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The U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday have rendered ideal results for addressing the crisis between Iran and Israel, according to former President Joe Biden’s National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
“Bottom line, this is about the best place we can be,” Brett McGurk said in a CNN interview late Monday. “I give extremely high marks to this national security team and President Trump for managing this crisis and getting where we are.”
Additionally, McGurk said that the Trump administration has an opportunity to pursue a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza amid ongoing attempts for months to secure one.
“There’s a chance for diplomacy here,” McGurk said. “Not only on the Iran side, but also in Gaza. Those talks are also going on back channel in Cairo; there’s a Hamas delegation there. Try to get that ceasefire in place. And you can come out of this in a place that is far better than we would have anticipated 10 nights ago.”
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While McGurk most recently served in the Biden administration, he’s been part of both Republican and Democrat administrations. He previously served on former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s National Security Councils.
He also served as the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during both the Obama administration and President Donald Trump’s first term. However, he resigned from that post in 2018 following Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, along with then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis for the same reason.
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In addition to McGurk, other officials who served in Democratic administrations also weighed in to support Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict, including Jamie Metzl, who previously served as former President Bill Clinton’s director for multilateral affairs on the National Security Council.
Metzl said that while he’s been critical of Trump and voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, he doesn’t believe Harris could have pulled off the strikes against Iranian targets like Trump did.
“Iran has been at war with the United States for 46 years,” Metzl said in a post on X Sunday. “Its regime has murdered thousands of American citizens. Its slogan ‘death to America’ was not window dressing but core ideology. It was racing toward a nuclear weapon with every intention of using it to threaten America, our allies, and the Middle East region as a whole.”
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“Although I believe electing Kamala Harris would have been better for our democracy, society, and economy, as well as for helping the most vulnerable people in the United States and around the world, I also believe VP Harris would not have had the courage or fortitude to take such an essential step as the president took last night,” Metzl said.
The U.S. launched strikes late Saturday targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The mission involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, including B-2 stealth bombers, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
While Trump said early Tuesday that a ceasefire had gone into effect between Israel and Iran, Trump issued tough words for both countries later Tuesday morning amid accusations from both sides that the other had violated the agreement.
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Trump told reporters both Israel and Iran failed to follow the terms of the agreement, which he said is still in effect.
“I’m not happy with them,” Trump said at the White House Tuesday morning. ‘I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning.”
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” he said.
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