The Iran Threat in a Potential Biden Admin

Today on JSekulow Live, looking ahead to the very real threat from Iran.

Live from Washington, DC, JSekulow Live. Phone lines are open for your questions right now. Call 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome to JSekulow Live.

This is Jordan Sekulow. We are taking your phone calls 1-800-684-3110. But let me just tell you that we are looking forward right now to the threat from Iran, especially posed by potential Biden administration. We are realist at the ACLJ. We're attorneys. And when you're realist and when you're attorneys, you know what you prepare for? Worst case scenarios. And we're getting closer and closer to worst case scenarios.

We don't yet know what will happen in the Georgia Senate races. But some of the foreign policy realm is really conducted outside of Congress and is focused on that's where the President and the Supreme Court's been clear on that. The Constitution's clear on that. The President has the most power when he's acting in foreign policy. And that is why, again, this Iranian threat that is emerging again, which was really kept under wraps by the Trump administration, by these new peace deals, by basically what President Trump was doing through these peace deals, was building the coalition to isolate Iran and make it very difficult for Iran. You had Saudis, they've given the air rights for Israel to fly over commercial airliners, and they're doing so publicly. This is not just like private behind the scenes intel work. So they were building that coalition, but the Biden team could come in and just totally eviscerate that.

Yeah, and I think the reality is they probably will. Now we've got... Yeah, I mean, they're threatening not to even send the F-35s that were part of the deal. Right.

So this is what you got. So we've got in our, of course, in our team at the ACLJ, we have depth here. We've got an office in Jerusalem. Skip Ash is in charge of our international law group, retired colonel from the United States Army. Wes Smith, retired colonel from the United States Army and also a senior military advisor to the ACLJ.

I'm going to start with Wes and then go to Skip. And that is the threat from Iran now under an incoming Biden administration. The President isolated them.

We had all those peace agreements signed. How's it going to look now? It looks pretty bad.

It really does. Joe Biden has indicated he wants to reenter the JCPOA, even though it did nothing to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. It just delayed it by a decade. Iran continues on their nuclear weapons program unabated. What is going to happen if we don't do something is the most dangerous weapon in the world will be in the hands of the most dangerous country in the world. Already, they're violating the JCPOA. The IAEA two weeks ago said that Iran has already enriched 12 times the amount of nuclear material allowed by the JCPOA.

They've increased the number of centrifuges and they've buried them deep underground. They've also continued with their ballistic missile program. Iran is a threat. They are intent on acquiring a nuclear weapon.

And the only only hope of that not happening is for the world to unite and for the Biden administration not to change what President Trump has done. The most dangerous weapon in the world with the most dangerous country in the world. Skip, how do you see it? I see it exactly the same way. These are the people in Iran are religious supremacists who believe in an apocalyptic vision of how the world should proceed. They believe that they are the chosen people to bring this about. And the Trump administration was very wise in getting out of that agreement, cutting off their funding. So now they're in a very bad place economically. It looks like the incoming administration, Mr. Biden administration is going to reverse that to give them back the money just like the Obama administration does to give them the money they need to support terrorism and to support their missile and nuclear program. And that's going to be a disaster not only for the Middle East, but for the rest of the world. I mean, listen, we're going to get into this in great length because this is a threat to the United States, Jordan.

Absolutely. A huge threat to the U.S. But we've got the team ready to keep you updated and ready to fight. Remember, December matching challenge month support the work the ACLJ at ACLJ.org donate today. ACLJ.org double the impact of your donation. It is so important, folks, because this is critical work that we're going to be doing and engaging all of our international offices as well to fight back against what could be Iran.

Iran on the move once again. We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice were engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes 100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to JSecYoLive. So we're talking about this idea, which, you know, unfortunately we probably wouldn't have to be talking about if it wasn't, you know, somewhat likely that it was going to be the Biden administration coming in. And we definitely have to prepare for, whether you like that or not, to really redo what has been such a successful Middle East policy under the Trump administration. Peace deals with Israel, kind of ignoring this Palestinian issue and saying we can still make peace with the Gulf states, which, by the way, isn't just about Israel and those Gulf states making peace. It's about building a coalition that isolates Iran further. And also so that they, if there were the need for a military attack, that they had this coalition by recognizing and making these peace agreements with Israel, business relations, travel, tourism, flights going back and forth now between these countries, that Iran would have a serious coalition that would be fully armed and ready to respond to any kind of Iranian aggression, even their aggression through the proxies they use, like Hezbollah and other groups. But we are going to have to be ready for the attempt to dismantle that, because I will tell you that those Gulf state leaders, they're going to be very weary of now these agreements if they don't get what they were supposed to out of it. And, you know, like F-35s ultimately delivered at certain standpoints because they've got advisers on the Biden side saying, well, maybe we shouldn't send those.

