Rep. James Moylan of Guam warned that the territory is being ‘infiltrated’ by an influx of illegal Chinese migrants, and told Fox News Digital he is seeking aid from the Biden administration to combat the matter and protect the island – something that he says is critical for the United States’ deterrence efforts against the Chinese Communist Party.

Moylan, a Republican, is the delegate from Guam. He was elected in 2022 as the island territory’s non-voting U.S. congressional delegate.

Moylan told Fox News Digital that, for years, Guam has been ‘infiltrated by droves of illegal Chinese migrants embarking on our shores.’

The majority of the ‘illegal Chinese aliens coming are often from the Northern Mariana Islands,’ he said.

Moylan warned that the Chinese are working to ‘steal into the environment.’

‘It’s a great threat,’ he said, pointing to the possibility that the Chinese on the islands could be working to gather intelligence on behalf of the CCP in Guam and around the U.S. military bases on the island.

Moylan pointed to reports from just last month, revealing a boat captain and three others were charged with transporting Chinese nationals illegally to Guam. Also last month, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued six Chinese nationals on a sinking boat just north of the island. Moylan also pointed to a report that in June, more than two dozen Chinese nationals came to Guam by boat. 

But Moylan told Fox News Digital that Guam’s local government is limited in the action it can take, as it is a ‘federal issue,’ but told Fox News Digital the territory is not receiving the help needed from the Biden administration.

Last month, Moylan attempted to reach U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement related to ‘concerns on PRC migrants entering Guam illegally.’ 

‘With the rising tensions of the PRC within the Indo-Pacific region, where Guam’s proximity plays an integral role, it is concerning that PRC Nationals are entering the island through such precarious routes,’ Moylan warned in a letter to ICE last month. ‘While we are certain that some are here to find a means to earn an income through under the radar jobs, there are still the risks at play with bad actors coming to the table with other intentions.’ 

Moylan requested that ICE investigate the matter and take ‘action,’ specifically related to drug trafficking to the territory. Moylan cited the recent discovery of 60 pounds of cocaine found on a Guam beach.

Moylan told Fox News Digital that he has yet to receive a response from ICE.

ICE did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Moylan also told Fox News Digital that Guam has experienced hacking of malware on the island from the Chinese Communist Party. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday that Chinese hackers are preparing to ‘wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities.’ 

Moylan said the CCP has ‘made attempts on Guam with our military services,’ and have ‘hacked into our communications.’ 

‘They’re continuously trying to work their way in,’ Moylan told Fox News Digital. 

But Moylan said because Guam is the ‘most western U.S. soil there is,’ there is ‘so much investment’ into the island and ‘the protection of Guam and the defense of the nation.’ 

‘So when we have these attacks ongoing, it’s very scary,’ he said. ‘And I knew what I know, we’re doing what we can to protect, but the attention needs to be really put back on Guam to protect our U.S. citizens there, to protect our military there as well.’ 

He added that Wray’s warning to Congress on CCP hacking was ‘so important’ because it ‘really, already is happening on our territory.’ 

Guam is the westernmost U.S. territory in the Indo-Pacific region and home to approximately 170,000 U.S. citizens. The Department of Defense owns approximately a quarter of the land on Guam and has a military force of nearly 7,000 active-duty service members on the island.

Guam hosts Naval Base Guam, the Navy’s only submarine base in the western Pacific, as well as Anderson Air Force Base – a large air base that is able to host U.S. strategic bombers and fighters.

But Guam is significantly closer to Beijing than it is to Hawaii, and is within range of nuclear-capable missiles owned by the People’s Republic of China and North Korea.

U.S. officials have warned that China has spent decades developing both short- and intermediate-range missiles that can target Guam.

Moylan warned of Chinese missiles like the DF-26 IRBM, which has an estimated range of 1,000 to 3,000 km. The range would put Guam in reach. The missile has been dubbed the ‘Guam Killer,’ Moylan said.

‘This is where America’s day begins – we’re on the other side of the dateline. The sun rises first on Guam,’ Moylan told Fox News Digital. ‘If things are going to happen, China is looking at us.’

Moylan explained that ‘every war game scenario that is played out involves Guam because of our location.’

‘We have to protect the island, and we can and Congress has done a really great job at that,’ Moylan said.

Moylan said he is feeling bipartisan support in Congress, and pointed to the bipartisan congressional delegations from the House Armed Services Committee that visited Guam. 

Moylan said there is an emphasis on the attention to the island to ensure the United States and Guam are ‘strong enough to deter the Communist Chinese Party and the interest they have with our fellow nations that are involved like Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan.’ 

