Former Undersecretary of Defense Robert Wilkie said Monday he thinks President-elect Donald Trump will rein in Iran after he is sworn in by crippling the Islamic republic's economy.
"What I expect President Trump to do — and I'm not speaking for him officially — is to finally break the back of the Iranian economy by opening up America's energy power — that drives the price of oil down," Wilkie told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "He will reinstitute the sanctions on Iran that [President] Joe Biden lifted, and I think you will see the Middle East settling into a more pro-Israeli Arab agreement or friendship than you've ever seen before. And I think America will actually be stronger in the long run."
Pointing to the recent insurgent uprising in Syria, Wilkie said that permanent ceasefire or lasting peace in the Middle East will only come "with the destruction of the Iranian regime."
"I think we saw the apogee of Iran's power in the Middle East on Oct. 7," he said, referring to the surprise attack on Israel in 2023 by Iran-backed militant groups. "Since then, they've been dealt blow after blow after blow and now they are really incapable of saving the monster [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad, who is one of their principal clients."
Armed insurgents attacked areas of Syria controlled by government forces and took control of territory in the northwest part of the country, opposition groups said on Thursday. The government and its allies reportedly responded to the attack with airstrikes.
Wilkie also said that Trump's dinner over the weekend with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife signals a shift in U.S.-Israel policy.
"When President Trump's victory was declared, you had journalists [in Israel] both left and right and center coming together, slapping their hands, clapping, pounding the table when that announcement was made because they understand that Israel was safer, the Middle East was quiet under President Trump," Wilkie said. "That and Prime Minister Netanyahu will no longer be the victim of vilification by the likes of [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken and [national security adviser Jake] Sullivan and Biden, because Netanyahu stands for everything that they're against.
"I was in Eastern Europe and I was visiting with a patriarch of one of the Orthodox churches last month, and he had a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu in his study and I asked why. He said, 'Because he stands in the breach for Western civilization.' That's something that's unfathomable to the Biden State Department, National Security Council, and in the Oval Office."
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