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00:00:02of
00:00:14Hello
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00:00:22of headlines. of
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00:00:28of
00:00:45US president Donald Trump announces deal to allow russian diesel to be
00:00:49immediately released to the
00:00:50of US of and global markets while Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky criticizes the
00:00:54dean as a gift to
00:00:56Putin.
00:01:02of of US president Donald Trump urges Ukraine to replace President Vladimir
00:01:05Zelensky with the new leader while criticizing him over strikes on Russian oil
00:01:09refineries that contribute to high diesel prices before
00:01:12election.
00:01:18Russian president Vladimir Putin conveys
00:01:20of Iran's position a
00:01:21of possible resolution of its conflict with the United States to US President
00:01:25Donald Trump in coordination with Iranian President Masushkian as
00:01:29Moscow seeks to. facilitate diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict and promote a
00:01:32peaceful settlement to dialogue and
00:01:34negotiations.
00:01:39of
00:01:45of Oman condemns
00:01:49of attacks on Saudi Arabia and King Khalid
00:01:51of International Airports reaff solidarity with the kingdom and rejects all
00:01:55actions that threaten its security and safety of civilians.
00:02:02of Several thousand pro
00:02:05Palestinian protesters
00:02:06of marched through central London and Berlin. Calling for an end to Israeli
00:02:10strikes on gassah marsh has carried packards
00:02:13of reading and the genocide and free
00:02:15Palestine.
00:02:21Prime Minister Mohammad Shahbas Sharief and Azerbaijan President Ilham alive agreed to
00:02:25boost economic
00:02:26a investment and trade corporation by exchange views on regional and international.
00:02:30developments during a telephone conversation and refm their commitment to
00:02:33strengthening bilateral ties across multiple
00:02:36sectors.
00:02:42deputy prime minister
00:02:43of sar refuse
00:02:47of of preparations for the eighth pakistan joint ministerial commission to strengthen bilateral cooperation and ensure tangable
00:02:52of outcomes.
00:02:53of the united
00:02:57nations human rights officer just india to released people
00:03:01arbitrary detained during protests against electoral
00:03:04misconduct expressing concern over mas detentions in New
00:03:08of Delhi.
00:03:09of
00:03:54of of
00:04:02That was all from
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00:04:11I'm Natalia Baker, signing off, take
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00:04:41of a
00:04:51Assalomu alaikum and welcome to Perspective. Regional tensions are
00:04:56in of escalating, putting critical infrastructure, maritime
00:04:57of security and regional stability at risk. Hothy attacks on Saudi
00:05:01Arabia have raised fresh security concerns, while the strategic
00:05:05Babel Mandap straight and the straight of
00:05:06of Hurmus
00:05:07in remains central to wider regional tensions with the US
00:05:10of mid-term elections approaching. President Donald Trump is also
00:05:14facing growing political pressure as the Iran conflict
00:05:18disrupts global energy markets and raises questions
00:05:22about the costs and consequences of his policies.
00:05:25How could the evolving security situation affect his party's
00:05:29electoral prospects and shape Washington's next
00:05:32moves? Pakistan has strongly condemned the attacks on Saudi
00:05:36Arabia and reaffirmed its commitment to Saudi sovereinity and
00:05:40security under the Macca joint. defense agreement with
00:05:44Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as Islamabad
00:05:47continues to call for peace and deescalation, what is the
00:05:51shifting security landscape mean for the
00:05:54region? In our second segment, we examine Trump's
00:05:58admin the Donald Trump administration's expanding immigration
00:06:02crackdown, including the suspension of green card processing
00:06:06for major technological companies and investigations into
00:06:10leading US universities. As Washington tightans
00:06:14scrutiny the skilled foreign workers and international
00:06:17research, questions are mounting over the future of
00:06:21global talent, mobility and America's
00:06:24competitive competitiveness
00:06:28in the technology sector. All this and more on perspective
00:06:32today, we have with us Hashamul umesi
00:06:35who is senior advisor
00:06:38on Yemen and on from
00:06:42European institute of peace, we also have with
00:06:46us Paul Frich senior fellow middle east institute Switzerland,
00:06:49executive in Resident Geneva Center for Security Policy drawing
00:06:53us. A little later on we'll also have other guests during