Moylan also touted the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024, which authorized funding to support military infrastructure and a missile defense system for Guam.

‘We know what our aggressors have – what the CCP has – and we need to defeat that,’ Moylan said. ‘If Guam is able to defeat their attacks on the island, which we hope doesn’t happen, because we’re all about deterrence, but if it does, we can destroy that element before it hits Guam.’

Moylan stressed that Guam, due to its location, will show China ‘the strength of the nation.’

‘That’s why it is so important for us to have this buildup happening,’ he said.

Moylan told Fox News Digital that Guam, strategically, is ‘so important’ to the United States’ national security.

‘We need to focus on the protection of the people, the protection of our military forces,’ Moylan said. ‘We need to show the strength of the nation and to maintain the essential operation bases and the peace within the Indo-Pacific.’

A senior Republican on the House committees for Intelligence and Armed Services is arguing that the Biden administration’s foreign policy decisions led to the deaths of three U.S. troops in Jordan last month, and that thousands more could be ‘at risk.’

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., suggested to Fox News Digital that he believes President Biden’s military response to Houthi rebels in the Red Sea is the right response, but one that came too late.

Asked whether he sees a direct cause-and-effect between the delayed response and the recent U.S. service member deaths, Austin said firmly, ‘I do.’

‘I don’t understand why anyone would think that they would ever stop firing at you if there were not consequences for firing at you the first time,’ Scott said. ‘They’re not simply going to stop because they had decided, ‘We’re going to be good people now.’ They’re only going to stop when their actions lead to punishment… that if they do this again, we’re going to punish them again.’

The Pentagon blamed Iran-backed militants for a drone attack on U.S. troops stationed in Jordan near its border with Syria. At least 34 American soldiers were wounded in addition to the three that were killed. 

U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 150 times since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants invaded Israel and slaughtered more than 1,200 people in a surprise attack. Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also staged dozens of attacks in the Red Sea on commercial and military ships in what they say is a response to Israel and its support from the U.S.

Biden has since responded with several rounds of airstrikes beginning Jan. 11, in coordination with the U.K. and other allies, on Houthi positions in Yemen. On Friday, the U.S. launched strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the soldiers’ deaths.

Scott praised those who conducted the strikes on Friday. ‘I applaud the bravery and skill of [U.S. Central Command], who carried out multiple airstrikes against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups today. Those who strike against the U.S. will face consequences,’ he said.

But he argued to Fox News Digital that Biden’s failure to respond to the initial attacks earlier sent a message of weakness to U.S. adversaries.

‘I’m very pessimistic about his inaction putting America, and Americans, at risk. And let’s remember, you know, we have people in Africa, we have people deployed all over the world. Part of their safety there is because it is understood that if you attack a United States soldier, there are consequences for that,’ Scott said.

‘Every president of the United States of America – Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George Bush – if you carry out an attack against a United States soldier, or a United States military asset, there are consequences for that,’ Scott said.

‘This is the first time that I remember where someone’s been able to shoot us 100 plus times and us not respond. And so I think that that action obviously put people at risk. You can’t, you just can’t do that. You’re putting every American that’s deployed at risk when you allow people to take shots at your people without responding.’

Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Friday took part in the dignified transfer of the remains of the three service members killed – Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, Spc. Kennedy Landon Sanders, 24, and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23 – all of whom were from Georgia.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for a response to Scott’s criticism.

Saudi Arabia may be willing to accept a non-binding commitment from Israel to create a Palestinian state in its push to get a defense pact with the United States ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

Saudi Arabia had been heading toward normalizing relations with Israel and recognizing the country for the first time thanks to U.S.-led diplomacy. But those efforts were shelved in October after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent counter-offensive that enraged the Arab world.  

Still, Saudi Arabia is increasingly keen to shore up its security and ward off threats from rival Iran, so the kingdom can forge ahead with its ambitious plan to transform its economy and attract huge foreign investment, two regional sources said.

Riyadh’s diplomatic push comes amid growing concerns over the military reach of Iran, which has proxies in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza. 

To create some wiggle room in talks about recognizing Israel and to get the U.S. pact back on track, Saudi officials have told their U.S. counterparts that Riyadh would not insist Israel take concrete steps to create a Palestinian state and would instead accept a political commitment to a two-state solution, two senior regional sources told Reuters.

Such a major regional deal, widely seen as a long shot even before the Israel-Hamas war, would still face numerous political and diplomatic obstacles, not least the uncertainty over how the Gaza conflict will unfold.

