looked at Saudi Arabia as the bad guys. This administration came in, removed the Houthis from the terror watch list, and told Saudi Arabia they were the pariah nation. How did that affect the Middle East that Joe Biden was dealing with for the next 4 years?
Grant: It was crazy. Don’t forget the UN recognizes a legitimate government in Yemen, not these Houthi rebels. When Biden went down that path, he’s ended up having to deploy 5 different aircraft carriers. We’re on the fifth one that’s deployed over there just to keep some Freedom of Navigation in the Red Sea.
We need Saudi Arabia, who is our ally, as a pillar of stability in the Middle East. They want to do investment in AI, in computers, and we want to help them with that. They have big plans, and they are willing to look at that key point of normalizing relations with Israel.
Kilmeade: It was a way to kiss up to Iran and get them back in the nuclear deal. How did it work out?
Grant: It worked out terrible. Just ask the UN. The IAEA Commissioner Rafael Grossi, he’s the one who said Iran has enriched enough uranium to make nuclear weapons. This is not a situation that we saw five years ago. Biden’s behind the scenes, sleight of hand effort to be hard on the Saudis to entice Iran was a complete failure.
Next Kilmeade played a cut from Biden’s final foreign policy speech, where he said that America was more capable and better prepared. “What do you think?” Kilmeade asked.
Grant: Yes, there are little pieces that are true: Yes, we lead in AI. Yes, we’ve improved our defense industrial base. But what about Biden with his withdrawal from Afghanistan opening the door to the Russia-China alliance that is the number one geo-strategic problem, and North Korea, and Iran tacked on. He has left President Trump a heck of a mess to clean up and not a lot of time to do it. Its going to take tariffs, sanctions, smart policy, security deals, good allies and a lot of military pressure to get us back on course.
Kilmeade credited Israel for reshaping the conflict by firing back on Iran…allowing Assad to no longer be defended by Hezbollah allowed that regime to fall. This change happened because Netanyahu defied Biden and the therefore the Middle East benefitted from it.
Grant: Biden was incompetent as Commander in Chief. We’re just lucky that our US military was able to put in place the defenses that helped take down those two attacks from Iran, the one in April and one in October. We had some great destroyers with some very fancy Standard Missile-3 that helped to take that down. Our military has been super but Biden has been a failure as Commander in Chief, there’s no other way to say it.
Will the defense budget grow? Kilmeade signed off with a word for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, his former colleague: If Pete gets this job he’s got to start auditing, he’s got to increase the spending, but he’s got to make sure it’s going in the right direction.
Catch the full interview here starting at 1 hour 34 minutes.
This article was originally published on the Lexington Institute: Trump’s Blueprint for Iran, Plus Gaza, the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and AI: Quick Takes from The Brian Kilmeade Show (FOX News Radio) | Lexington Institute