Ukrainian President Zelenskyy prepares to meet President Trump as Iran warns that a reported Ukrainian strike on an Iranian vessel cannot go unanswered. Brian Kennedy discusses Russia-Iran cooperation, the risk of a wider conflict, and the dangers of sending U.S. troops to recover enriched uranium.

ASHLEY STROHMIER, ‘FOX AND FRIENDS FIRST’ CO-HOST: Ukrainian President Zelensky is set to meet President Trump at the White House tomorrow. This is Iran issues a warning to Kiev over strikes on Iranian vessels in the Capsian Sea. Tehran’s foreign minister saying quote, Zelensky has attacked an Iranian commercial vessel killing a sailor, a blatant UN charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war. In calls we made it clear that what the freeloader in Kiev did cannot go unanswered. President of the American Strategy Group, Brian Kennedy joins me now. Brian, thanks for talking to us about this this morning. You know, Zelensky wrote in part on X that Russia is now assisting Iran in this war. You know, does this change what the U.S. is doing in Iran? And does this put us more at a risk, when I say us, America more at risk with Russia? BRIAN KENNEDY, AMERICAN STRATEGY GROUP PRESIDENT: Yeah, I don’t, first of all, good morning, Ashley. I don’t think it does. The Russians and the Iranians have been in a strategic alliance for the better part of three decades. And so no one in the White House will be surprised that the Russians and the Iranians are working together on this. What they’ll be concerned about is getting drawn, drawing the rest of the country and Europe into a broader war, I think. The president would like to wind down the war between Ukraine and Russia, for sure. He has said that time and again. His strategic instinct is right on in that regard. And the president would like to wind down this war in Iran as well. And so he’ll be cautious that what Mr. Zelensky is saying here doesn’t try to widen the war more than it already is. STROHMIER: Yeah, and I mean, that’s something President Trump ran on as well, wanting to end the war with Russia and Ukraine. But in this meeting with the president, Zelensky said he’s got proof, he’s going to apparently show proof to President Trump that Russia and Iran are, in fact, working together, which we’ve always known that our adversaries would be working together, but now it’s becoming blatant. And I think that’s what people are having such an issue with, is that they’re not really trying to hide it too much right now. So what does this mean for the war going forward? Because it seems more and more, and you’ve got to remember there’s China and North Korea as well. More and more, our adversaries are just ganging up on America and our allies, and it’s just, like I said, it’s becoming blatantly obvious. KENNEDY: Well, yeah, no, it’s a great point. But the Iranian nuclear program has been developed using Russian scientists, Chinese scientists, and North Korean scientists, primarily in North Korea, as I say, for the better part of 30 years. So again, no one in the White House will be surprised by this, let alone the president. It’s open that these things are going on. What we have to be mindful of is making sure we have the necessary defenses to stop both Iranian ballistic missiles, whether it’s stopping them the way the president has with these attacks, or developing missile defenses the way the president has described, so that the Iranian or North Korean or Russian or Chinese ballistic missiles are not a threat to the United States. The idea that our enemies work together, though, is something that we have known about. We expect that to happen, and we’re prepared for it, especially the president. STROHMIER: And, you know, I want to talk about that briefly. The U.S., they’re saying they want to snatch the enriched uranium from Iran’s nuclear facilities. To me, this seems pretty risky. So what can go right? What can go wrong? KENNEDY: Well, it would require thousands of U.S. soldiers in order to get that highly enriched uranium out of Iran. It strikes me as something you do after the war, not during the war. Those thousands of American troops would be targets there for an Iranian ballistic missile attack. And, you know, General Kane has said how we may be low on interceptors to stop such Iranian missiles. So I think the president should look at all options, not the least of which is to further degrade the nuclear sites, such as Pickaxe Mountain, and make sure that, at minimum, the Iranians can’t have access to that highly enriched uranium, and make sure that they can’t use it to further develop ballistic missiles and, you know, nuclear weapons.

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