00:06:57the course the program. Welcome to the program
00:07:01Hisham, when we look at Babel Mandap, for
00:07:04example, the fact that it's become a critical point in this
00:07:08regional, what strategic objectives are
00:07:12the... how these sort of pursuing by
00:07:14threatening maritime traffic and of
00:07:18course what it means for this vital international
00:07:22shipping route corridor and and what are the implications in your
00:07:26opinion for regional security and also
00:07:30what it means as far as global security at this
00:07:33time
00:07:39is want to exert pressure on the red sea. on
00:07:43maritime trade to get this economic and political
00:07:47leverage, they understand very well that the world will only pay attention to
00:07:51them, if they make noise outside the border of yemen, yemen has been dubbed for
00:07:55the longest time for the past 12 years the conflict as the forgotten
00:07:58war, and to get some attention, to get some
00:08:01recognition and to get that
00:08:03stick, they needed to attack all
00:08:07these ships in the red sea making that economic impact on
00:08:11global trade, but also threatening regional countries as well
00:08:14because they ship lot of oil through that straight, so it's
00:08:18critical for their countries, for the stability their countries, and
00:08:22this is one the reasons why they also in the same way are threatening Saudi
00:08:25Arabia the past few weeks by attacking
00:08:29infrastructure within Riyadh, within other parts of Saudi Arabia, attacking
00:08:33aramco, attacking, I remember the electricity grid as
00:08:36well, and they'll continue to do that because that's how they raised the cost
00:08:40the conflict, they learned that from the Iranians and that's
00:08:44how they kind of create this
00:08:47calculus where they can extract concessions, not just from
00:08:51Saudi, but also from regional and international
00:08:53stakeholders. fair
00:08:56enough, um, we also have with us
00:08:59Paul, but before we go to him,
00:09:03in terms of in terms the huti's actions,
00:09:07Hisham, when we look at
00:09:08you know Yemen's internal conflict and and the political...
00:09:12landscape so to speak, how have years of
00:09:15political,
00:09:17you know, fragmentation, struggle for power, failure to reach a
00:09:21durable settlement, enabled the hauties to
00:09:24consolidate their authority and expand their regional
00:09:28ambition, because we know that internally also the
00:09:31situation and the fact that you know they've been able to do this, how
00:09:35how do you look at that in terms of what's happening now and the
00:09:39internal situation, that's action next. question, this is what I've been
00:09:43saying for the for the past 10 years is that the
00:09:47houties owe their rights to the
00:09:50Iranian support, but also to the fragmentation and the division within
00:09:54Yemen, it's it's an inversely proportional
00:09:57relationship where the weaker the yemani factions are, the
00:10:01stronger the the hutis grow, they managed to exploit all those
00:10:04divisions, the instability, the failure the state
00:10:08since since 2010, since the uprisings that
00:10:11accompanied the... spring and they managed to
00:10:15hijack the state and by doing so they entrenched
00:10:19themselves a position of power and throughout the past 10 years
00:10:23the conflict since 2015. "they managed to
00:10:27expand across Yemen, moving all the way to the west
00:10:30coast, and that's what you're hearing a lot of fighting now, for instance in Babel Mandab, in the
00:10:34Red Sea, because they want additional territories, but they owe that
00:10:38as well because the internal fragmentation, and I've
00:10:42always said if you want to defeat the hoothies, you need to
00:10:46unify the Yemini factions led by the Yemini government, because only
00:10:50them can dislodge the hoothies from places like
00:10:54Damar, the central part of Yemen, but also the capital
00:10:57Sana, there needs to be a concerted effort backed by the regional international
00:11:01community, and luckily for the time being
00:11:03you have the saudis back in
00:11:04the Yemeni government supporting them, but ultimately this is a
00:11:08Yemeni Yemeni fight, this is not and I remember lot of people trying
00:11:11to pitch it as a Saudi versus Hothies fight, it was not
00:11:15never was, it was the Yemenis that wanted to take back the
00:11:19country from the Htes, but they also needed support from regional partners
00:11:23and our closest neighbor traditional. for the past 100 years have been Saudi Arabia and
00:11:27that's one the reasons why it was the Saudis that let the
00:11:30coalition that helped and attempting to restore
00:11:34the state in 2015, but
00:11:37but where do the how these actually derive
00:11:41authority within Yemen today? when you look at