Another big hurdle to these plans is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has outright rejected any U.S. and Arab aspirations for a Palestinian state once the Gaza war is over.

A potential pact giving the world’s biggest oil exporter U.S. military protection in exchange for normalization with Israel would reshape the Middle East by uniting two long-time foes and binding Riyadh to Washington at a time when China is making inroads in the region.

A normalization deal would also bolster Israel’s defenses against arch-rival Iran and give U.S. President Joe Biden a diplomatic victory to vaunt ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The Saudi officials have privately urged Washington to press Israel to end the Gaza war and commit to a ‘political horizon’ for a Palestinian state, saying Riyadh would then normalize relations and help fund Gaza’s reconstruction, one of the regional sources said.

Reuters contributed to this report.  

Iranian officials warned the U.S. on Sunday about possibly targeting two cargo ships in the Middle East that are suspected of being spy ships for the country.

The warning was issued after forces from the U.S. and U.K. launched an airstrike offensive against Houthi rebels located in Yemen.

The Associated Press reported that the statement from Iran referred to the Behshad and Saviz ships, which are both registered commercial cargo ships with a company based in Tehran, which the U.S. Treasury sanctioned as a front for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

The statement also appeared to show Tehran’s increasing uneasiness with the U.S. strike in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which targeted militias backed by the Islamic Republic.

The attacks ordered by President Biden were in response to the killing of three U.S. soldiers and the wounding of dozens of others in Jordan. Attacks on U.S. troops and facilities in the Middle East have also increased since the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip intensified after Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The U.S. continues to claim it is not looking for a war in the Middle East and is there to ensure the war between Hamas and Israel does not spread across the region.

U.S. and coalition forces launched more than two dozen strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Saturday, targeting 13 locations with deeply buried storage facilities, missile systems, launchers, air defense systems and radars, according to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

After the attacks, the Houthis did not provide an assessment of the damage, though they issued a statement.

‘These attacks will not discourage Yemeni forces and the nation from maintaining their support for Palestinians in the face of Zionist occupation and crimes,’ Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said. ‘The aggressors’ airstrikes will not go unanswered.’

The Behshad and Saviz are suspected of being spy ships for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as both ships have loitered in the Red Sea off Yemen for years.

Saudi Arabia described the Saviz in 2017 as a maritime base and weapons transfer point for the Revolutionary Guard. The ship was staffed by men in military fatigues, and Saudi-owned television stations showed the ship with what looked to be a machine bolted to the deck of the ship and covered.

Iran’s regular army issued a statement in a video on Sunday, which, according to The Associated Press, has a narrator describing the two vessels as ‘floating armories.’

The narrator also reportedly describes the Behshad as an aid for countering piracy in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,’ though Iran is not known to have been part of any campaigns recently against Somali piracy in the region, at least publicly.

Before the U.S. launched its attacks, the Behshad moved south into the Gulf of Aden, and it is now docked in Djibouti in East Africa, near a Chinese Military base.

The video statement ends with images of U.S. warships, an American flag and a warning.

‘Those engaging in terrorist activities against Behshad, or similar vessels jeopardize international maritime routes, security and assume global responsibility for potential future international risks,’ the video stated.

U.S. Naval Forces Central Command did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital on the matter.

The Saviz is reportedly in the Indian Ocean near the location where the U.S. claims Iranian drone attacks have targeted ships.

The same ship, in 2021, had a hole blown through its hull by a possible mine explosion in an attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel. The ship ultimately returned to its port.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to rule out U.S. strikes inside Iran on Sunday, while still insisting President Biden is ‘not looking to get into a war’ in the Middle East. 

Sullivan appeared on Sunday programs on CNN, ABC and NBC days after the United States and the United Kingdom began launching a massive airstrike campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Friday as part of retaliation for the killing of three U.S. service members and the injuring of more than 40 others in Jordan along the Syrian border. 

‘The president has approached this with a straightforward principle, which is that the United States will step up and respond when our forces are attacked. And the United States also is not looking for a wider war in the Middle East. We are not looking to take the United States to war. So we are going to continue to pursue a policy that goes down both of those lines simultaneously, that responds with force and clarity, as we did on Friday night, but also that continues to hew to an approach that does not get the United States pulled into a war, that we have seen too frequently in the Middle East,’ Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on ‘State of the Union.’ 

Sullivan vowed ‘further action,’ but said he would refrain from telegraphing the United States’ punches in the conflict. 