Exactly. And I want to go, Wes, you wrote a piece that's up on ACLJ.org called The Existential Threat Posed by Iran's Nuclear Program. It keys off on the fact that just a couple weeks back, the top Iranian nuclear scientist, military nuclear scientist, was killed reportedly by the Israelis. Right, he was. He was both the brains and the passion behind their nuclear weapons research and development program. He was in charge of the Ahmad program, which, interestingly enough, that was using the Iranian military for the research and development towards a nuclear bomb.

And so that's why he was taken out. And going forward, you know, what Iran is saying with the potential Biden administration coming in is that they will not even consider negotiations with the U.S. unless we lift sanctions. Meanwhile, a Biden transition spokesperson has said, well, we would be open to possibly lifting some sanctions. And also and as a condition for that, Iran, they don't have to go back to where they were before they started violating that flawed Iran nuclear deal. They just need to stop where they are.

Don't do any more going forward. It is crazy. The Gulf states and the other Arab nations, they realize that Iran is a threat to their national security, to their existence. That's why they've been so open to making peace with Israel. And they are very, very alarmed at a possible change going forward with the new Presidential administration. But what Jordan said, and I want to go to Skip Ash, who heads up our international law group, is that there are certain understandings that these countries had from the United States. What our policies would be, how we would help them, kind of a coalescing of relations and arrangements that could well be out the window now. And how does that impact the situation?

Skip? Yeah, I think that's exactly the threat and the danger here, because we have a situation where the incoming administration looks like it's going to totally reject the successes of the Trump administration just because they do not like the author of those policies. They're not looking at the success. For decades, the situation in the Middle East was a disaster under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Donald Trump came in and he turned things upside down. He got our embassy moved to Jerusalem, where everybody said that would cause chaos throughout the Middle East.

Nothing happened. He has proposed a settlement for the Palestinians. They've done what they normally do.

They've missed another opportunity to have their own state. But what that has done is that has opened up these other Gulf kingdoms and Emirates to consider Israel as a partner, especially in light of the Iranian threat. Remember, Iran is a hegemonic power. They look back that they were once the Persian Empire, and they want to reestablish that as a Shiite Persian Empire throughout the Middle East. And Sunni kingdoms in the Middle East are fearful of that, and rightly so, and therefore they need to have both the United States and the strongest country in the Middle East, which is Israel, as allies. By doing that, they can check the threat of Iran throughout the Middle East, and I think that is something that if this administration gives away, it'll move us back decades.

Now, for those of you that are new to the ACLJ, let me explain something to you. We've got offices in Jerusalem. We have UN status through our European Center for Law and Justice. We've got, obviously, with Skip and Wes, we've got military expertise. We have the former director of national intelligence as a senior advisor to the ACLJ on national security issues.

So we have depths here. We've argued cases at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Back this time last year, we were in The Hague. So we've done this. We're there.

We're active in this. But you're looking at a dramatic shift of policy, a policy that has been working very well for the United States for the last four years and culminated, as Jordan said, in these four arrangements. But that is about to be shelved. And unfortunately, that never came out during the campaign. What was at stake here? Well, I think that, again, some of this was the Biden team trying to play it down. And honestly, people were so focused on COVID and domestic policies. And there's been such a calmness to our foreign policy, you know, troop withdrawals in Iraq and Afghanistan, the destruction of ISIS and the caliphate there. And any attempt for them to come back was quickly, you know, being put down in places like North Africa. So, I mean, you had Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dead. You had the top Iranian, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard dead by American forces. So we had weakened our enemies in the Middle East to a point where they were even at a rebuilding stage. They were being hit with viruses in their nuclear programs. They were hit with sanctions again. But you see, quickly, this can reverse. And this is a region of the world built on deals.

