Fox News host Chris Wallace doubts that Iran will change its behavior after the United States increased sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.
Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, appeared on the network on Friday to discuss U.S.-Iranian relations with fellow host Bill Hemmer. Wallace, 72, expressed doubt that Iran would give up on any of its long-term goals despite increased U.S. sanctions and the loss of its top general to a U.S. drone strike.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced increased sanctions on Iran in a press conference earlier on Friday.
“I assume [the sanctions] are going to make it even more difficult for people in Iran to do business. The question, really, though, is strategy and will it work?” Wallace said.
Wallace pointed out that Pompeo and Mnuchin announced the “strongest [sanctions] that they had ever imposed” on Iran in September. Those sanctions did not stop Iran’s aggressive behavior, Wallace said.
“I guess the question becomes, do we really think that this is the step, these are the sanctions that break Iran’s will, or will it continue?” Wallace said.
“Maybe after the killing of [Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani] and these new sanctions, maybe things will change,” Wallace added. “I don’t know why we would think that they’re going to change their position at all.”
President Trump approved a drone strike that killed Soleimani, who led Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Quds Force, on Jan. 2 near an airport in Baghdad. Iran responded to the attack on Jan. 7 by launching over a dozen ballistic missiles at Iraqi military bases were U.S. troops were stationed. Neither the U.S. nor Iraq suffered any casualties from the missiles.
