Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker said it's critical for the U.S. to warn Iran not to attack Israel instead of permitting Iran to issue warnings against U.S. intervention.
"I think we need to be warning Iran that they must not attack Israel," Volker said during an interview with Newsmax on Saturday. "We need to be taking this directly to Iran and warning them that they will face consequences, rather than taking distance ourselves from this and from Israel."
Regarding Ukraine, Volker told "American Agenda" the situation on the front line is dire.
"The front line is really perilous right now because of the lack of ammunition," he said. "The Ukrainians are using drones in place of artillery. They are still able to hold the Russians to some degree, but that capacity is declining."
He continued, "We have to remember that Russia is in a relatively weak position itself, that they've lost hundreds of thousands of troops in this, thousands of pieces of equipment. And all we have to do is get Ukraine the arms, and they will have the ability to push the Russians back."
Volker addressed concerns about NATO countries' contributions to aid Ukraine.
"Our European allies have put more financial resources into aid to Ukraine now than the United States has," he said. "It's probably about 60/40 at this stage. A lot of that is financial and budgetary support to keep the state afloat; the U.S. has done more on the military side."
The former special representative for the United States to Ukraine also noted recent improvements in NATO member defense spending.
"The number of countries spending 2% of their GDP on defense has increased substantially since the last time President [Donald] Trump was president," he said. "Then it was only three. Now, we're looking at 18, and that number is still rising. So it has been a bit of a turnaround in how Europe is committed here."
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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