MEF Chief Strategist Jim Hanson discussed the next steps toward ensuring Iran cannot reconstitute its damaged nuclear program with FOX News.
Transcript:
FOX: Let’s bring in Jim Hanson, Army Special Forces veteran. Jim, how convinced are you that the strikes of a week ago on the Iranian nuclear sites, that those strikes were effective?
HANSON: I think the strikes were effective in degrading the Iranian nuclear program, the actual operational part of it, to rubble and tons of rubble on top of it.
The problem is the knowledge still exists and the will still exists. And we’re not dealing with rational actors in the Islamic Republic. They’re kind of an apocalyptic death cult sect of Islam. So I don’t think we can expect them to react in the way you would expect someone else to.
And now President Trump has to deal with a situation where we want to deter them from continuing that. And the advantage he has is he’s now shown he’s willing to use the full might and power of the United States to accomplish it if they go ahead and push back.
FOX: You say the knowledge is there, but Israel took out something like nine of the top nuclear scientists in Iran before the attacks. That has to decimate the ability that they have to rebuild, doesn’t it?
HANSON: Oh, absolutely. And that’s one of the good, the advantages the Israelis considerable intelligence into the program was. They knew where the scientists were, they knew where the IRGC generals were, and they knew where the facilities were. So
that has made it much more difficult from a technical scientific perspective.
Again, the will and the interest because they they used that nuclear program to elevate what is a a normal power towards an aspirational nuclear power, which put them higher on the global food chain. So now that they no longer have that and that puts them at a disadvantage in trying to throw their weight around in the region.
FOX: But unless we or the IAEA or somebody can get in there and look at what remains inside of Fordo, how are we ever going to know how much damage was actually done to this program?
HANSON: I think that’s the next challenge President Trump and and the international community faces. The Iranians have to allow someone in there to both look at the damage to what was there and take account for the nuclear material that may still exist and any pieces of their program that still exists.
If they don’t do that, President Trump can go back to maximum pressure. And he has a number of cards he hasn’t played in that regard. He could pull them from the international banking system. He could shut down their ports. He could do a number of things before he even has to get back to threatening to bomb some of their other facilities.
FOX: The Iranian people, obviously, are suffering under this Ayatollah-led government. What do you think are the chances that they rise up and force some kind of a change?
HANSON: Right now, we haven’t seen that much in the way of protests and active uprising against the government. But what this has done, it has shaken to the core the indomitable belief of the people that the tyrants in Tehran controlled that country.
So it’s been undercut and I I think slowly you’re going to see the Iranian people decide that maybe they want a better way of life and that requires a government that doesn’t want to spend all their resources and all their energy towards a goal of becoming a nuclear power and maybe wants to build a better life for them. So I think long term—and this may be even medium term—that government is in grave danger of being taken down from inside.
FOX: All right, Jim Hanson, a Army Special Forces veteran. Jim, thank you.
HANSON: Good to be with you.
