March 26, 2021
Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under both Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, is urging the Biden Administration to continue the tough Trump policy on Iran.
“I think that one of the great successes of the previous administration was that they had achieved two things in the Middle East one, to separate the Palestinian problem from all of the other problems so that it did not become a veto over everything else, and, secondly, of lining up the Sunni states in actual or potential combination against the Shiite state, which is Iran,” he said.
Speaking at the kickoff of a series of foreign affairs talks, Kissinger called the Trump Administration’s Abraham Accords a breakthrough in Arab-Israeli relations. The accords established diplomatic ties between several Persian Gulf states and Israel, as well as Morocco and Sudan, opening up economic, social and cultural ties between the Arab world and the Jewish state.
“This was a brilliant concept. We were just at the beginning of it. It was like the beginning of the China opening. The evolution of it was just beginning,” he said.
Kissinger said the progress cemented by Trump with Israel and the Persian Gulf states should not be diluted by the US reaching out for premature talks with Iran. He indirectly warned the Biden Administration about that possibility and said the US should not offer concessions to Tehran.
“We should not give up the pressures that exist on Iran until we know where they are heading,” he admonished. “If we break out the Iran issue from the overall Middle Eastern issue, we run the risk of losing the two achievements, namely of separating the Palestinian issue, which removes it as a veto over everything else, and the Sunni cooperation with Israel, which is unique in its openness.”