And if these deals that President Trump made aren't made good as they continue on by the Biden administration, we're going to be back to square one again. You wrote, Wes, in your piece, it says, Iran is unrepentant and even now proceeds unabated with its march toward acquiring a nuclear weapon. The threat of a nuclear armed Iran is real and bearing drastic action will take place at some point in the future. Iran's leaders are not rational and it's deploying even a single nuclear bomb at some point is a very real existential threat to the region, to Israel, and possibly the United States.

Yeah, absolutely, it is. And more than likely, based on their modus operandi, if Iran acquired a nuclear bomb, they like plausible deniability, to coin a phrase that's been used recently. And they would probably not detonate such a bomb if provoked or not provoked themselves. They would give a smaller version of this kind of weapon to one of their many crazed proxy groups and let that group actually detonate the weapon.

And those groups are completely irrational and would probably do it. You look at the situation in Iran and the people on the left, what they're advocating, changing the policies that have been working for the last four years. It reminds me of what happened on the Korean peninsula. We used negotiations and giving them vast amounts of aid trying to talk North Korea out of acquiring a nuclear weapon. It was an unmitigated disaster so that today our only recourse on the Korean peninsula is to warn Kim Jong Il not to use it and to hope that he does not. Do you really want that same kind of situation in the Middle East? Because if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, then all options are gone except warning them not to use them and there is no guarantee that they won't.

Yes, Skip, I was thinking the same thing and the comparisons to Korea is interesting, but the fact is that the powder keg of the Middle East can be drastically reshaped in about a moment's notice. Absolutely, and we have to understand that the United States as a nation, we tend to be very short term in our view. We're not long term.

When you go over to Europe and you go over to the Middle East, these people remember slights that are centuries old and they're still holding grudges. So they look long term and we look short term. So we think we can make a deal. We've got a deal and that's going to last.

They make a deal, even within Islam, they can make a deal that's temporary and when it no longer serves their purposes, they can break it because they have no obligation to be honest in dealing with non-Muslims. And that's a critical thing that we need to keep in mind as we deal with some of these issues and the Iranians have already demonstrated irrationality by taking our embassy during the Carter administration. Let's not even think about that again. I mean that's the kind of things you worry about with this kind of administration coming in. Let me say this also, later in the program towards the back half, we did a special documentary on this in Israel where we met with some of the key leaders that are the Iran experts in Israel.

And I was just telling our producers we need to play some of that audio and video for you so you can hear it from them. It is very relevant again today because that is about to be a real, real threat. Alright, we're taking a break.

When we come back, we'll take more of your calls. George Glenniali, support the ACLJ. Support the work of the ACLJ through our matching challenge at ACLJ.org. Double the impact of your donation at ACLJ.org. It's a critical time as we prepare for battle, always, at the American Center for Law and Justice. That's at ACLJ.org.

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Be part of our matching challenge. Double the impact of your donation through the month of December at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Alright, welcome back to Jay Sekio Live.

This is Jordan Sekio. You know what we're talking about, which is Iran, this threat from Iran which can quickly re-emerge. And we were in a situation where Iran was still a threat, obviously, with an Ayatollah and this religious-based regime with extreme ideology and proxies like Hezbollah operating. But remember, we kind of crushed down on what was going on in Syria through the Trump administration. We were building this coalition under the Trump administration, working with Israel and Gulf states. But if two things happen, if the Biden team comes in and doesn't make good on the deals that were made between the Trump administration, those trilateral and bilateral deals with the Gulf states, they're not going to be so interested in kind of—well, they're not going to be prepared.

They're not going to have the F-35s to defend themselves. And it will be right back to the scenario of the U.S. will only move on Middle East peace after dealing with the Palestinian situation. And we're going to go back to giving Iran sanction relief as well as going back to a nuclear deal, which was a nuclear deal for Iran so that Iran could stay on a safe path to a nuclear weapon. Yeah, I mean, it was a nuclear deal because it was to give them nuclear weapons, so it wasn't as if this was some great giant surprise here.

So, Wes, I was thinking about this. You've got to piece up, and I mentioned it earlier in the broadcast, the existential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program. How would you define that existential threat?

You know, they have made it very, very clear. They are a sworn enemy of the United States, and they have called for the destruction of Israel. The only thing that has stopped them from destroying Israel is that they don't have the capability to destroy Israel. So, you know, existential means it threatens your existence, and they are an existential threat to Israel. They could be to us because, as I mentioned earlier, you know, they might or might not deploy a nuclear weapon.

