Middle East: Oil and Turmoil

Four months into the war with Iran, Congress just voted on whether it should continue. Congressman Michael Baumgartner was at the center of that debate.

A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and its Middle East subcommittee, Baumgartner served at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and in Afghanistan before Congress, and first visited the region as a student thirty years ago.

In this episode, he tells Washington Bureau Chief Joe Kawly what was actually buried, not destroyed, in Iran's nuclear program, why Iran's negotiating leverage may run out in months, and why the future of Lebanon depends on whether Hezbollah's grip can be broken.

What is The Diplomat | ديبلومات?

In the rooms where war, peace, and power are decided, words matter most. The Diplomat brings you raw conversations with ambassadors, envoys, and negotiators who shaped the hardest decisions in U.S. foreign policy and Middle East diplomacy. Hosted by Joe Kawly. Recorded from Washington. Produced by Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).

Joe Kawly brings extensive experience from conflict zones in the Middle East to the power corridors of Washington. As a journalist, he’s seen how words can escalate a crisis or open the door to peace. A Georgetown graduate and former CNN Journalism Fellow, he’s known for connecting the dots others miss, so people don’t just hear what happened, they understand why it matters. As producer and host of The Diplomat, Joe brings clarity to diplomacy and politics, one conversation at a time.