Arizona Senator Mark Kelly on Israel-Iran conflict, China helping Russia and abortion ruling
(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Arizona Senator Mark Kelly spoke with Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan Sunday about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
"This is a very aggressive act by Iran. They've been doing this for months now through their proxies, but now directly from Iranian territory, so this is significant. We don't want to see this escalate into a wider conflict. At the same time, I am constantly looking at the Iranian nuclear weapons capability. They could get pretty close, pretty fast if they chose to do that."
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)
When asked if Israel's conduct during the war in Gaza and the use of U.S. military equipment would hurt the Biden administration, Kelly said this:
"My first concern here is the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. I mean, Israel was violently attacked on October 7. I've watched an hour of footage from that day, it was horrific, and Israel has a right to defend itself. The way this has been conducted in Gaza, I have serious concerns, I've expressed those. Just most recently, about a week ago with the Israeli Prime Minister about what happened with the World Central Kitchen; reckless act and irresponsible, and they need to do better. We provide them with significant aid, and we're going to need to provide them with more by the way here because of what happened last night, we were going to need to replenish their rounds. Yeah, I mean...I'm concerned with perceptions and an election. But the thing that's always top of mind for me, because I sit on the Intelligence Committee, [and] I'm on the Armed Services Committee, it's our own national security and the national security of our allies."
During the interview, Brennan and Kelly spoke about the ongoing conflicts abroad between Russia and Ukraine, with China helping Russia.
"I think they realize that Russia, the outcome of this war, Russia against Ukraine is critical for their own decisions with Taiwan in the Western Pacific. This is all connected. Iran, Ukraine, China, the stock of Ukrainian ammunition is dwindling. They're going to run out of ammunition. Russia’s capacity, we look at this all the time, is going up. With the help of China, Russia can win this. If we support Ukraine, Ukraine can win. We passed an emergency supplemental two months ago. It's sitting on the speaker's desk, he should bring that to the floor tomorrow night, get it passed. This is also going to help Israel, we can replenish, you know. the stocks that they used last night."
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)
Talks then came to the Arizona Supreme Court's decision on abortion, which said officials may enforce an 1864 law criminalizing all abortions except when a woman's life is at stake.
"My first concern is women in Arizona and their health and women could die from this 1864 ruling that once again was enabled by the former president. So that's my biggest concern. We're going to have an election in November. I imagine we're going to have large turnout because of this issue. I also want to point out, Margaret, that I don't think this represents who we are in the state of Arizona. This is a moment in time, we're gonna get through this. We have an opportunity to fix this in November."
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.)
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Kelly, click here.
