'Real disconnect' as Trump scrambles US foreign policy: ex-state department director

Former U.S. Ambassador Richard N. Haass on Friday decried the Trump administration's recent foreign policy moves, claiming that there has not been "anything remotely looking like a strategy" with Iran and dismissing the Board of Peace initiative as a "ragtag outfit."

Haass served as a U.S. ambassador to Northern Ireland and Director of Policy Planning during the first term of former President George W. Bush. He was also considered a close advisor to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and served as president for the Council on Foreign Relations for nearly twenty years between 2003 and 2023.

On Friday, Haass was interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer about Donald Trump's recent foreign policy maneuvers and took a largely dim view of the outlook for their success. On Iran, he said that Trump seemed to lack any clear direction and called his approach in recent weeks a failure.

"Our policy... since late December has been a failure with Iran," Haass said. "We encourage people to come out in the street to challenge the regime. The regime security forces were willing and able to use deadly, deadly force. Thousands of people, whether it's 3000, 5000, 10,000, got killed, at least for the time being. This regime has reestablished order. So, there was a real disconnect between what the United States was talking about and what it was we were prepared to do."

He added later: "I'd love to see regime change in Iran so long as it led to something demonstrably better than what's been in place for nearly half a century. And this is a regime that's in real trouble economically. That said, I'm not sure it's on the edge or cusp of collapse. So I haven't heard anything remotely looking like a strategy. Are we prepared to use force against what kinds of targets? What gives us confidence to believe if we were to hit certain targets, it would have the certain desired political effect ... So I'm watching all this, and I can't sit here and give you a confident analysis of what our objectives are, or what our definition of success is."

Haass was also pressed for his take on Trump's Board of Peace, an initiative to create a new global alliance to supposedly encourage peace and stability worldwide. The group, which costs $1 billion for nations to join and grew out of a plan to manage the rebuilding of the Gaza region, has received a chilly reception from all but the most Trump-friendly world governments, with critics decrying it as an attempt to supplant the United Nations. Haass noted that Canada had recently been disinvited from the alliance, which he said was likely a benefit for them.

"It's a pretty ragtag outfit, let's be blunt about it," Haass said. "Most of America's allies in Europe and Asia are not on it. A lot of countries, smaller countries with limited capacity, are many of those involved, shall we say, are anything but democracies. So far, Wolf, I've got to tell you, the mission of this new outfit is a little bit suspect. They want to move beyond Gaza, but it's not as though they've succeeded in Gaza."

He continued: "It's a strange combination of countries. The United States is chair. Countries seem to have to ante up $1 billion if they're going to be there for a few years. A lot of them aren't in a position to do that. The idea that Russia would be involved, of all countries involved in a peace effort, George Orwell would be proud. So I think there's more questions than answers about what this new group, what it's going to do, what it's going to be able to accomplish and what it's going to try to accomplish."

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