‘Inside Iran? Would you rule that out at this point?’ Bash asked. 

 ‘Look, sitting on a national TV program, I’m not going to rule in and rule out any activity anywhere. What I am going to say is that the president will do what he thinks needs to be done and again, reinforce the point that he’s going to defend our forces, and also that he is not looking to get into a war,’ Sullivan said. 

Bash noted Republican criticism that the Biden administration should have responded before the three U.S. casualties given there have been more than 150 attacks on U.S. troops since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. 

‘We have responded multiple times, before the tragic events of a few days ago. We have struck targets in both Iraq and Syria,’ Sullivan said. ‘We have gone against IRGC and militia-linked facilities in both Iraq and Syria. We have taken out a militia leader in Iraq. So the notion that we have not responded is just incorrect. Second point I would make, is that I didn’t hear these same voices, which to me sound mostly like political voices, saying that when American service members were tragically killed by these same militias in the previous administration. This is a challenging, difficult issue. It has been for every president over the past 20 years, and every president has sought to defend American forces.’ 

Iran, meanwhile, issued a warning Sunday to the U.S. over potentially targeting two cargo ships in the Middle East, the Behshad and Saviz, long suspected of serving as a forwarding operating base for Iranian commandos, signaling Tehran’s growing unease over the U.S. strikes in recent days in Iraq, Syria and Yemen targeting militias backed by the Islamic Republic.

Appearing on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ Sullivan said ‘the central purpose of the strikes has been to take away capabilities from the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria that are attacking our forces, and from the Houthis that continue to threaten Red Sea shipping, and we believe they had good effect in reducing degrading the capabilities of the militias and of the Houthis.’ 

‘This was the beginning of our response. There will be more steps,’ Sullivan told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. ‘Some of those steps will be seen, some may not be seen, but there will be more action taken to respond to the death and the tragic death of the three brave U.S. service members. And we cannot rule out that there will be further attacks from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, or from the Houthis. We have to be clear-eyed about that. And the president, in being clear-eyed about that, has told his military commanders that they need to be positioned to respond to further attacks as well.’ 

Sullivan, appearing on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ also responded to criticism from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has contended Biden’s administration has been appeasing Iran. 

‘I find it somewhat strange. The president made clear before we were attacked in Tower 22 in Jordan, before our brave service members were tragically killed, that if we were attacked, we would respond,’ Sullivan said. ‘So Iran and its militia groups knew that the United States was going to respond. We think that those strikes had good effects. So, of course, there will always be armchair quarterbacks, but we are confident in the steps that we have taken so far, and we are confident in the course that we are on going forward.’ 

Johnson hit back, appearing later on during the same program. 

‘I do take issue with a little bit of what Jake Sullivan just said. I listened to that interview. It was interesting. We need to make absolutely clear to Iran that nothing is off the table. We should not be appeasing Iran,’ Johnson told NBC host Kristen Welker. ‘That’s what the Biden administration has been doing for the last three years. We are projecting weakness on the world stage. And frankly, Kristen, that is why our adversaries are acting so provocatively. What we need to be doing right now is turning up the heat on Iran.’ 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden’s team reportedly is fearing that photos included in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s imminent report on the handling of classified documents could impact his 2024 reelection bid. 

Axios reported that Biden’s aides do not expect criminal charges as a result of the investigation, but they are concerned about potentially embarrassing photos included in Hur’s expected report that could be released as soon as this week. The images could show how Biden stored classified materials, which were discovered in late 2022 in the garage of Biden’s Delaware home as well as in a private office. The classified documents were carried over from Biden’s time as former President Obama’s vice president.

Biden’s aides told Axios that they are fearful former President Trump’s campaign could use the photos against the Democrat incumbent ahead of their likely 2024 rematch.

Trump himself is facing more than 40 counts, including obstruction of justice and willful retention of national defense information, for improperly storing classified documents at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida after leaving the White House, following a probe by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

With Hur’s report looming, Biden’s aides are concerned Trump’s campaign could attempt to contrast the handling of the two investigations.

Hur, a former U.S. attorney nominated by Trump in 2017 and a former clerk for conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist, is obligated to write a report about the investigation, and Biden’s aides told Axios they expect the report could come as soon as this week, though the exact timing of its release is unknown.

Biden has defended the storing of classified documents in the past.

‘By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,’ he once said.

In a CBS ’60 Minutes’ interview last fall, Attorney General Merrick Garland vowed to make public a special counsel’s report related to another matter – the one related to Hunter Biden – ‘to the extent permissible under the law’ and promised to explain the ‘decisions to prosecute or not prosecute, and their strategic decisions along the way.’

