03/08/2026
Best insight into the war in Iran and what may come next was on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show 'GPS' on Sunday, March 8. After his opening "My Take," Fareed interviewed Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, who is smarter than Trump's advisors like Marco Rubio. Trump's Cabinet appointments value loyalty over ability. Without partisan criticism, Sullivan provides deep insight into what may happen now: civil war within Iran between the army and those wanting change; rewarding Putin with oil revenue while the flow through the Persian Gulf is on pause.
SUMMARY OF GPS episode that aired March 8, 2026, on CNN:
In the war with Iran, Israel an the US have separate and perhaps incompatible agendas, Fareed says.
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the war is clearly about destroying the Islamic Republic. But Fareed argues Washington’s focus should be different: it needs to secure the gains it has made—a disarmed and defanged Iran—without pushing the country into civil war.
After that, former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who served under President Joe Biden, joins Fareed to discuss the war’s complexities: how fighting is likely to proceed, the pitfalls and opportunities in waging war on the Islamic Republic, and concerns about regional escalation and munitions supplies.
Washington reportedly has explored arming Kurdish forces in Iraq, in the hopes of mounting a ground incursion that could further destabilize the Islamic Republic. Is that realistic? What’s going on with this murky potential plan? Fareed talks with Peter Galbraith, a former US ambassador in the Middle East and elsewhere.
As the US, Israel and Iran fight, America’s allies in the Persian Gulf are paying some of the price. Following Iranian retaliations against countries like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Fareed talks with Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief of the UAE-based newspaper The National, about the Gulf’s reaction.
Tactically, the war is now a race of missiles and drones. As Iran launches them in retaliation, will the US and its allies have enough interceptors to stop the incoming Iranian fire? And how long will supplies last? Fareed talks with The Economist’s defense editor, Shashank Joshi, about the war’s important munitions dimension.