00:11:44you know the fact that the main sources their political,
00:11:47financial, military power and and of course
00:11:51you how how do they use that to control territory? you
00:11:55in terms of trying to understand and also the fact that they
00:11:58they are able to somehow sustain their position
00:12:01right? yep, well one one the important things that
00:12:05lot of people need to understand is that the hutis did not spring into the scene just in the past
00:12:0915 years, the hutis were there for the past thousand years, we
00:12:13had the imam a monarchy in yemen for the better part
00:12:16the past 1ous years, which was toppled in the
00:12:201960s, these are reminants of that
00:12:23regime that's in Yemen in the northern part the
00:12:27country and they managed to build their power over the
00:12:31past 25 years beginning into the 2000s and in
00:12:352004 they launched an offensive in the north part the
00:12:38country which led to six consecutive wars between 2004 and
00:12:422009 so the his actually existed there for hundreds of
00:12:45years but they managed capitalizing on the
00:12:49instability in 2010 2011 to expand
00:12:53their influence. and exploiting the in fighting between the
00:12:57various factions, tribal and government and military between the
00:13:01period of 2011 and 2015, to jump on the scene, hijack the
00:13:05state, take over the capital, take over other parts theman,
00:13:09one, two, they also ow their rise because the
00:13:12support that they've gotten, extensive support that they've gotten from Iran, they
00:13:16they got in financial support, they've gotten ballistic missiles, they've gotten cruise
00:13:20missiles, they've gotten drones, they've gotten lot of training, not just from Iran,
00:13:24they've got lot of training from hizbullah as well and there's a lot there
00:13:28actually IRGC officers on the ground on the
00:13:32battlefield as commanders directing the
00:13:35war in multiple frontlines in Yemen and that includes
00:13:39Hisballah and IRGC so they're getting lot of
00:13:41support and in terms
00:13:44of question of course they've
00:13:48managed to have that kind of support that then allows
00:13:51them to exert this kind of external '
00:13:55influence or extern, far beyond the territory,
00:13:59how dangerous is it when when this kind of a
00:14:03grouping can happen and and then and and then potentially
00:14:07have consequences outside a country's
00:14:10territory when we look at you in the light of this particular
00:14:14instance when we see the houtheis, extremely
00:14:17extremely concerning, you have to remember the past couple years sank
00:14:21or attacked close to 100 chips. and there it
00:14:25see, you're not talking about the conflict that is not contained within the borders of Yemen, you're talking
00:14:29about the conflict had a spillover effect, remember during the Gaza
00:14:33crisis, helutes wanted to jump into the fray trying to pitch
00:14:36themselves as the vanguard the Muslim, the Arab nation by attacking
00:14:40also Israel, and beyond that they started attacking
00:14:44ships, tried to extract tols from ships passing through the red sea, they wanted
00:14:48to be seen as regional player that would have a say in international
00:14:52politics, so if anything does not go their way,
00:14:55"Irrespective if it is concerning Yemen or not, they want to
00:14:59exert that political pressure to get this
00:15:03recognition as regional player, and this is one the reasons why they
00:15:07attacked multiple ships from different countries, not just Saudis now lately, but in the past
00:15:11they've attacked British ships, they've attacked Dutch ships, they've attacked
00:15:14American ships and all sorts of ships, because they want that
00:15:18recognition, and it's extremely difficult and extremely dangerous because at
00:15:22the end the day you're dealing with a militia,
00:15:24so - few tolerate that, you're only
00:15:28postponing yet another bout of conflict where the militia is going to
00:15:32blackmail international community seeking additional concessions, and this is why I've
00:15:36always been talking to international. partners and regional partners is that you need to address the
00:15:40root the conflict,
00:15:40you need to decisively deal with the hoothies, you cannot keep passing the
00:15:44buck and postponing the issue through temporary cease
00:15:48fires or non-sustainable agreements that will allow the
00:15:52hoothies to stay in control, especially when they have control over
00:15:56the means the states and taxation and oil revenues. so
00:15:59in terms the consequences of of this kind
00:16:03of
00:16:04you know a group, if one can call it? that
00:16:08and and
00:16:08you know of course the kind of exercising of
