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Speaker 1: We begin this evening with the big developments on foreign policy.

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Speaker 1: President Donald Trump said earlier today that he's going to

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Speaker 1: be lifting the recently imposed sanctions against Turkey. Now. He

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Speaker 1: added those sanctions October sixteen, and he says that Turkey

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Speaker 1: is now complying with a ceasefire agreement along with Kurdish

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Speaker 1: forces in Syria. Now. The President also said, I'll correct

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Speaker 1: myself October fourteenth, where when those sanctions went into place.

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Speaker 1: The President also said that should should President Ernowan of

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Speaker 1: Turkey break this permanent ceasefire, that he's fully prepared to

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Speaker 1: have more sanctions that are added, and he also threatened

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Speaker 1: tariffs on commodities such as steal. The President uh was

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Speaker 1: made this announcement from inside of the White House earlier today.

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Speaker 1: He was backed by Vice President Mike Pence as well

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Speaker 1: as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who again had just

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Speaker 1: traveled to the region the other week to negotiate the

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Speaker 1: temporary ceasefire. Remember, folks, this was getting criticism not just

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Speaker 1: notch us from Democrats, but also from Republican Senator Lindsey

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Speaker 1: Graham sent a majority leader Mitch McConnell. A lot of

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Speaker 1: folks were unsure about how the President was negotiating with

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Speaker 1: with Turkey, but also what he what message he was

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Speaker 1: conveying to Kurdish allies in the region. Take a listen

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Speaker 1: to what President Trump said earlier today at the White

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Speaker 1: House about this here it is. Today's announcement validates our

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Speaker 1: course of action with Turkey that only a couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks ago was scorned and now people are saying, Wow,

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Speaker 1: what a great outcome. Congratulations Still early to me to

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Speaker 1: be congratulated, but we've done a good job. We've saved

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Speaker 1: a lot of lives. And joining us on the telephone

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Speaker 1: line now is Jonathan Schanzer. He is a senior vice

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Speaker 1: president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

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Speaker 1: He has also a frequent individual testifies before Capitol Hill

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Speaker 1: on these foreign relations issues. He previously worked at the

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Speaker 1: Treasury Department as a terrifor finance analyst. Jonathan, it's great

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Speaker 1: to have you on the program. All right, reaction, should

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Speaker 1: folks be concerned or congratulatory regarding the President's actions today

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Speaker 1: with Syria? I think people should be concerned. I think

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Speaker 1: that the President's right that it's very early to congratulate him.

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Speaker 1: But basically I think what the President has left out

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Speaker 1: is that the President of Turkey Regi of taibernu On

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Speaker 1: was in Sochi yesterday speaking with the President of Russia.

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Speaker 1: They sat at a meeting for seven hours and the

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Speaker 1: result of that was a decision on their part to

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Speaker 1: jointly operate in northern Syria together to cleanse the area

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Speaker 1: of the YPG. And the YPG, of course, is this

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Speaker 1: Kurdish group that lost eleven thousand lives on behalf of

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Speaker 1: the United States fighting against ISIS. So what what's basically

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Speaker 1: happened over the last twenty four hours is an agreement

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Speaker 1: between Russia and Turkey to engage in ethnic cleansing along

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Speaker 1: a long strip of that border between Turkey and Syria,

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Speaker 1: and the US has been left out of the decision

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Speaker 1: making altogether. Well, this is what I don't understand, because

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Speaker 1: in addition to those developments, Turkey has also suggested in

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Speaker 1: the last five or seven days or so that they

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Speaker 1: potentially have nuclear ambitions. Make sense of that for me? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is something actually that that happened over

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Speaker 1: the course of the UN General Assembly. Uh, the President

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Speaker 1: of Turkey came out and said this. Of course, this

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Speaker 1: is all happening at a time where you know, we're

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Speaker 1: imposing sanctions on Iran uh for its nuclear ambitions, and

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Speaker 1: this would be a very unwelcome development. I should also

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Speaker 1: note that that that this is by far not the

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Speaker 1: only thing that Turkey has done or said that has

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Speaker 1: made us very uncomfortable. Uh. They helped Iran evades sanctions

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Speaker 1: between two thousand and twelve and two thousand fifteen, helping

