Biden NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby bristled at Newsmax White House correspondent James Rosen for a question in which he suggested American “failure” was to blame for the collapse of a diplomatic effort.
Kirby held a Zoom call with reporters Friday afternoon, where Rosen — a frequently adversarial presence at White House briefings — began with a lengthy question about the “narrative” around a China-brokered diplomatic agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But Kirby took exception when Rosen characterized the collapse of a different agreement — the talks to renew the Iran Nuclear deal (JCPOA) that former President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of — as a U.S. “failure”:
JAMES ROSEN: First question is about the recent Chinese-brokered mediation with, between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The early narrative holds that this was a kind of a strategic setback for the United States because you have the failure of our own negotiations with Iran and with our other partners in those talks. And here you have China succeeding, of which they already have their own relationship with Iran, but they are succeeding in bringing together an enemy with, or an adversary, with whom we couldn’t successfully negotiate, with one of our strategic allies in Saudi Arabia. And the whole narrative of this event holds that here was the US standing on the sidelines, losing its leadership position in the world, in a sense. What reason can you provide that suggests that that narrative is wrong?
JOHN KIRBY: Whose narrative is that, James?
JAMES ROSEN: Oh, well, you can look at any number of respected foreign policy analysts who’ve been writing on it. Aaron David Miller, for one, But I think you’re familiar with it.
JOHN KIRBY: Look, I’ll tell you a couple of things. We are very comfortable and we’re calm in American leadership in the region and how that leadership was actually driven real results and will continue to drive real results going forward. You look at Oman’s recent decision for overflight. You look at efforts to integrate Israel more into the region. Look at the Red Sea Islands agreement and look at this. Ten months of a truce in Yemen, ten months, which was largely brokered by the United States. I can go on and on and on. Not to mention the tens of thousands of troops that we have still in the region and ships that are still rotating in and out of the Gulf region. And there’s make no mistake that the United States is in the region. We’re going to stay in the region. And an outside of the outside of the region certainly are. I think it’s safe to say that our influence continues to be extremely significant. So right now (inaudible).
You also talked about our failure on the Iran. And I’m sorry, I just got to throw the flag on that one! This is not about our failure. First of all, Iran wasn’t negotiating in good faith and larding up the talks with all kinds of stuff that had nothing to do with the nuclear ambitions.
Number two, China oh by the way, was part of that process. They were from the beginning. This wasn’t just, anybody couches the JCPOA as a U.S.-Iran bilateral deal. It’s not! The Chinese and the Russians were part of that process before, and were part of the process as we tried to restart it. So I just push back hard and heavy on this idea that we failed to get Iran to the table. We tried. Iran failed to come in a serious negotiating (inaudible).
And you’re right on the thing that on the idea, you know, we’re not going to focus on the JCP right now. We’re going to focus on other things and hold Iran accountable for other things, such as the way they’re still punishing their own people, such as the way they’re continuing to provide lethal capabilities to Russia so that Russia can kill and slaughter more Ukrainians. Such is the destabilizing support that they’re giving to Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels.
And the last thing I’ll say here, James, is… Let’s just say that this Chinese-brokered deal works. We think that would be great. Wouldn’t it be great if this war in Yemen could end? Wouldn’t it be terrific if the 7,000 Americans that live in Saudi Arabia aren’t under threat of attack from Iran-backed rebels in Yemen? And wouldn’t it be great if the tensions in the Middle East get de-escalated? So no sour grapes here. If it works, that’s good for everybody in the region, which is ultimately good for our national security interests, too. We are confident in and (inaudible) in our leadership and in the change that we are helping bring across the Middle East. And that’s not going to change.
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