00:16:12course influence outside the territory, what kind of reaction
00:16:16you overall expect after what we've seen also and
00:16:20for Yemen also in particular, what do you expect in the
00:16:23future? unfortunately,
00:16:26based on the track record the past three years, there has
00:16:30been some reactions, you've seen the Americans attack the hoothies, you've seen the
00:16:34Europeans create the aspedies naval force. to protect the ships
00:16:38in the red sea, but there they have always been half hearted
00:16:42measures. they never actually delt a blow to the
00:16:45hooties, it was always a protective force, it
00:16:49was always um, it's just a bare
00:16:52minimum, they did not deal with the hoothies and dislogging the
00:16:55hoothies, they only tried to protect some the ships in the red sea
00:16:59while leaving the hoot infrastructure in place while leaving the houti threat
00:17:03in place, which only means that their post
00:17:07the problem and come few
00:17:11months,
00:17:12the his will come back, raise the bar, demand additional
00:17:15concessions, and this is devastating, and this is what happened with Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
00:17:19signed an agreement with the hoothis in 2022,
00:17:23hoping to deescalate the situation, hoping that there
00:17:27is going
00:17:27to be calmer heads that will prevail amongst the
00:17:30movement, but we warn back at the time is that the hutis are only binding their
00:17:34time to regroup, restock. they will come
00:17:38back and they will ask for additional concessions and that's basically what they did right
00:17:42now,
00:17:46when we look at in terms of
00:17:48you know regional states and their response to the hauti
00:17:51attacks, the threats also against babal mandap, maritime
00:17:55commerce, what combination of maritime security,
00:17:59deterrance, regional cooperation, political engagement you
00:18:03think could make difference at this point, you're also looking at
00:18:07this
00:18:07without
00:18:07the sea arabia situation to to sort of
00:18:11deescalate for things to at least
00:18:15sort of what can one say go back to a state of
00:18:18normalcy, let's
00:18:21say, well, okay,
00:18:25you need to begin with the cutting or
00:18:29choking the air out the huti means, you need to economically
00:18:32kind of basically isolate them, one, two, you cannot
00:18:36just the... protect lodging
00:18:37red the the hoothies for multiple areas. three,
00:18:41this is a war that cannot be won just by aerial campaign. we've been there done
00:18:45that since 2015 and it did not dislodge the hoothies. what you need is ground
00:18:48forces to take over uh
00:18:51the hoothi controlled areas. you need to limit the power. um,
00:18:55i've heard lot of arguments the past two days people saying like, if the government
00:18:58forces managed to secure the west coast, then it's an end to the hoothi threat. that
00:19:02is a completely false. hethies managed to attack
00:19:06the ships. over the past two years when they did not control
00:19:10b, well beyond uh within
00:19:14from the internal parts of yemen they attack the ships, so you don't need just to
00:19:18secure babel mendeb, you need to dislarge the hoothies from the heartland
00:19:21and from places like the capital sana, four, as long as
00:19:25people continue to treat the hoothis as a viable political party, we're not getting
00:19:29anywhere, hutis are a militia, they think in mentality of a
00:19:32militia, they're maximalist, they also always come
00:19:36back and raise the... bar, if you don't limit their military
00:19:40power, if you don't have that breaking point where you isolate them, we're
00:19:44not going to get anywhere. how do
00:19:48you in terms the the nexus when we look at Israel in
00:19:51particular, how does it factor in and and how
00:19:55you know the consequences of that nexus
00:19:59itself, do you think that it's been exposed enough, do you expect it to
00:20:03sort of have you know
00:20:04the the ramifications of that for the world, how do you
00:20:07look at that? well let's refocus that a little bit on
00:20:10Yemen, whatever
00:20:12have had happened over the past three years especially with the guys the Gaza
00:20:16crisis, thehis has managed to exploit that to their advantage,
00:20:20they've seen how the world failed to act
00:20:23in defending the Palestinians and they use
00:20:26that to recruit fighters on the ground,
00:20:30and lot of other factions did the same thing as well, but the hutis exploited it a very good way
00:20:34because they have a really good PR machine and they recruted. tens of
00:20:38thousands of fighters and and and trying to
00:20:42position themselves as the strongest member the axis of resistance that is
00:20:45led by Iran, and in doing so they managed to also get recruits.
