‘Are we going back to the same dumb games?’ Newt Gingrich warns about ceasefire

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned on Fox Business Tuesday about the potential consequences of a ceasefire with Iran and urged the U.S. to avoid repeating past mistakes.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that Israel and Iran agreed to a “total ceasefire,” but, despite the agreement, Iran fired missiles at Israel Tuesday. During an appearance on “Kudlow,” Gingrich said the next few weeks are critical for setting clear boundaries on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and their continued support for terrorism.

“I think both from an Israeli perspective, where it’s a matter of life and death, and, from an American perspective, when, if they ever do get nuclear weapons and strategic missiles, it’ll become a matter of life and death. The next couple of weeks are important. Can we have set down serious lines of demarcation of things they have to do to avoid having their government totally destroyed militarily?” Gingrich asked host Larry Kudlow.

Gingrich said he was frustrated with past diplomatic approaches, which he believes allowed Iran to lie to the U.S. and buy time to develop nuclear technology.

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“Or are we going to go back to the same dumb games that every president before Trump played, where we talk with the Iranians [and then] they lie to us? We go along with the lie because, after all, we don’t want to break the ceasefire,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said he opposes any ceasefire that would allow the Iranian regime to continue financing terrorism, chant anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and secretly pursue nuclear weapons.

“I am against having a ceasefire if it allows the Iranian dictatorship to continue to finance terrorism, continue to chant death to Israel and death to America. And secretly try to rebuild their nuclear capability. I really think we’ve gotten to a crossroads, but we haven’t crossed through that crossroad yet. And I’m gonna watch very carefully to see what these negotiations look like in the next two or three weeks,” Gingrich said.

On Sunday, the United States struck Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, using up to 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. The operation involved seven B-2A Spirit bombers, which completed a 37-hour mission.

These American strikes followed Israel’s military action against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which took place 10 days earlier. In retaliation, Iran launched several missile attacks on Israeli cities and has refused to reengage in talks regarding its nuclear ambitions.