House Foreign Affairs Chair: U.K. Cutting Ties with Israel a Risk, We Work with People Including Israel, Qatar on Intel.

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) discussed the U.S. moving bombers from the United Kingdom by saying that we have intelligence relationships with people “from Israelis to Qataris” and one problem with the United Kingdom is that they’re “more concerned about cutting ties with Israel, one of their greatest intelligence-sharing assets, instead of working more with them to see what’s going on with Iran, with others throughout the region, I think that’s taking your eye off the ball.” Mast said that he can’t say how long in advance moving the bombers was planned, “I can only tell you that we assess threats, we have relationships with intelligence agencies across the globe, from Israelis to Qataris, so that we can develop assets, so that we can find out what’s going on out there and deal with those things. We have the CIA, who develops assets so that they can know what’s going on in any continent, any region, so that we can make sure that we protect ourselves from these threats.” He added that drones drastically change the threat profile and “I would say, again, when we’re talking about the U.K., we’re dealing with a country that is not aware — as aware of who’s going in and out of their country as the United States of America is making sure we are totally aware of everybody going in and out of our borders. That is a problem with the U.K. And then again, I think there are some examples of where they’re taking their eye off the ball. When they’re more concerned about cutting ties with Israel, one of their greatest intelligence-sharing assets, instead of working more with them to see what’s going on with Iran, with others throughout the region, I think that’s taking your eye off the ball.” Mast concluded that our positioning with Iran is unchanged. Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett