Blinken is a candidate for the US State Department. What are your positions on “Arab NATO” and Iran? | International News



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US President-elect Joe Biden is preparing to nominate Anthony Blinken for the post of Secretary of State, according to informed sources who told CNN. The following is a quick summary of his position and views on a number of topics:

NATO Arab

Blinken said in remarks to CNN in 2017: “What we (the United States) do not want to do at the moment is this. President Trump was talking about establishing an Arab NATO while he was in Saudi Arabia, and now (with the crisis of Qatar) we see how difficult it is, because there are countries that have different interests. “

He went on to say: “An Arab NATO means for us a united front against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), but Saudi Arabia sees it as a front against Iran and they will drag us (the United States) into the Sunni-Shiite divide. And they will force us to be in one of the lines, and this is not a good place to be. Doing now. “

Blinken noted that “apparently, Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the expression of unconditional support for the Kingdom encouraged them to take this step (severing relations with Qatar), and after that statements by US officials support Trump’s position, but we are risking a basic military base (with Qatar) that we use on a daily basis. ” In the fight against ISIS “.

Nuclear Iran:

Blinken told CNN in late 2017 that Trump’s decision on the Iranian nuclear program opens the door to imposing big problems for the next 60 days (the days Trump gives Congress until he finds an alternative to the current nuclear deal with Iran).

Blinken explained at the time: “Iran will do exactly what it wants to do, which is to keep us away from our European partners except the Russians, Chinese, Japanese and others. This (Trump’s decision) is unnecessary in my opinion.”

Blinken added that if the nuclear deal with Tehran is canceled, “Iran will again begin to build and develop a potential nuclear arsenal, and the next US president will have to make great efforts to unify the ranks of the international community to address this issue. Now we are in this situation and withdrawing confidence in the nuclear deal will put an end to it. ” Any unit in the international ranks after strenuous efforts we made to achieve it. “

A gift for Putin:

Blinken said in an interview with CNN in 2019 that the US announcement of its withdrawal from the INF Treaty with Russia is a “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And the former US official went on to say: “If someone breaks the law, they do not destroy it, they enforce it, and this (the withdrawal will be a gift to Vladimir Putin and Russia, as it removes any legal obstacles that restrict the way Russia handles these kinds of missiles.) Who will be to blame instead (Russia) will likely distance us from our allies and push us toward an arms race. “

He added: “This is totally unnecessary. There are many steps that we could have taken without withdrawing from the treaty and we would have pressured Russia to comply, and after all we have a long history of this type of agreement, from John Kennedy to every President until Obama negotiated with Russia and we were able to reduce the number of nuclear warheads from about 65,000 between the two countries in the 1980s to about 8,000 today, and the world is safer and more stable …


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