It is unlikely they would have the capability or the inclination to deploy it in the United States, but there's nothing to stop them from giving a nuclear weapon to a terrorist group which has no such reservations, no such rationality to do that. Them having a nuclear weapon, the danger of that simply cannot be overstated. One of the things we also needed to look at, because they're not exactly related, but it's interesting, and that is, and you spend time on the Korean Peninsula, and that is the whole issue between the approachment of Korea that President Trump is engaged in and what a Joe Biden approachment looks like. But before we get to that, I think it's important for people to understand, Jordan, we at the ACLJ have unique experience here and an office in the Middle East. That's right, right in the heart of really where all these conflicts want to converge, which is Jerusalem. And there we've mostly been defending Israel, you know, at the International Criminal Court and the Hague. But this will, if they go back to this scenario, we'll be also moving back to this scenario, a situation where Israel's defense and survival will be at stake again. So it won't be just defending them in international courts at the ACLJ. It will be defending the state of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, right to exist whether, you know, and fight terrorism out of the Gaza Strip, fight terrorism out of the West Bank, and not get pressured into some horrendous deal or themselves become sanctioned. Remember, the final act of the Obama administration was to step back and allow the UN Security Council to condemn Israel dead. That was the final act at the UN by the Obama administration.

They didn't vote yes, but they could have stopped it because any permanent five member can veto it, and they didn't. But where's the final act? So we're going to be right back. Right where we left off. Yep, eight years ago.

You had a four-year reprieve from ridiculous, and you're going to go right back to ridiculous again. And Wes, they were very dangerous, the Obama administration, in my view, at the UN. Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, they teamed up with some of our supposed allies to be an even bigger threat to Middle East peace and to the United States as well as to Israel. And of course, don't forget, they gave Iran in this whole process billions and billions of dollars both in cash and releasing their financial assets in the international markets. And so it's really crazy.

And here's the thing about this, Jay. Our European allies are not helping us on this. President Trump has almost stood alone in some cases. They are the ones who two months ago at the United Nations Security Council refused to extend the arms embargo on Iran. They are the ones that the signatories to the JCPOA are still in the JCPOA, according to them, even though Iran is violating it, and that doesn't stop them from saying it's still in effect. And then in addition to that, if you look at what our European allies are doing, they have tried to circumvent the sanctions placed on Iran by the United States. And so it's like there is an epidemic of naivete on the part of the left, on the part of the Biden team, and on the part of some of our European allies. But Jordan, as you said, we're going to be right back in the quagmire.

Yes. And so what we're going to have to do is fight very hard, very aggressively, both in courts and, you know, like the international courts when those come up. Yeah, the right to exist. The right of the United Nations. We are, again, ACLJ uniquely positioned. We have a consultive status at the United Nations.

We are a recognized NGO. We could go in there, and we have in the past, on behalf of Israel, we're going to have to do that again, because this administration, because he's appointing the same people. It's the same people.

It's the same John Kerry types, and John Kerry is going to be part of this administration, so I think it's a climate czar or something. But it's the same ideas that, one, we always have to have consensus. Rick Grenell has talked a lot about that on this broadcast, how that has been a huge barrier to the U.S. making progress in foreign policy that was knocked down under the Trump administration.

It wasn't about consensus. It was about bilateral, unilateral, trilateral deals, instead of multi-consensus of the whole world. And also, I think, you know, we now have even, we've added to our team people like Rick, who are the former ambassador to Germany. Germany is one of those countries in the P5 plus one that always wants to circumvent the sanctions on Iran, because they build the stinking tunnels for their nuclear program. I mean, I say that word because it's just kind of ironic that the Germans are the ones building tunnels for Iran's nuclear program, and Iran wants to destroy the Jewish state of Israel with a nuclear weapon.

But they love the money that comes in. But Iran has been so isolated that it's been difficult for those countries to get around those sanctions. If the Biden team comes in and does what we expect them to do, we will be back to this. I wouldn't doubt that there's going to be, you know, Hezbollah then again gets re-engaged.

There becomes more issues in Lebanon, which have been occurring and haven't been getting as much attention as well. More rockets that are going to be fired at Israel, and it's going to just take us back to the same bureaucratic junk state department, worthless bureaucrats, can't get anything done unless they give it a billion dollars. So when your Christian pastor gets picked up and is being held, even by a NATO ally like Turkey, they're not going to worry about Joe Biden putting sanctions on them. They're going to just wonder how big of a check can we get from the U.S. government. That's after we pound the table, by the way, for who knows how many years to get those types of pastors home.

