ASPEN, Colo. — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum that the U.S. should work to exploit frictions between Iran, Russia, China and North Korea, to interfere with their deepening alliances.

Rice suggested that, rather than trying to disrupt links between Iran and other adversaries, the U.S. should “slam them together” because “they actually have very little in common and they actually have a lot of problems between them.”

“Nobody could feel very good right now in their alliance about the Iranian situation,” Rice said, emphasizing that Russia had declined to provide any military backing to Iran after it was attacked by Israel and the United States, and China is also trying to “keep their heads down.”

“I’ve thought this alliance is somewhat weaker than we sometimes would give it credit for, and I’d slam them together and make them deal with their own internal contradictions,” Rice reiterated.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend, pushing back on criticism from the isolationist right that the attack would embroil the U.S. in another prolonged conflict in the Middle East. 

Pompeo appeared at the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire, a part of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, for “Building Back American Deterrence and Strength in a Dangerous World.” The former secretary of state said during a moderated conversation with Tim Horgan, WACNH’s executive director, that the U.S. strikes served to prevent war rather than cause it. 

“Make no mistake, President Trump’s decision to act … delivered more security for our friends in Israel and made the world safer. America reasserted its global leadership. We didn’t send the 82nd [bomb squadron] — we sent America,” Pompeo said. 

Pompeo said that he believed the strikes by Israel and the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear facilities had restored deterrence in regard to both Iran and North Korea. “I do know this: [North Korean] Chairman Kim [Jong Un] is sitting a little less comfortably on his throne today,” he said.

Pompeo, who also served as CIA director from 2017-2018, said he rejected accusations from the progressive left and isolationist right that U.S. military engagement in recent decades had largely led to extended wars that failed to achieve any serious national security objectives.

“I’ve been called a neocon warmonger or worse. But for four years [when I was CIA director and secretary of state] we had no wars. It wasn’t because we were peaceniks and isolationists, it was because of our understanding of the things that matter to America,” Pompeo explained.

Pompeo also reaffirmed his belief in continued U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, arguing that the success of the Ukrainians would ensure the safety of Western nations.

“We have to win,” Pompeo said. “The West needs to win, Ukraine needs to win, Europe needs to win.”