CNN Newsroom: Interview with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Interview
"Abby, it's good to be with you. Thank you.
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You know, we're going to have time to evaluate the intelligence failures, why there wasn't more information known and better defense in Israel, but right now the depth of this tragedy is just being understood and the consequences are still uncertain. So I think our thoughts now are with how do we keep people safe in Israel, how do we deal with those that have been taken hostage, how do we account to the families, our sympathies for the families that are struggling who don't even know where their loved ones are today.
I think these are the initial concerns, also to make sure it does not spread beyond the current conflict. And I think President Biden sent a really clear message to groups around the world that they should not take advantage of this situation.
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Abby, I don't know. I'm not sure we do know that answer right now but we do know there's been a long-standing support by Iran of Hamas, giving them the capacity as a terrorist organization to carry out these types of operations. So clearly Iran has some accountability here. I don't know, I'm not sure we do know yet what role they directly played in this operation.
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Well, we already recognize Iran as a supporter of terrorism. We've already imposed maximum sanctions and penalties against Iran. We will evaluate what role they played in this particular operation and make our judgments that need to be made. But at this particular moment, I think our focus is to work with the Israelis, to make sure that people are kept safe, recognizing what Israel is going to be doing in regards to the Gaza.
These are the immediate steps. There'll be opportunities for us to evaluate what additional steps need to be taken. I want to make this point. We've been working under the Abraham Accords and normalization to strengthen Israel's ties in the region and to really calm things down. The terrorists would like to see that type of effort sidetracked. We have to make sure that this episode does not stop the normalization talks that have been taking place. We don't want the terrorists to win.
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My pleasure. Good to be with you.
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