And I hope none of them get in that situation. But if they do, we know what it was like under the Obama administration. We were successful. But my gosh, it took a whole lot more work to get those pastors home. And beating and going, I say beating, beating the table and congressional hearings, going on media.

And, you know, every resource we had versus the President picking up a phone and getting the person out. Yeah, and no billions of dollars sent. So it's why you support the work of the ACLJ, because we're ready to go in those battles. Support our work now at ACLJ.org. Be part of the matching challenge, double your impact, your donation. Again, we've got a group of donors ready to match every donation that comes through in December. Donate today, ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. I'm talking about freedom.

I'm talking about freedom. We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Live from Washington, D.C., Jay Sekulow Live. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome back to Jay Sekulow Live.

This is Jordan Sekulow. As you know, we've been talking Iran, and we have done a lot of work on the situation with Iran. We've also brought in a lot of experts, and we're always bringing in new experts. We're bringing in people like the former director of national intelligence, Rick Grenell, to the ACLJ team. They'll be strategic advisors throughout this potential Biden administration, what they may be doing in this region.

He was also the ambassador to Germany, which is a key player in the P5-plus-1 when it comes to the nuclear deal. But we've been working on this for a long time, Dad, and working on it with Israeli officials as well, because of our office in Jerusalem. And interesting, you know, most of our foreign offices are European Center for Law and Justice, Slavic Center for Law and Justice, African Center for Law and Justice.

They're specific to the region. But in Jerusalem, it is the ACLJ Jerusalem, because that American support is so key to the Jewish state. So it's the American Center for Law and Justice Jerusalem, because it's our office in Jerusalem. Now, a couple years back, more than a couple now, I got to sit down with the leading experts in Israel. We will never get these interviews again.

It was incredible. About the threat of Iran. We did a documentary called The Export. But some of these interviews, not some of them, all of them, really shed light on what we are dealing with in the Middle East. We got a reprieve for four years. Wes, I call it a four-year reprieve with a Middle East policy that made sense, where you had new peace treaties signed. But we're about to go back to the old days.

Yeah, it's an overworked cliché, but you remember the cliché that says, you know, the definition of his insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. For decades, the American strategy, you know, in that part of the world did not work. For the last four years, we've made incredible progress.

It has worked, and yet they want to go back to the old strategy that obviously does not work. We destroyed ISIS. We destroyed their caliphate. We put this whole group of nations around Iran.

And by the way, that's the first time the Bush administration and the Biden administration, it won't be that different on, I mean, the Biden administration would be more anti-Israel than a past Republican administration. But they still weren't willing to make the deals and think outside the box the way we've talked about with the Trump administration to, first and foremost, to keep us safe as Americans from the threat from Iran, but also our allies. The more peace deals we can be a part of in the United States, the better in a region of the world that's usually so on fire every time, you know, every time the peace-loving Democrats come into office, suddenly we're bombing Libya. We've got ISIS. We've got the caliphate on the rise. We've got a three-way conflict with Russia involved in Syria and increased troops into Iraq and Afghanistan. The ones that, the peace-loving ones are the ones that tend to get us into the most wars.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama. Yeah, while he was getting us into conflicts, and then when he needed to get us into do something like when Syria was gassing their people, Oh, red lines. And red lines that they crossed, he does nothing. I'm afraid that's what we're going to go back to.

So that means that our team has to be engaged. They said Biden was worse. Biden said, do not take out Osama bin Laden. Yeah, I mean, many of the advisors said on foreign policy, Joe Biden was always, had the worst perspective on that. So even worse than what we saw under the Obama years is Joe Biden when it comes to foreign policy. Wasn't it the General said that he had the, he was wrong on every decision involving foreign policy? Yes, actually it was Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense. What did he say exactly? He said that in every strategic international decision, he was wrong on every one of them.

There you go. I mean, so this is, this could be worse than Obama. I mean, which is tough to imagine, but Obama did make the call to take out Osama bin Laden. President Trump made the call to take out Omar al-Baghdadi and get rid of ISIS, get rid of Suleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

By the way, the Biden administration would have never done a move like that. And was there any response from Iran? Nothing.

Any danger? No. No, because they've been crippled. But now they're about, they're thinking they're going to get this whole new wave of cash through sanctions relief.