00:20:50from across the red sea and build relationships with the
00:20:53shabab in Somalia and they did so by
00:20:57also recruiting people from Syria, from Lebanon and in Iraq as well,
00:21:01and they built also on the opened offices even there, so they built this
00:21:04regional network on the premise of dealing with
00:21:08Israel, but while having at heart
00:21:12their own objectives,
00:21:13their own max maximalist objectives and expanding their influence not
00:21:17just at the southern tip the peninsula, but regional influence. and they
00:21:21built this huge network of and also arsenal
00:21:25if if i may that they could use any given moment whether
00:21:29it's in regards to Israel or others and that's what they did over the past
00:21:33months when they started attacking Saudi Arabia they didn't attack Israel
00:21:35they attacks arabia but what about you
00:21:39the reports of the delegation when you look at the US delegation meeting
00:21:43how these and and the effects of that do you think how
00:21:47credible and and do you think that there is a possible? that
00:21:51something will emerge from there also, how do you look at
00:21:54that? well, the UN led peace process is
00:21:58still ongoing, yes there's been a lot of multiple impediments
00:22:01and it's a steep hill
00:22:05to climb, especially during escalation, so they always try to
00:22:08deescalate where cooler heads would prevail and they will manage to bring
00:22:12people to the table, unfortunately every time they get to to
00:22:16that point something or the other happens and we're back. into
00:22:20fighting mode between the various factions and always it's triggered by the huis and
00:22:24this is where we at now, for instance, the UN envoy delivered his
00:22:28remarks yesterday, he basically said, we will continue on the
00:22:32path of trying to get a peace
00:22:36process started - ultimately
00:22:39reconciliation, but right
00:22:42now emotions are high, right now the fighting
00:22:46is still ongoing, right now the dust has not settled, right now all the group
00:22:50are trying to get as much territory as possible before they
00:22:54eventually move into negotiations
00:22:56and this is one the questions that lot of people have asked me and they said do you
00:23:00think the yemini government is going to completely obliterate the hutis or the hutis are going to be
00:23:04able to completely abliterate the yemini government and i said like that's going to be difficult
00:23:07because you're talking about a complete massacre if you want to wipe up
00:23:11the hoothis i don't think that's feasible and
00:23:15vice versa the hutis cannot wipe out half the
00:23:17country eventually evitably you reach an agreement, but the
00:23:21question is, when we get to the table, who's going to have the
00:23:25upper hand? and right now, hutis have leverage, and
00:23:29they need to dilute that leverage. fair enough, thank
00:23:33you so much, thank you for summing it up so well, thank you for your time, hisham. i want
00:23:37to move on, we have with us Paul fritch who is a senior fellows institute,
00:23:40switzerland, executive and residence, geneva center for security policy joining
00:23:44us, it's always a pleasure having you Paul, when we look at the
00:23:48midterm elections, Iran hormos and of
00:23:51course, the political cost of this war, how do you look at
00:23:55this? as far as the midterm elections are concerned, you of course
00:23:59the strategic constraint, if one can call it
00:24:03that, as far as Donald Trump administration is concerned,
00:24:06once the the pre-election situation versus the post
00:24:10election situation, how would how do you look at it and and you think it will be a
00:24:14changed scenario, considering what we know about the
00:24:17position of of you know at this time as far
00:24:21as the Donald Trump administration is
00:24:23concerned? yes, well, I think
00:24:27the strategic constraint on the
00:24:30president is not so much the mid-terms
00:24:34themselves, the the strategic constraint is public
00:24:37opinion that is by and large opposed to
00:24:41this war, and we see the midterm
00:24:45election campaigns as an expression of that, and we
00:24:49had series of senate debates um this week
00:24:53and uh republican candidates have struggled to
00:24:57explain their formal support for the war in terms
00:25:00their votes against congressional resolutions that
00:25:04have sought to uh reign in president Trump's authority
00:25:07and uh yes I think that the mid-terms um if
00:25:11the polls are to be believed are probably going to
00:25:15send major signal
00:25:19of uh a public rebuke the administration's
00:25:22policy, but but when if we you know,
00:25:26like you said, it's it's going to send a public signal of
00:25:29rebuke, does it,
00:25:31do you think to a man like president Donald Trump, do you think it's going to
00:25:35matter in the sense that right now, in terms of this is his
00:25:39second term, so in terms of what he is expecting, do
00:25:43you think he's thinking about his legacy, do you think that you know he is
00:25:47thinking about bettering the the... original Obama
00:25:51agreement
00:25:51or you, I think we spoke earlier, that is no more on the
00:25:55table, it's not something that's likely to happen anymore, so what
00:25:59is what is he going to be thinking, not that one can really?