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Speaker 1: Iran net something in the vicinity of twenty billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in cash and gold. And one of the bankers that

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Speaker 1: was just uh, he actually was arrested here in the

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Speaker 1: United States. He was sentence, he served the jail time

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Speaker 1: for about a year, he returned back to Turkey, and um,

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Speaker 1: they just named him as the head of the Istanbul

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Speaker 1: stock Exchange. Basically as a finger in the eye to

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Speaker 1: the United States. Wow. All right, well, let's listen. So

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Speaker 1: President Trump, when he was speaking today earlier at the

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Speaker 1: White House regarding lifting the sanctions that he had just

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Speaker 1: recently imposed against Turkish President Air Jwan and Turkey, said

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Speaker 1: made the case that that many Americans are are deeply skeptical.

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Speaker 1: And this isn't just a Republican or a Democrat feeling.

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Speaker 1: But you know this. I mean, there are folks who

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Speaker 1: are skeptical of of of of US engaging in long

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Speaker 1: term foreign policy conflicts with no end in sight. He

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Speaker 1: you know, there was there was a slight political undertone

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Speaker 1: with that argument that he made, but you look at

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Speaker 1: polling which would suggest that there's also this angst and

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Speaker 1: uncertainty of a go it alone type of strategy, especially

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Speaker 1: as it relates to international coalitions. Jonathan, I want to

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Speaker 1: play for you with Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from

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Speaker 1: South Carolina, had to say earlier earlier today following the

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Speaker 1: developments at the White House, because I think he's tapping

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Speaker 1: into that skepticism that many Americans feel when they hear

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Speaker 1: these these brash of of of headlines that come very

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Speaker 1: very quickly from this White House here, Senator Lindsey Graham.

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Speaker 1: And it's possible to end it will, but you cannot

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Speaker 1: rely on Syria, Russia, or Turkey to protect the United

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Speaker 1: States against usas that's a different argument, Jonathan, than I

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Speaker 1: think than obviously the President Trump made, but also that

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Speaker 1: I think other Republicans who disagree with the President on

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Speaker 1: this issue have made before. He's saying by doing this

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Speaker 1: you're elevating Russia. I think that's right. Uh. And and

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Speaker 1: by by no means should we accept Turkey as a

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Speaker 1: protector of the United States. It's very unclear why the

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Speaker 1: President would want to do this. In fact, Turkey actually

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Speaker 1: led in part to the rise of ISIS by keeping

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Speaker 1: their border open, by allowing fighters to stream across the border. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And we actually just heard recently at my organization, Bret McGurk,

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Speaker 1: the former Envoy for combating ISIS, basically said this, and

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Speaker 1: I think it was the first public acknowledgement of that

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Speaker 1: by a former US official. So I think that Lindsay

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Speaker 1: Graham is correct. But I think there's also one other

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Speaker 1: thing to point out here, and that is that we

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Speaker 1: were keeping a lid on what was happening in Syria

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Speaker 1: with a very very small force that with a few

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Speaker 1: hundred fighters, and we've not seen a lot of casualties,

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Speaker 1: we haven't seen a lot of clashes. We were keeping

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Speaker 1: some of these other forces at bay. And it was

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Speaker 1: really unclear too, I think all of us when the

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Speaker 1: President made a very hasty announcement that we were going

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Speaker 1: to be standing down and allowing the Turks to stream through.

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Speaker 1: There was no reason to do it. There was no

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Speaker 1: immediate emergency that would suggest that we needed to get

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Speaker 1: out of the way or we were going to suffer

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Speaker 1: certain consequences. All right, Jonathan Schanzer, I really want to

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Speaker 1: thank you for for coming on our program. Please come

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Speaker 1: and join us in the Bloomberg studio when you get

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Speaker 1: a chance. And that's Jonathan Chancer, everybody. He is uh

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Speaker 1: the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for

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Speaker 1: Defense Democracies. He also previously has worked at the Treasury Department.

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Speaker 1: He's traveled all throughout the Middle East of Raq, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, Cutter, Turkey, Jordan, Israel. I. Mean,

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Speaker 1: he really has been everywhere and he has a sought

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Speaker 1: after voice on these issues. So thank you Jonathan for

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Speaker 1: making the time for us