‘Usually, the special counsels have testified at the end of their reports, and I expect that that will be the case here,’ Garland said.

The Justice Department told Axios that Garland is also committed to releasing Hur’s report as well.

Anthony Coley, a former senior adviser to Garland, accused the Biden team of slow-walking discovery in the case.

‘Against the backdrop of former President Trump’s indictment on charges of willful and deliberate retention of classified documents, the Biden team’s drip, drip, drip of information made the discoveries seem even worse,’ he wrote in an op-ed.

The Israeli military offered a stark warning to Hezbollah and Iran on Saturday as the war in Gaza was just days away from completing its fourth month.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari addressed Hezbollah, saying that Israel will be ‘ready to attack immediately’ if provoked, but said they do not wish for outright war.

‘We do not choose war as our first priority, but we are certainly prepared,’ Hagari said.’We will continue to act wherever Hezbollah is present, we will continue to act wherever it is required in the Middle East. What is true for Lebanon is true for Syria, and is true for other more distant places.’

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a similar warning this weekend, saying that even if Israel agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas, the IDF would not hesitate to strike Hezbollah if necessary.

Israel will mark four months since it began its retaliatory campaign against Hamas later this week. Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that they expect the war to continue for ‘many more months.’

An Israeli intelligence official told reporters last week that Israel remains far away from achieving its stated goals of capturing Hamas’ leaders and ammunition reserves and rendering Hamas military bases and tunnels inoperative.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar remains at large, though he is believed to be somewhere within the network of tunnels beneath Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza.

Israel’s warning this weekend comes as tensions between the U.S. and Iran threaten to boil over. Iran-backed terrorist groups have caused chaos throughout the Middle East since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, going so far as to kill 3 U.S. soldiers last week.

President Biden’s administration has vowed a response, and Iran has likewise vowed to ‘decisively’ respond to any U.S. attacks. U.S. Central Command said Friday that forces conducted airstrikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

A House GOP lawmaker on the China Select Committee is warning that it is critical for the U.S. to beat China in the ‘race’ for dominance in the artificial intelligence sphere.

‘China is pursuing AI, but they’re also pursuing quantum computing, and it’s a lethal combination,’ Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. ‘And in terms of artificial intelligence, the more data that they gather, the faster they’ll advance…AI is a race that we need to win.’

Gimenez explained that AI technology was rapidly being integrated into more facets of both everyday life and the national security sphere.

‘We have to win the race for AI because of the applications of AI in everything, including military hardware. So it’s important for us to win that race, or else that technology will be used against us in the future,’ he said.

When asked about his concerns regarding China coming out ahead, Gimenez said, ‘Many of their weapons will be superior to ours, and that causes me great concern.’

Just last year, the Pentagon unveiled an ambitious new AI program, called the Replicator initiative, aimed at producing thousands of drones with autonomous capabilities in order to compete with China. 

‘Replicator is meant to help us overcome the PRC’s biggest advantage, which is mass. More ships. More missiles. More people,’ Deputy Pentagon Secretary Kathleen Hicks said in August. ‘To stay ahead, we’re going to create a new state of the art — just as America has before — leveraging attritable, autonomous systems in all domains — which are less expensive, put fewer people in the line of fire, and can be changed, updated, or improved with substantially shorter lead times.’

However, Gimenez pointed out that in addition to the military implications, the AI race between the U.S. and China is also being run on a more granular level, which is aided by Beijing’s ability to harvest Americans’ data via TikTok.

He pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray on the issue in a hearing last month, during which Wray admitted he had ‘very significant security concerns about TikTok.’

‘It’s a combination of the ability that the Chinese government would have, if they should choose to exercise it, to control the collection of the data, to control the recommendation algorithm, and if they wanted to, to be able to control and compromise devices,’ Wray said. ‘And if you layer AI, as you’re saying, on top of all of that, it just amplifies those concerns, because the ability to use U.S. personal data and feed that into their AI engine, that just magnifies the problem.’

Gimenez told Fox News Digital that the way to mitigate concerns about China and stay on top of AI innovation was to look closely at U.S. institutions with ties to Beijing.

‘I think we should be looking at educational institutions that have close ties to Chinese companies, Chinese nationals that may be working for the PRC. Look, if you’re a Chinese company, you are bound by their law to turn over whatever research and findings that you have [that] could be useful to the [Chinese military],’ he said.