That's why what we're about to show you is so important because we could be right back facing the type of Iran that has cash, money to spend, and a nuclear program back on track. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Remember, because, you know, ACLJ Jerusalem, what you're about to see in the rest of the show, because of that, because of your support at ACLJ.org, donate today. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The fact of the matter is Iran still is a threat. And what this movie shows you is the nature and scope of that threat. And we've got to be really clear that Iran is both a regional and geopolitical threat. Not because just of their nuclear ambitions, but their desire to export terrorism around the globe.

They view themselves as establishing the Islamic caliphate. That's what this is all about at the end of the day. And we have to be cognizant of that fact. That is what we're dealing with when we deal with Iran.

Logically, they're not always thinking the same way we would militarily, the striking on these vessels, things like that. When you deal with Iran, you have to take out your Western mindset, put that to the side, and analyze how Iran has acted in the past. This is a great special for you to understand the nature and scope of what our country faces, what our allies face. We can create a modern international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is prosperous. That there are not tensions, inevitable tensions, between cultures, which I think is extraordinarily important.

That's something that's very important to me. He really wanted this to be a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. He gave what has now become known as Obama's Cairo Initiative. Perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations. We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation.

We consider ourselves a nation of citizens. In Iran today, thousands of demonstrators in various locations kept up their public pressure on the Shah. Khomeini is scheduled to return to Iran Friday after 15 years in exile.

Today, the 78-year-old religious leader appeared to be in an uncompromising mood. One of the chants today was, bring back Khomeini, this man presently living in Paris. It was over 30 years ago that the revolution took place in Iran, led by a cleric named the Ayatollah Khomeini, who had actually been exiled out of Iran under the Shah of Iran's previous regime. Now the Shah was put in place, and while there were a number of abuses under his regime, there was stability in the region, and radical Islamists did not have a foothold of control of a government.

That changed in 1979. When the Ayatollah Khomeini came in and the Shah of Iran was removed from leadership, a major change and shift took place in the region. The region became radical, and it became radical in the context of Islam, and that has shaped not only Iran, but the Middle East, and even in the United States, even today. Now what this movie is going to do is take a look at radical Islam's conquest, its mentality for control, and the various ways that it is engaging in infiltrating the West. Now what we've seen so far, you've heard about jihad, lawfare, nuclear programs, and terrorism, but let's break it down. What is jihad? Jihad's the holy war. How do you engage in the holy war? You use the legal system as part of it.

Sure, you use airplanes and turn them into bombs and run them into buildings, you use suicide bombers, you try to take over governments, but you also use the legal system, both domestic legal systems in the United States, but international legal systems as well, including the United Nations. And then of course there's nuclear programs. The danger of a nuclear threat is significant. It becomes part of the terrorist ploy, but is a ploy with tremendous consequences. The situation in Iran is not that much different than 32 years later as we look at the situation in Egypt. A lot of the issues that have developed over the last several months have revolved around the fact that what role would the Muslim Brotherhood have in a government in Egypt. And the short answer to that is any role for the Muslim Brotherhood starts looking an awful lot like Ayatollah Khomeini revisited. Now I had the chance to sit down with someone who has been to the region in the Middle East many, many times.

That is Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. Let me ask you first your sense when you talk about radical Islam, how significant is the conflict with radical Islam and its impact it's having not only in the region, but around the globe? Jay, it's existential for us. Radical Islam intends that all of us live under Sharia law. They are willing, and not just willing, but intend to die to make it happen.

Of course there's no greater honor than to kill an infidel in the process of getting killed yourself. And so if you look at what we've been up against, not really since 2001, actually going back to 1979, when the Ayatollah Khomeini goes back to Qom from Paris and begins to organize not the Iranian revolution, but the Islamic revolution. Ayatollah Khomeini left Tehran and moved to Qom, which is Iran's holy city, and lived until the Shah deported him 15 years ago and may now wish he hadn't. He said as he went he would keep control of the country, as he put it, for the one or two years he has left to live. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to the Shah's least favorite city, Qom, where religious opposition to the Shah began.

Everybody looked at it, and I confess to being part of the Reagan administration 1981 onwards. We looked at it as, look, it's just 10% of Islam, we don't have to worry about this. Khomeini was forced to leave Qom 15 years ago after the Shah's troops killed hundreds of people in an unsuccessful purge of dissident. But Khomeini indicated he will maintain control and direction of the government because he believes there should be no separation of church and state.

