Russia's war spills onto NATO territory as tentative Iran deal reached | Peter Doran | Newsmax2

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Thank you. Well, let's keep the conversation going with Tony Schaefer.

[00:00:03]He's a retired Lieutenant Colonel with the United States Army and Peter Doran is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Good morning, gentlemen. Great to have you.

[00:00:12]>> Good to be here.

[00:00:13]>> So, Tony, the origin of that drone, at first it was not clear, but it was quickly realized Russia was behind the offensive. And Romania's defense ministry saying Russia had resumed drone attacks in Ukraine near the Romanian border. NATO of course quick to condemn the strike. Where do we go from here?

[00:00:31]Because this is again another escalation from Russia.

[00:00:35]>> Yeah, look, Russia's been preparing to return to an offensive. Vladimir Putin has been essentially kind of telegraphing it. There's no surprise here. What I'm surprised about is the lack of response by the the EU. The EU keeps saying, "Hey, US, you should help." It's like, "You're there. We're not." So, uh, I find this kind of ironic that we're having this conversation. And by the way, this has been flying under the radar. There's been a lot going on there, but our focus has been, uh, correctly on the streets of Farmouth.

[00:01:03]Uh, Vladimir, uh, I mean, Vladimir Valenc Zalinski, the leader of the of Ukraine, has done a plea to President Trump asking for additional Patriot missiles. There's none to give. We're not giving any because we actually have to have them for our own purposes. This is where the EU needs to step up.

[00:01:25]They've talked a big game. They ain't doing much. So now is the time that they need to step in and help the Ukrainians.

[00:01:32]>> You know, Peter, here's the situation.

[00:01:34]Here's how I feel. And I think other Americans feel the same way. It's almost like we're on this highway with no exits and we're just keep rolling down the down the road with no exit. strategy in in options. Why? Because the driver of this Putin has no GPS, it seems like he's just shooting in the dark, trying to continue to escalate and not willing to come to the table. What say you?

[00:02:05]>> Well, I think what we can see from this uh drone strike, it's part of a bigger picture here. Uh Russia is actually on the back foot. Uh while all eyes in the world have been focused on the fighting in Iran, Ukraine has been launching what they're calling their long range sanctions program, uh that means sending drones into deep into Russia, striking Russia's energy infrastructure, uh and forcing Putin to lash out not just at military targets in Ukraine, but also at civilian targets in the center of Kev, for example. Uh the bottom line here is that uh Russia has lost between, get this, 350 and now we think 500,000 soldiers. Uh 12 months ago, President Trump said that V well that President Zilinski uh he didn't have any cards to play. Well, he has shown uh that he has an entirely new hand. Uh and we're seeing the bene the benefits of uh Ukraine's new offensive.

[00:03:02]>> Yeah, so many great points there. And we've seen a similar trend whether it's with Russia or Iran. The the more that their backs are against the wall, the more they fire indiscriminately at innocent civilians and they just become increasingly more desperate in their actions. It's very scary. The US and Iran though reaching a tentative deal to extend the ceasefire and start new nuclear talks. Vice President JD Vance saying this.

[00:03:27]If you look at what we've already accomplished here, assuming that we're able to get to a final agreement here, we're reopening the streets of Hormuz.

[00:03:35]We've already decimated their conventional military, and we're in a position where we could substantially step back their nuclear program, not just during the term of this president, but over the long term. That's a very, very good thing for the American people.

[00:03:48]So, we're not there yet, but we're very close. We're going to keep on working at it.

[00:03:52]>> Tony, we've been here before. This new tentative deal extends the ceasefire about 60 days and opens a straight of horos. President Trump has not approved it yet. How do you see this playing out?

[00:04:04]>> So, uh, we've been talking about President Trump not approving this for over 24 hours. He's very decisive. So, something's going on. There's a reason he's kind of holding back.

[00:04:13]>> And I think it has to do with the fact that, uh, we are actually trying to uh, convince our Arab allies of certain things. We've had some issues with certain allies maybe not playing ball as much as we would like them to. So I think that's part of why I think we're holding back right now. Secondly though, Kersia, more importantly, the United States has been uh able to kind of reconfigure the global energy market to kind of make up for the deficit of Iranian oil. I'm not saying we can live with it, but I'm saying uh the next step if the Iranians don't give us a deal we like, which is completely opening the straight, I think we're very serious to returning to to to largecale military action. So, I think that's why we're delaying right now.

