On THE ROSENBERG REPORT, Amb. Huckabee warns Trump ready to lead ‘all-out attack’ against Iran if mullahs reject diplomatic solution
Huckabee tries to reassure Israelis & Evangelicals that Trump, Witkoff won’t get played by Tehran
NAPLES, FLORIDA — Mike Huckabee, the new American ambassador to Israel, was my guest last night for the full half-hour of THE ROSENBERG REPORT, my prime-time TV program on TBN.
Recorded on Sunday in Jerusalem, just before Lynn and I flew to the States for the first stop on a month-long speaking tour, Huckabee previewed the upcoming trip to the region by President Donald J. Trump and Steve Witkoff, Washington's special Middle East envoy.
Huckabee vowed that Trump would never allow the mullahs in Iran to build nuclear weapons.
He insisted that the U.S. is giving Tehran every opportunity to avoid a massive bombing campaign by striking a new, effective, and comprehensive deal to dismantle its entire nuclear weapons program.
But he warned that if diplomacy fails, Trump will not hesitate to attack Iran.
‘ALL-OUT ATTACK’ ON IRAN A REAL SCENARIO
“On the way to the funeral for the Pope,” Huckabee noted, “the president was asked by a reporter, ‘Are you going to let Israel drag the United States into a war?’”
“I loved his answer because he said, ‘Nobody's dragging us into anything. If the Iranians don't understand that they're not going to have a nuclear weapon – they won't – we won't be dragged into [a military attack on their nuclear facilities]. I'll be leading it. I'll make sure that they don't have it.’”
“I would say those kinds of words and statements are much more the policy of the Trump administration than hearing somebody who is spouting off to The New York Times or The Washington Post, neither of which are ever going to give Donald Trump the time of day,” Huckabee told me.
HUCKABEE DEFENDS TRUMP AND WITKOFF
The ambassador sought specifically to reassure Israelis and Evangelical Christians that the president’s position was not softening or likely to result in dangerous concessions to Iran.
“I've talked to the president, I've talked to Steve Witkoff, I've talked to Marco Rubio,” he said.
“I'm not hearing anywhere in the administration that there's a willingness to ‘get a deal just to have a deal.’”
“There’s a clear understanding that the Iranians can't, you know, do some ‘shucking and jiving’ on this.”
That is, Tehran won’t be able to dance around the fact that Trump is demanding they get rid of their entire nuclear weapons program – and their nuclear enrichment program.
They can have a peaceful, safe, supervised civilian nuclear energy program – like the United Arab Emirates has – in which nuclear fuel is provided by a trusted supplier like the U.S. But Iran cannot be allowed to maintain an enrichment program capable of producing bomb-grade uranium.
“They're going to have to be willing to let inspections take place if any [deal] happens,” Huckabee said.
‘GIVE PEACE A CHANCE’: TRUMP PREFERS A DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION
“The president would like to say – to quote the words of a John Lennon song – ‘Let's give peace a chance.’ Now, peace may not have a chance in this, but if there has to be an all-out attack, I think the president wants to be able to say to the world, ‘Look, we did everything possible to achieve some positive result diplomatically.’”
Huckabee added that if or when diplomacy fails, “the military steps in.”
“It's always better to put diplomacy first, military action second.”
ISRAELIS AND EVANGELICALS GROWING ANXIOUS
As we reported yesterday on ALL ISRAEL NEWS, Israeli leaders and American conservative and Evangelical leaders are growing increasingly concerned by President Trump’s approach toward the regimes in Iran and Qatar.
In conversations with nearly two dozen Israeli and Evangelical leaders in Jerusalem, and now here in the United States, I’m hearing three distinct messages:
First: “We trust President Trump more than any other American leader in history – and certainly far more than President Joe Biden – to stand with Israel. But why isn’t he even going to Israel on his first major foreign trip?”
Second: “Steve Witkoff – Trump’s Middle East envoy – is smart and capable, but he’s stretched way too thin by trying to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine, get all the hostages released from Gaza, and end the Iran threat once and for all. He doesn’t know the Iran portfolio. And he could very well get played by the Iranians, who are experts at playing three-dimensional chess.”
Third: “Why in the world is Trump going to Qatar, a country that pretends to be an American ally but is way too close to Tehran and Hamas?”
“As time goes by,” I told the ambassador, “more Evangelicals are thinking, ‘Okay, we do trust President Trump more than any American president – and certainly more than the last. But where is he going with this? Does he really trust the Iranians to cut a deal with him?’”
IRANIAN REGIME CANNOT BE TRUSTED, HUCKABEE SAYS
“I would say listen to what he actually says,” Huckabee told me.
“Don't listen so much to The New York Times or The Washington Post. They would have you believe that he's about to resurrect JCPOA 2.0 and go back and embrace the Obama policies.”
That’s not going to happen, Huckabee insisted.
Don’t forget President Trump’s track record, he added.
“He was the one that got rid of JCPOA in his first term. He's been very clear. The Iranians are not going to have a nuclear weapon. That's not on the table.”
“This is a president who would rather find a peaceful way for the Iranian government to back off their ambition for a nuclear weapon,” Huckabee said.
But, “it’s not a matter of, ‘Are they going to get one [or] maybe just a little smaller one?’ They're not going to get one. He has been consistent on that.”
“Can there be a way to avert an all-out war?” Huckabee asked.
“If so, this is a president who would rather have peace than war.”
Huckabee was quick to add, “I don't think anybody believes that the Iranians will make a good deal unless they're doing it just to protect themselves – their regime. And if they make one, how do we ever believe they will keep it? For 46 years, the ayatollahs have been in power. They've never made or kept a deal yet that somehow showed they were willing to be good neighbors.”
“They're terrible neighbors. They're the ones who have financed the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Hamas. The reason so many people got slaughtered on October the 7th is because – you can say it was Hamas, and it was – but the check was written in Tehran.”
“So, we're not seeing any evidence that they're changing their ways – that the leopard is getting rid of its spots. So I want to be clear about that.”
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
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