And Khomeini said he does not want a democratic republic, he wants an Islamic republic. It has become a global threat, it's a threat right here in the United States of America. And it's growing, it's growing in large part because we have a Commander in Chief, Head of State, Chief Executive, who refuses to name the enemy. The enemy is radical Islam. President of the United States goes to the University of Cairo. He says that America, although there's a lot of Christians, we're not a Christian nation, we're not a Jewish nation. He says we're a nation of principles, which is a nonstatement. Then you look at the fact what you just said, that in 1948 our leadership, the government, and others in the world understood that there was this spiritual bond, if you will. Now we have this complete shift in relationship. You've got an Iranian threat that most of us believe is real.

But you've been there more than most people. You know the people involved, you know the military, you've reviewed the documents, you've seen the evidence, you've been there firsthand. How serious is the Iranian Islamic threat to world stability? It will change the world as we know it today if the Iranians, and I believe that they're headed in this direction, put on the end of one of those North Korean provided missiles anything that looks like a warhead. And the Iranians are building not only the warheads, they have the means of delivering it. And I'm telling you, target number one is Israel. The Israelis cannot abide that.

It is truly an existential threat. As a lawyer I like to deal with evidence, and part of that evidence is to actually take you to the region where the conflict is developing. That is, as Oliver North just said, an existential threat in the Middle East, so we travel to Israel. We're the opportunity to talk with members of the military, members of the government, some of the leading journalists in the area, to get a firsthand look at how the threat of radical Islam and Iran impacts Israel, the region, and the world. Here's a chance to sit down with one of the most noted journalists in the Middle East, Renan Bergman, to get his impact and impressions as to what's happening in the region right now as it relates to Iran and possible war and conflict with Iran. First, very basic and fundamental question, is there a war going on with Iran right now? This is the longest ongoing war in the Middle East. It has been taking place since Tola Khomeini took over the Islamic Republic of Iran on the 1st of February 1979.

It has been going on every day until this minute. Under the public's radar, nobody knows the full details of that, but from almost day one, the Islamic Republic of Iran tried to obtain a nuclear weapon and tried to export the revolution to a proxy jihadist movement in the Middle East, trying to imitate the geniuses in the revolution of Khomeini to other places. And at the same time, the secret services of the United States and Israel declared war on Iran, and this is the clandestine war between these two forces. Iran was a free country.

One has to remember, under the Shah, very advanced, very Western, very scientifically very impressive. It was taken over by this regime of fundamentalism and really Black Knight that came over Iran. So definitely America stands and works for the values that Iran is against. But there's a special role for Israel here. Iran uses rhetoric that we haven't heard for decades. Eliminating Israel, Israel should not exist, has no right to exist. Israel, I quote, is a cancerous tumor that should be removed from the Middle East. It's said again and again.

So when you see a country that says you are not legitimate, you will not exist in the end of the game here, and we go nuclear and involved in terror like no other country, to put it in an understatement, it's a cause for concern. Folks, let me encourage you, go to ACLJ.org. Any amount you give is doubled, we get a match, so it's not you doubling it. You give $10, we get another $10. That's $20, $100, it's $200.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. The fact of the matter is, Iran still is a threat. And what this movie shows you is the nature and scope of that threat. And we've got to be really clear that Iran is both a regional and geopolitical threat. Not because just of their nuclear ambitions, but their desire to export terrorism around the globe.

They view themselves as establishing the Islamic caliphate. That's what this is all about at the end of the day. And we have to be cognizant of that fact. That is what we're dealing with when we deal with Iran.

This is a great special for you to understand the nature and scope of what our country faces when our allies face. Is your sense that the goal here of Iran is simply the desire to annihilate Israel? They talk about that openly. They say we want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

But they really are looking much broader than that, aren't they? I mean, Israel is kind of in the way from the rest of the conquest. Yeah, the main reason for trying to achieve a nuclear capability is to be able to cope with Israel and probably to destroy Israel. Because once they will have such a bomb, they will face a very, very huge temptation to use it. And I think that they might use it. They don't want to be like a rat in a lab waiting to see either the Iranians will use a bomb once they have it or they will not use it. Nobody knows whether they would use it. Normally speaking, one assumes that if somebody is producing a weapon, they have the intention of using it. But in the nuclear field, it's different. The United States and the Soviet Union produced nuclear weapons for scores of years, but they never used them.