00:26:02but what is your opinion generally? well, we
00:26:06have to remember that it's not the only constraint on president
00:26:10Trump, his military options have become more
00:26:14constrained by virtue of simple military
00:26:16realities, the force that's currently deployed in the
00:26:20Persian Gulf cannot remain there indefinitely, the loss
00:26:24the naval support activity in Bahrain, has
00:26:27strained logistical supply chains, we've
00:26:31seen ' aircraft carrier groups remaine deployed well
00:26:35beyond uh the point where um they remained
00:26:38operationally effective uh and then uh subsequently
00:26:42taken out of service for extended periods of time for emergency
00:26:46maintenance, we saw that with the USS Gerald Ford, we saw that with the
00:26:50USS Abraham Lincoln, um these
00:26:52are um these are assets that the US has in
00:26:56limited quantities and it can't continue this uh pace and
00:27:00intensity of deployment uh indefinitely. um, if there
00:27:04is a change in control of Congress and Congress is willing to
00:27:07assert its prerogatives uh more aggressively in terms of
00:27:11restricting funding and uh passing
00:27:14concrete legislative constraints on the president's
00:27:18ability to conduct this war, then that will
00:27:22further constrain President Trump in the the options that he
00:27:25has. um, we've seen the depletion of critical munitions
00:27:29worldwide, the US has has lost, between
00:27:33half and two-thirds of its supplies of
00:27:36critical offensive and uh defensive munitions,
00:27:40tomahawk missiles, patriot pack 3 interceptors, thad
00:27:44interceptors, these are developments that have an impact not
00:27:48only with regard to this conflict, but also with regard to the strength the
00:27:51US military deterrant in Asia in Europe.
00:27:55so uh, yes, the sorry, go
00:27:58ahead, do is it fact that
00:28:02the US can you know continue this war at least
00:28:05on the military front indefinitely or you
00:28:09think that you within these constraints?
00:28:12no, no, I don't think, I don't think that it's
00:28:16sustainable, I think that it can
00:28:19continue the blockade of Iranian ports for some period
00:28:23of time, but I think even that um will be
00:28:26subject to a balancing test with regard to the impact of that
00:28:30operation on U.S. capabilities in other
00:28:34theaters around the world and in particularly east Asia
00:28:38um where uh the US presence has been weakened
00:28:41significantly um by uh this conflict, there
00:28:45there is not currently a single uh US aircraft carrier
00:28:49strike group uh deployed anywhere in the Asia pacific
00:28:52theater um that's
00:28:54a problem uh when most the American foreign policy
00:28:57establishment remains focused on the long-term a strategic
00:29:01competition with China um and uh
00:29:05faces and the US and its allies face other threats in the Asia
00:29:09Pacific region such as uh North
00:29:11Korea. Um, this, this is a
00:29:14situation that can continue for some time, it cannot continue
00:29:17indefinitely, and the options for a
00:29:21significant military escalation, such
00:29:25as the introduction of ground troops um are limited by military
00:29:29capabilities and they're limited by lack of public support.
00:29:34How pushed is Donald Trump
00:29:37knowing that he is losing support for the
00:29:40midterms?
00:29:43Well, that's a difficult question,
00:29:46because I I hesitate, I hesitate to try to get
00:29:49into the president's head, um, if you listen to him
00:29:53at his rallies,
00:29:55he doesn't seem to believe that he's losing public support, uh, clearly
00:29:59he is, um, unlike in his first term.
00:30:03uh where uh he seemed to retain uh a fairly
00:30:07diverse set of sources of information,
00:30:11um, he seems to be um
00:30:15locked inside bubble where people largely tell him what he wants
00:30:19to hear, uh,
00:30:21so um, I don't know how much of a surprise the mid-term elections are going to be for the
00:30:25president, um, clearly when he wakes up on the morning of
00:30:29November 4th, um, if uh, "the
00:30:32situation is as it seems to be at the moment, um, he's going to be
00:30:36dealing with very different political reality than the one that he's been
00:30:40living with for the past two years. so what if the
00:30:44republicans lose control of congress?
00:30:48in terms of an electoral setback, do you think that it
00:30:52could push Trump back to the diplomatic
00:30:55table, or you think that
00:30:57you know it could escalate the confrontation?"?