The Iran-Israel conflict "is America's war as well," counterterrorism and foreign policy expert Lisa Daftari told Newsmax on Thursday.
"This is a core national security issue. I happen to be an Iranian, and I've been following this file or this subject for 20-some-odd years. And I will tell you this: they have American blood on their hands. And not only that, look at the information and the propaganda campaigns that they have launched here on American soil," Daftari said during an appearance on "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE."
"You said you didn't want to get into that, but I will make one major point here. This regime is not suicidal. You said yourself they won't go toe to toe with us. Therefore, nobody's asking for boots on the ground. Nobody's asking for an escalation that will lead to World War III. This is all. Look, we are all anti-war, but we can't be anti-reality. And the reality of it is this is our war," she said.
The White House said President Donald Trump will make a decision within the next two weeks whether to get involved on Israel's side. That might not be a firm deadline, as Trump has commonly used "two weeks" as a timeframe for making decisions.
Meanwhile, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have spoken by phone several times since last week, sources say.
Israel has been hitting Iran from the air since last Friday in what it describes as an effort to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran has denied plans to develop such weapons and has retaliated by launching counterstrikes on Israel.
Daftari said until Iran is taken care of, "we're only kicking the can down the road to deal with a bigger issue down the line."
"Until we take off the head of the octopus, we've gotten a lot of their appendages. Right? Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, their insurgencies, Iraq, their insurgencies. They're in South America at the foot bed of America," she told Newsmax.
"They're trying to get into America by all means. So until we take care of this, and this is the most opportune moment we will ever have, we're only kicking the can down the road to deal with a bigger issue down the line."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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