‘And so we need to look at every single Chinese company as basically an extension of the Chinese military. That’s extremely concerning to me, and the fact that American universities and Western universities that…could be transferring technology.’

— British Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps lamented the delicate state of the international security landscape as more voters than ever head to the polls in a potentially defining year for the world. 

‘I just think that we need to wake up to the risks that exist,’ Shapps said. ‘So, we’ve lived in a kind of a post-Cold War era in which we’ve taken the peace dividend. Fine. But you can’t carry on taking that same peace dividend whilst at the same time you’ve got a very aggressive Russia right now. You see what Iran are doing and how they’re increasing the tensions in the Middle East.

‘You’ve got a very assertive North Korea with nuclear weapons,’ he added. ‘What happens when China is looking at all of this to see how the West responds? So, it seems obvious to me that what we need to do is make sure that we do not carry on trying to take a peace dividend that no longer exists.’

Shapps warned in his first major speech as defense minister the world might see conflict between the West and rival nations, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran within the next five years, as tensions continue to ramp up in various regions, particularly and most recently the Middle East. 

But Shapps noted that the state of the world remains in flux as more voters than ever head to the polls in a rare alignment of elections in dozens of major countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, the European Union, India, Mexico, Pakistan and many others. 

Taiwan kicked off the election year with a historic third consecutive term for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, beating China’s implied favorite, the Kuomintang party. The shocks started the year before with an upset victory for Holland’s Geert Wilders, who will become prime minister if he is able to form a cabinet. 

‘It’s obviously critical that we make sure that the world order in which billions of people actually get a good vote this year, 2024, 2 billion people will go and vote is the greatest Democratic year in history in that sense,’ Shapps said in an interview before the U.S. initiated retaliatory airstrikes in the Middle East. 

The potential to reshape the political balance of the majority of big players on the international scene will set the direction for many issues, including support for Ukraine in the third year of Russia’s invasion, China’s regional aggression and, most pressing, the escalation of violence in the Middle East. 

The U.S. initiated airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq following an attack in Jordan that killed three American service members. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revealed the strikes hit 85 targets at six locations in the first wave. 

In his interview with Fox News Digital, Shapps offered his condolences for the U.S. deaths and stressed that the U.K. wants to see ‘restraint’ from Iran and de-escalation. He cited the ongoing attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea and the attacks against American military personnel and assets as unacceptable actions Tehran has continued to endorse. 

‘You cannot go about infringing on international waterways, freedom of navigation, and we call on Iran to step in there, but also with these militant groups,’ Shapps said, noting that his stance follows continued joint statements between Washington, London and their allies. 

‘It is in no one’s interest to see this grow as a regional conflict. So, of course, we are calling on everyone to show restraint.

‘I want to see Lebanese Hezbollah stop,’ he added. ‘I want to see these Iran-backed militant groups stop, and, of course, most of all, we want to see an end to the conflict in Israel and Gaza as well, for which we need a bunch of preconditions like the hostages released, for example.’ 

Shapps reiterated the British position seeking a two-state solution, which necessitates recognition of a Palestinian state, an option the Biden administration has reportedly started to explore as the president plans for the aftermath of the conflict. 

‘We’re going to have recognition of a Palestinian state, and that requires security guarantees to Israel as well, so that has to be the end state,’ Shapps explained. 

‘I don’t think we could jump to that conclusion,’ he warned. ‘We have to see a bunch of things happening. First, a large number of agreements would need to go in place. That’s where we want to end up getting. … Of course, it’s said, much harder to do, but a good start would be for those hostages to be released and a sustainable cease-fire off the back of that.’ 

Shapps highlighted 2024 as a pivotal year not just for the upcoming elections but the fragile state of conflicts such as Ukraine’s defense against Russia. He suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to play ‘the long game’ and wait out the West, hoping it will ‘get bored.’ 

‘Will we turn our backs? Perhaps because of what’s happening in the Middle East … maybe just because he thinks we won’t have the stomach to support Ukraine until the end. So, I think 2024 is a really pivotal year,’ he said. 

‘We have to essentially make the conscious decision. Are we in this for Ukraine to establish total sovereignty across all of Ukraine … or are we just going to say it’s OK for a democratic neighbor to be invaded with all that read across to China and others will be looking at this,’ he argued.

‘North Korea, Iran and the situation we’re seeing right now in the Middle East … China will draw their own conclusions when they’re thinking about Taiwan and elsewhere,’ Shapps stressed. ‘We must wake up to the real threat that is posed, which is not just about Russia or Putin, but is about the entire world order.’ 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.