And there was a mutual deterrent, as you know. So whether Iran would want to use the weapon, I do not know. I think they themselves do not know yet. But they certainly would like to have the option of having such a weapon, as I said, either to use it in certain circumstances or to use it as a threat to extort from countries in the region concessions which they would like these countries to make on the political field, on the strategic field, on the economic field, and on other fields. I think that the Iranians have shown, have demonstrated a pragmatic and rational policy when the regime was under threat of annihilation. They know that Israel would strike them back with nuclear weapons. They know that Israel would put them back to the Stone Age.

And from their point of view, their survival in the regime, in this rotten, corrupted regime, is the sole or the central reason. Therefore, I don't think that they would use it only if they are back to the war. However, Israel and the United States should do whatever they can to prevent Iran from being nuclear, from getting the nuclear capability because, A, it would prevent any sort of retaliation against Iran. Second, Iran would become completely wrong in its support to the jihadist group. Third, it would start a nuclear war race in the Middle East. And you know, this is something you know where you start, but once Sunni so-called moderate countries like Egypt, like Jordan, like Algeria, like Saudi Arabia would acquire a nuclear weapon, this is going to be a very unpleasant place to live in. There is a way to put the Iranian regime, first of all, in a dilemma, whether to become nuclear or to survive. And by putting this regime in a dilemma, I believe that at the end, they prefer to survive. And it should be a strategy consisting of four elements, political isolation of the regime, crippling economic sanctions, Western support of the internal opposition in Iran, and a credible military option to convince the Iranian regime that there is no way to escape or to get away with a nuclear option.

And as Supreme Leader Khamenei in 2003 decided to suspend the military nuclear option when he thought that he might be targeted, in the third phase of the American offensive after 9-11, as he preferred survivability, I believe that again he will prefer survivability. Is this a war we win or can win, the war with Iran? This is a war that we can win if we are stubborn and not let the other side have the upper hand in the initiative.

This is a war that if the United States and Israel are persistent, can be won. But in order to win this war, the threat must be truly perceived. And I'm not sure that by all Americans, and by all Europeans for that sake, the extent of the threat is well perceived and understood. First of all, you call the enemy what it is. Sun Tzu, who is the great military philosopher and theologian of ancient China, wrote that if you don't know your enemy, you will lose to your enemy.

So first of all, you've got to name the enemy. And I hope that the American people will educate themselves of what a Sharia is, what Islam is, and what the purpose is. The United Nations is not going to stand up to radical Islam.

The United States has to lead pro-Western democracies with that Judeo-Christian foundation to what those democracies are all about and realize that's the future for all of us. Anti-government protests in Iran growing more violent by the day with no signs of letting up. It's the biggest uprising in Iran since 2009 during President Obama's first year in office. Breaking news on Iran and those demonstrations that we've seen there with a number of people killed over the last few days. Demonstrations against the government across a number of different towns and cities. President Trump turned to Twitter to talk about the protests that we are seeing.

Let's take a look at that. Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food and for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted.

Time for change. We have seen protests springing up around the country and that is the really key point about these protests. It's not the urban elite that are taking to the streets. It's the regime's conservative base as well. The crackdown also appears to be intensifying. Iranian state media reporting hundreds of people have been arrested and at least 20 people killed. There is a real tension in Iran between the stagnant economy and the people there and the regime's ability to deliver on some of the economic promises that they have offered in the past. This regime tries desperately to sow hate between us, but they won't succeed. And when this regime finally falls, and one day it will, Iranians and Israelis will be great friends once again. I wish the Iranian people success in their noble quest for freedom. If the Iranian dictatorship's history is any guide, we can expect more outrageous abuses in the days to come. The UN must speak out.

In the days ahead, we will be calling for an emergency session both here in New York and at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. We must not be silent. The people of Iran are crying out for freedom. All freedom-loving people must stand with their cause. The international community made the mistake of failing to do that in 2009. We must not make that mistake again. This is a threat to the United States, Jordan.

Absolutely. A huge threat to the U.S., but we've got the team ready to keep you updated and ready to fight. Remember, December matching challenge month. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Donate today. ACLJ.org. Double the impact of your donation. It is so important, folks, because this is critical work that we are going to be doing and engaging all of our international offices as well to fight back against what could be Iran on the move once again.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.