CNN "The Situation Room"- Transcript: Iran

Interview

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Republican Senator Tom Cotton is joining us. He's from Arkansas. He's a key member of both the Intelligence and Armed Services Committee.

First of all, would you be open to a prisoner swap along those lines, Senator?

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: No, Wolf, I would not. The last time this president engaged in such a high-profile prisoner swap, we traded five stone-cold Taliban killers and got back Bowe Bergdahl, who is now facing trials for deserting his post.

More importantly, it engages in the worst kind of moral equivalence. The Iranians that we hold were convicted by independent courts under a democratic form of government. Iran is holding four Americans hostage without any due process whatsoever, a Christian preacher for spreading the Gospel of Christ or a reporter for doing his job.

They should have released those Americans a long time ago.

BLITZER: As you know, the Iranian president, Rouhani, is calling this nuclear deal a victory over war. Here's the question. Is that preferable to war, having this kind of diplomacy that might in fact wind up ending Iran's nuclear ambition?

COTTON: Unfortunately, Wolf, I think the nuclear deal is a victory for Iran and a victory for countries like Russia as well.

[18:10:00]

The president said all along that he would address Iran's malign influences throughout the region. And what we have seen since in the days since this nuclear deal was reached is Iran is continuing to spread that influence.

Now we have Iran cooperating with Iraq and Russia in Syria, upending one of the most longstanding, settled, bipartisan policies of the last 40 years, which is to keep Russia out of the Middle East. That's just one of the dire consequence of this nuclear deal.

BLITZER: In that CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour, Senator, Rouhani also ridiculed Republican presidential candidates who oppose this Iran nuclear deal. He said they wouldn't even know where Tehran was on a map. What do you say to that? What's your response?

COTTON: Well, I think most of them probably could pick out Tehran on a map and plenty of our military commanders could pick out where Hassan Rouhani is at most times of the day.

BLITZER: Senator, I want you to stand by. We have more to discuss, including this. What happens if, in Syria, Bashar al-Assad and his regime and his military were to fall?

Stay with us. Much more with Senator Cotton coming up.

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[18:15:55]

BLITZER: We're back with a key member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas.

We are going to talk to him in just a moment about the Pentagon program to arm and equip moderate Syrian rebels to help the fight against ISIS, a program so far that's been a stunning, stunning failure.

But, first, let's go to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.

Barbara, what's the latest you're hearing over there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, so far, the Pentagon has spent about $50 million to train and equip less than 200 Syrian rebels. They were supposed to be fighting ISIS. Many of them wanted to fight Assad. There is nothing really to show for the program.

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STARR (voice-over): French air forces conducted their first airstrikes against ISIS positions in Syria, but airstrikes are not significantly changing the war on the ground. The Pentagon now urgently looking for a way to revive its disastrous effort to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIS.

ASHTON CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are looking at additional opportunities to train and equip Syrian forces that will combat ISIL.

STARR: But after the first group of trained fighters came under attack, another disaster. September 20, a second group of 70 Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the U.S. crossed into Syria.

That morning, 30 of those rebels reunited with their opposition group. But the next day, the commander of the group was told by al Qaeda to turn over U.S.-provided weapons or be attacked, and he did.

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: The hope was that the second graduating class would be an improvement.

STARR: Now several U.S. military officials tell CNN they are waiting for crucial decisions to be made by the White House. One idea, train the rebels to help call in airstrikes and help with communications, not necessarily engage in combat. The U.S. train and equip program has been racked with crisis since its first group of 54 fighters entered Syria.

WEISS: They were almost immediately attacked by Jabhat al-Nusra. Some of the guys I think were killed. Others were kidnapped or captured. There had been speculation at the Pentagon some of them may have defected over to Nusra.

STARR: Then a shocking admission of how few of those rebels were left.

GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. CENTCOM COMMANDER: It's a small number, and the ones that are in the fight is -- we're talking four or five.

SEN. KELLY AYOTTE (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: As I see it right now, this four or five U.S.-trained fighters, let's not kid ourselves, that's a joke. (END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: It looks like half-a-dozen U.S.-provided trucks, ammunition and nobody is sure what else was turned over to this al Qaeda group in Northern Syria by the rebels that the U.S. had been counting on. Right now, it is not clear here at the Pentagon, officials say, what the next steps will be -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Reminds me of what happened in Mosul in Northern Iraq, when U.S.-trained Iraqi forces simply ran away, left all their U.S. military equipment behind in the face of a few ISIS guys moving in on Iraq's second largest city, a disaster there, now another disaster unfolding.

Thanks very much, Barbara, for that report.

Senator Cotton, you're on the Armed Services Committee. You served in Iraq. How can the U.S. train and equip troops, moderate rebels in Syria who apparently don't want to fight ISIS?

COTTON: Well, Wolf, the program today has been an utter failure. You heard some of those numbers. Having four or five troops on the ground or having U.S. weapons turned over immediately to al Qaeda, this just goes to show what happens when you don't have a strategy and you're not committed to victory.

The president has been indecisive and has not taken action in Syria for four-and-a-half years, to include when Syria violated his own red line. Vladimir Putin is decisive. He's committed to victory and he now has aircraft and surface-to-air missiles and main battle tanks in Syria.

[18:20:03]

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and that Iran and Russia cannot be granted a sphere of influence in Syria, and that we will not sit down at the negotiating table to help broker Assad's victory in this fight. There are still plenty of fighting forces inside of Syria who want to see Assad go. We should have been helping them from the very beginning.

BLITZER: It's a fair point.

But I spoke with Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, here in New York at the United Nations. And he told me bluntly that if Syria and its military were to fall into the hands of the terrorists, all that Syrian military equipment would be in the hands of ISIS, the Islamic State and terrorists as well, and that could spill over and directly impact Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel.

That's a possibility, isn't it?

COTTON: Well, unfortunately, it already is affecting and destabilizing those countries. Jordan has almost 15 percent of its population now are Syrian

refugees. Just last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu from Israel had fly to Israel to speak to Vladimir Putin, one of the first times that an Israeli prime minister has had to worry about the presence of Russian vehicles and tanks and aircraft in the Middle East in over 40 years.

This is just the consequences of inaction and indecision in Syria. And if Assad himself were to go, which would be a good thing for the United States, because a bad thing for Russia and Syria, there would still be a multifront fighting effort within Syria, probably elements of his regime, moderates who are from Syria and outsiders like al Qaeda or the Islamic State and the Kurds as well.

This situation is not going to get better in the near run, but we cannot concede to Russia and Iran that they will have a client in Bashar al-Assad and Syria after that's been the United States policy for over four years.

BLITZER: Senator Cotton, thanks very much for joining us.

COTTON: Thanks, Wolf.

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