President Trump has apparently made a deal with the Saudis that will allow them to enrich uranium for the purposes of civilian nuclear power. This is a major game changer for the region and will certainly complicate negotiations with Iran. It signals an increased partnership with the Saudis against Iran and could potentially be a harbinger of an Abraham Accords deal normalizing relations with Israel.
MEF Chief Strategist Jim Hanson discussed the implications with Stuart Varney on FOX Business.
FOX: Army Special Forces veteran Jim Hanson joins me now. President Trump said, you hit one ship in the Gulf, we’ll take out a power plant or a bridge. That’s a real escalation, isn’t it?
HANSON: A needed escalation for certain. There’s no reason. to put any kind of kid gloves on any operation right now. They are doing things that make any sort of negotiated settlement unlikely if there ever was a chance for one. And President Trump did give them every opportunity.
Now he’s going to give them every opportunity to suffer for the fact that they’re doing things that are counterproductive to any chance for peace and security and prosperity in the region. So they’re going to pay if they continue to do this.
FOX: President Trump has reportedly approved a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, and he plans to announce it later today. The deal, we’re told, reportedly, would allow the Saudis to enrich nuclear fuel. Can you explain this? What would that mean?
HANSON: Yeah, that’s a game-changer. The Saudis have wanted this for a long time. It also, though, complicates negotiations with Iran when we’re saying, Okay, our friends, the Saudis, can have this. You cannot. And I think any reasonable person can see there is a huge difference between those two countries. But it’s a situation now where I think President Trump is showing a combo carrot stick.
You know, play nice and you get the good stuff. Play badly and the bad things happen immediately and they can happen at the same time.
FOX: What do you think we’re going to do with this Pickaxe mountain? The president says he might have a go at it at some point in the near future. Looks like an attack appears imminent, doesn’t it?
HANSON: If they did what people believe, which is move some of their centrifuges and other activity and potentially the nuclear dust to Pickaxe Mountain, we need to make sure that they can’t do anything with it there.
But there are a lot of people acting like we need to destroy this mountain. It’s 200 feet of granite that they’ve tunneled under.
We’re not going to destroy it. All we have to do is make it unusable. And that just involves shutting down the entrances. There’s only a few roads in. There’s only a few entrances in. Bomb those to rubble. And every time they send trucks to try and move it, we send another B-2 with some bunker busters.
FOX: Jim, I get the impression that we’re about to return to full-scale war. What do you think?
HANSON: I don’t know if it will go full-scale. That would not be the preferred outcome for us or for anyone. But when you’ve got the Houthis acting up on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula and potentially shutting down that choke point nd Iran being completely recalcitrant on the Strait of Hormuz side,
We need to make sure that not only can they not have nukes, but free navigation and global trade are open. And if that requires a little bit bigger punch, Secretary Hegseth is ready and waiting.
FOX: Got it. Jim Hanson, thanks for being with us today. We’ll see you again soon.
