Kuwait Pulls Ambassador to Iran.
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're urging all sides to show some restraint and to not further inflame tensions that are on display in the region.</s>CAMEROTA: That's the latest message from the White House, urging Iran and Saudi Arabia to show restaurant. This as more countries side with Saudi Arabia in its spat with Iran. Kuwait now recalling its ambassador from Iran. This stems from an attack on Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran in retaliation for Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shiite cleric. Joining us now is CNN national security commentator and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers. Mike, great to see you.</s>MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: In your assessment, how bad is this escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran?</s>ROGERS: Well, it's bad and has the potential to get a lot worse. And what you're seeing with these countries, Alisyn -- Kuwait, Sudan, others -- these are primarily Sunni countries. And you're starting to see the fuel being poured on this Sunni-Shia problem that's developing across the Middle East. That's why this is so dangerous and why I think the United States needs to play a critical role in trying to calm things down and at least get back to some regular order between the Iranian and Saudi Arabian relationships.</s>CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that. What can the U.S. role be?</s>ROGERS: It has to do a couple things. And let's back up real quickly. A lot of the talk was that they purposely killed this cleric, Saudi Arabia, to inflame Iran. I really disagree with that. They killed this -- executed this cleric. He was sentenced in 2014 with a whole bunch of al Qaeda fighters. And this was a domestic political issue for them. They had this problem; they just went through elections. That upset the Salafis, the very ultra conservative Shi'a -- Sunnis in Saudi Arabia. So they were playing this car. I think they didn't anticipate how this would spill over. So that's how we got to where we are. And what's happening is, Iran, now that they have this new cash from the Iranian deal, is engaged in proxy wars. They've upped their game in Yemen, and they're upped their game in Syria; and they've upped their game in Iraq. And that is this increased tension with Saudi Arabia. So what the United States needs to do is be very aggressive at pushing back on Iran and their actions in the region. They can do that two ways. One, continue with sanctions on the missiles that they've tested, long-range missiles in violation of U.N. sanctions, happened within the last month. The administration has pulled back. That gives an uneasy feeling to our Arab League partners. They need to re- engage sanctions on that missile program. And I'd do it as soon as they can. And then they need to live up to their commitment on conventional weapons sales to the Arab League partners, which by the way, is not the best way to do it, but this is the place I think the administration has kind of wedged us in on a whole bunch of really bad solutions. And that's one solution that can at least start to tamp down the tensions.</s>CAMEROTA: You mention the Iran nuclear deal. Obviously, that was controversial.</s>ROGERS: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: So in your estimation, the cash that Iran now has access to is being used solely or primarily for war?</s>ROGERS: Well, we knew -- as a matter of fact, the president even admitted -- that some of the cash that would be freed up would go to supporting Quds Force and terrorist activities around the region by Iran. Even the president admitted that. What the exponential factor is, is now markets are being opened. So it's not just the cash they have access to; it's all this new cash coming in with contracts for things that they couldn't have access to under the old sanctions regime. That cash isn't accounted for. They have a little bit better economy and they have that cash, whatever percentage we could agree on, is going to operations in Yemen against Sunni. It's going to operations in Iraq against Sunnis. It's going to operations in Syria. And that's why you have this increased military tension between Saudi Arabia, these other Arab League partners and Iran.</s>CAMEROTA: As you know, Secretary of State John Kerry had invested a lot of time and energy trying to get all of these different Middle East countries to the table to figure out how to solve the problem and the crisis in Syria. The U.S. is very interested in that, because it is a base for ISIS. So what does what's going on this week do for the fight against ISIS?</s>ROGERS: It makes it incredibly difficult to come with a coalition, a meaningful coalition against ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq. It just makes a very hard and difficult issue even harder and more difficult. Because you're going to have these proxy fights going on all at the same time, which is at each other's throats. So Iran is going to continue this proxy fight in Syria with the support of Russia. So every time the United States talks about cuddling up to Russia in the fight in Syria, now we have an Arab League partner problem in the region, including Saudi Arabia, who does -- is not very trustful of Russia. So you have all of these dynamics all at the same time. And now you have this increased tension. It's going to make a meaningful coalition to put that together just nearly impossible.</s>CAMEROTA: Mike Rogers, thanks so much for helping us understand what's going on over there. Nice to see you. Let's get over to Michaela.</s>PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. After waiting in vain for Congress to do something about gun violence, the president is about to take the lead. What is he expected to say? Well, we're going to ask advisor Valerie Jarrett about the president's executive action, ahead.