Robert Charles: We have a new territorial hot war

They basically pointed out that they can hit any place or anything or anyone that they want to in Iran, which is particularly embarrassing after Iran launches a massive barrage. Israel did not have to do more. They won the first round by defeating Iran’s attack and now they’re showing they can spike the football in the end zone and tell Iran we’re not going to do that. A source saying Israel has carried out a strike on Iran, but we still have yet to hear from Tel Aviv or receive an official statement from the Biden administration. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is overseas right now in Italy, but did not address the strike during his appearance at AG Seven meeting this morning. Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State for President George W Bush and former naval Intel officer, and he, of course, joins us now. Robert, good morning to you. So this strike happened a day after the United States announced that they are escalating pressure on Iran in the form of sanctions, Sanctions targeting 16 people in two entities associated with Iran’s drone program. The Treasury Department also says that it was pushing, punishing 5 companies associated with Iran’s steel industry and three subsidiaries of Iran’s automaker. What sort of effect will this have on Iran and this, this? Overall effort to de escalate right now. Yeah, let me say Carly and Todd, and maybe this will shock your audience, but those sanctions are really just window dressing at the end of the day. Something very big people need to understand. Something very big just happened here. We have now a new territorial hot war between Israel and Iran. We have not had such a thing in the past. Israel was in responding to what Iran did, all the missile strikes more than you know, 3000 at the end of the day. What what they did honestly was a very limited attack demonstrating as some of your other guests have said that it demonstrating that they can reach out and touch Iran anywhere they want. They did so dear near a nuclear facility. They did so near a nuclear base. Assuming that these attacks are as described coming from Israel, which I think we can assume they are, I think people just need to keep in the front of their mind that because this is a new phenomenon, this is not as a proxy war. This is not proxies attacking Israel. This was a direct attack originally by Iran on Israel and a direct response by Israel to hit territorial Iran. Escalation risks are very high. I think the Biden administration should not waste one moment and should go straight in and say they fully support Israel in their response against this terror, this state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. And I think we should also be aware that there are going to be implications around the world. There may well be implications here in the United States. The bottom line is what just happened is that the Biden administration, to your point about sanctions, the Biden administration initially let free $6 billion worth of assets. They then added to that a a release of of a way they gave Iran a waiver allowing Iran to say 10 sell $10 billion worth of oil to Iraq next door. That’s $16 billion worth of appeasement. Appeasement does not buy you anything. What appeasement buys you is the emboldening of the party being appeased. That’s why Iran hit Israel. And what we have right now essentially is a brand new territorial hot war. Again, I urge people to think about this for a moment. This has been a proxy war up until up until the attack by Iran on Israel. It is now a territory to territory attack. I hope it doesn’t escalate, but the chances are that it will. And I think people just need to be aware of that. In Robert, what stands out to me? In September of last year, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan bragged about the stability of the Middle East. Then of course, weeks later, October 7th happens. And now to your point, we have direct responses between Iran and Israel, something we have not seen. That is not good. Robert Charles, thanks for your insight. We appreciate it as always, my friend.