[00:04:56]>> What's your take on the uh delay in President Trump approving this interim deal uh I should say extension, Peter?

[00:05:04]60 days seems like a very long time and Exxon Mobile and other energy producers have been warning about the g global energy supply shortage and is creating quite a crunch on the American wallet.

[00:05:18]What say you? Well, I think the real problem for President Trump right now is that the Iranian regime is offering to continue to talk about talking and all the while they will continue to dig out their missile uh capabilities and their longrange drone uh capabilities, dig in their heels uh and be in a position to flip the switch on and off when it comes to allowing commercial traffic through the strain of four moves. Uh I agree with Tony's assessment. I think that until and unless we show this regime uh through military options perhaps uh that they have s they have lost this war and they are not in a position to negotiate from strength. Uh they're going to continue to string President Trump along. Something's going to have to change otherwise we will still be in this position come elections in the fall.

[00:06:08]>> So true. Gas is high, talk is cheap, and patience is running thin. M well, China reportedly building launchpads near its nuclear missile silos. China's nuclear missiles can already reach the US. Tony, as you know, what could this new move mean?

[00:06:26]>> The Chinese have continued to expand their industrial base to support their military. This is something that we've been watching and China has never abandoned its overall goal of dominating the Pacific Rim. Now, President Trump's aware of this and I think there's some le some points of of pain which we've leveraged. For example, Pete Xth going to to Indonesia to make sure that uh the the Chinese understand we're going to start taking control and dominate potential places like uh the straits of Mala where all most of the oil from the Middle East goes through to get to China. But uh we have to be concerned by the fact that the Chinese have never backed away from their military doctrine saying that they will eventually within a very short order within the next 5 to 10 years uh take over the Pacific Rim.

[00:07:11]So there's no reason to think they've been deterred to any great degree.

[00:07:15]>> Interesting. What's your assessment of this action, Peter? Because when you look at it, China, they talk a good game like they want to be friends. However, if we're friends, why are you doubling down on your missile capabilities at a time in which Taiwan is a pain point?

[00:07:34]>> Well, I think you just revealed the true game here. Uh when we saw President Trump go to Beijing recently, uh the Chinese Communist Party and the government there continued to say that they wanted peace. They wanted a stable international system, but oh, by the way, they only want it on their terms and when it works in their favor. uh what we're seeing right now uh in the straight of Hormuz we do not want to see replicated in say the South China Sea uh where they extend their own military power to threaten commercial shipping that could impact our own economy over the long term. Uh that's why I think it is critical that we wrap up uh what's happening in Iran uh so that we can show our ability to project power into the Indopacific region.

[00:08:15]Well, speaking of China's power and expansion, Tony, we've also been seeing and hearing reports that China has expanded their surveillance and intelligence capabilities in Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of the United States. This is not what we want to hear at a time when the US is already trying to quell a lot of the infighting there and that the fact that the government has suppressed the people. Could you explain a little bit more about China's capabilities and influence over Cuba at a time when Cuba is very unstable? We don't know what's going to happen next.

[00:08:46]>> Yeah, it's like the 1960s all over again with communist showing up in uh in Cuba.

[00:08:51]So, yeah, look, there's a place called Lordis station. It's what we call a signals intelligence station. The Chinese have been refurbishing it. Uh the the goal of that station is to collect uh on all the domestic communications, and this includes not just military communications. Obviously, they're very interested in our industry and commerce. And this is another reason, I'll be blunt, to collapse Cuba and get in there because we don't need to have uh a a near peer who has said basically they want to dominate the globe in ways we will not appreciate. So I think we need to be very cognizant of this of this fact and actually do what we can to get get China off of Cuba and get Cuba back into making good cigars.

[00:09:30]We can smoke John and I can smoke in Miami. [laughter] >> Yeah, this is a lot more complex than the Cold War. Why? Because we actually are the biggest trade partners with China. So that complicates things to a massive scale. Thank you so much Tony and Peter. We appreciate your commentary and insight.

[00:09:48]>> Thanks John. Thanks Kersia. Good to see you >> Friday everyone.