Thread by @JMichaelWaller

Follow this thread for highlights from the Center for Security Policy's webinar with former Secretary of State @mikepompeo. Joining are the Center's @FredFleitz and David Wurmser.

How did Middle East peace deteriorate so quickly?

Pompeo: Obama sent a "real message of weakness to the Middle East." Trump needed to restore strength to prevent Americans from being sent to die there, moved US Embassy to Jerusalem, made "a clear demonstration of resolve."

Pompeo: Trump found "a path forward for the Palestinians" and told them that "your corrupt regime intent on terror in Gaza ... are going to have to change their ways."

Pompeo: Trump was 6th presidential administration to identify the Iranian regime as terrorist. JCPOA "was not worth the paper it was written on."

Trump's relationship with Netanyahu sent signals to Middle East. Biden's opposite relationship sent "green light" to worst elements.

How much do you think the expectation of Biden's withdrawal from Trump's position of strength gave Iran and Hamas to think they had an opportunity to drive wedge in region?

Pompeo: Iran regime understands power, force, and determination. They can sniff weakness 5000 miles away.

Pompeo: I remember John Kerry on TV saying "JCPOA or war." We withdrew from JCPOA. There was no war.

Iranian leaders are ideologues. They believe deeply in the extermination of the Jewish state. When they see US call for "cease fire," it's a clue for them to continue violence.

Pompeo: We laid out a case, a public framework for the framework for Palestinian leaders to sit down and talk - not accept anything - just talk, but they benefit from corruption, not making life better for their people. They said "no, no, no to everything we proffered."

Pompeo: Biden "turned back on the funding" to Palestinian leaders. Many in State and CIA said that if US cut off funding to Palestinians, there would be a new intifada and more terrorism. That didn't happen when Trump cut it off. It happened with Biden turned it back on.

Pompeo: We think Hezbollah is heading into a worse direction and a big infusion of money from US as a result of Biden returning to JCPOA. So long as Iran has money, it will have the ideological motivation and capacity to continue sponsoring terrorism.

[Note: sections not in quotes are paraphrased/summarized, and are not actual quotes from Secretary Pompeo.]

Wurmser: How would you approach the Iranian regime?

Pompeo: "We weren't able to test that theory in its entirety."

Pompeo: We would have had the chance to have this conversation with Iran only if we had "maximal certainty" that the regime would have given up the capacity to build nuclear weapons. The negotiations we would have had would have been against the backdrop of American strength...

Pompeo: ... I don't know how that would have happened precisely, but we knew that we allowed commerce to flow back into Iran and lift sanctions, we would have empowered the worst of the worst to continue the nuclear weapons program and terrorist campaign.

Pompeo on China: US had appeased the Chinese Communist for 40 years and Trump administration drew the line.

Chinese made it clear before he became secretary of state that if he wanted to prosper after his term in office, he would have to toe the line for Beijing.

Pompeo: China today is like Europe in the 1930s. "We know these things." "It was really important that the United States lead" and stand up to the CCP's tyrannical and authoritarian behavior.

Pompeo: The fact that we're going to hold "a Genocide Olympics inside China ... should shock the conscience" of the whole world.

Pompeo: It became early on by early 2020 that Chinese regime went "full Chernobyl" in covering up the virus, a "classic disinformation campaign foisted on the world."

"This was full-lockdown information mode by the Chinese Communist Party."

Pompeo: "The Chinese were working on this virus in their laboratory ... the laboratory was unsafe," the virologists were working on making the virus more dangerous to spread human-to-human. China had "reckless" behavior about the virus from the start.

Pompeo on Trump's personal diplomacy with Kim Jong-un: At CIA "I immediately set up a mission center" on Korea. We didn't get there with Kim, but Trump's meeting with Kim allowed US "to begin to flesh out the range of possibilities" to "never put the world at risk."

Pompeo on Turkey: "Oh, goodness, no, I don't think we can" depend on Turkey to help stabilize the Middle East. "This is a NATO partner, we shouldn't forget," and it would be a "bad idea for Turkey" to get involved in the Palestinian conflict with Israel.

"It wouldn't surprise anyone" if Hamas was using journalists as human shields. We'll let the journalists tell us how they didn't know they were working next to "a bunch of terrorists."

Pompeo: The CCP must be accountable for everything it does: "they're the first order of bad guys."

To US news outlets and businesses working with CCP: "Do you want to be part of the silencing machine of that surveillance state?"

Pompeo: How to handle Taiwan issue? Let Beijing know of our existing commitments and our capabilities, help Taiwan defend itself, and "make clear to the Chinese Communist Party" that the entire region must be kept open for commerce.