Retired general and former CIA chief David Petraeus has become a somewhat unexpected cheerleader for President Trump’s move to impose oil sanctions on Iran next week.
“The sanctions are going to bite. Trust me, on this, they really will,” Petraeus said Thursday during a keynote panel discussion at the National Council on U.S. Arab Relations annual policymakers summit in Washington.
Petraeus used the appearance to downplay concerns that Trump’s decision will lead to high oil prices, and to assure the Saudis and other Gulf allies at the summit that the U.S. remains a partner, despite the recent row over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“To be sure, the administration is going to very careful in how it allows these to come into force, probably doing some negotiating with China, with India, with some of the other oil countries that import oil from Iran to be careful not to spike oil prices,” he said. “And our friends from Saudi Arabia are going to increase oil output … as was done the last time we had sanctions on Iran.”
Petraeus explained that when he was CIA director five years ago, he in fact went to the Saudis and asked them raise production amid the sanctions.
He was just at a military conference in Bahrain, where he had a similar message about the need for sanctions on Iran. He addressed the conference with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Petraeus’ keynote on Thursday was hoisted to prominence after White House Office of Management and Budget chief Mick Mulvaney canceled, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner.
Mulvaney’s office did not give a specific reason as to the cancellation, but it follows Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s decision to cancel his keynote at a investment conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month.
Petraeus had said last year that he was open to working for Trump as national security adviser or secretary of state, and had had talks with the administration. He has not said as much recently.
“This is going to have a very serious effect … a greater effect than was the case in the past,” he added about the sanctions. But he doesn’t see Iran coming to the negotiating table anytime soon after sanctions go into effect next week.
“I don’t expect to see a rush to the negotiating table” by Iran, he said.
“I would suspect that it will be well into next year before you are going to see the Iranians so convinced that this is really going to bite” that they come to the table, Petraeus said.
