Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Why Iran’s Uranium Forces a Conversation the U.S. Hoped to Avoid

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Why Iran’s Uranium Forces a Conversation the U.S. Hoped to Avoid · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: The big question hanging over Washington, the White House, and
0:04
Speaker 1: the Middle East right now is whether President Donald Trump
0:07
Speaker 1: is seriously wang what would be one of the boldest
0:11
Speaker 1: military options of this entire conflict, sending in US troops
0:18
Speaker 1: into a near Iranian territory to secure iran stockpile of
0:23
Speaker 1: highly enriched uranium before that material can ever be turned
0:26
Speaker 1: into a nuclear weapon. Now, there are multiple reports that
0:30
Speaker 1: say the President is looking at all options and is
0:33
Speaker 1: actively discussing inside the administration as the military build up
0:38
Speaker 1: in the region continues to intensify. Reuters reported on Monday
0:43
Speaker 1: that thousands of soldiers from the eighty second Airborne Division
0:47
Speaker 1: have started arriving in the Middle East, joining additional Marines, sailors,
0:52
Speaker 1: and special operation forces that are already there, and that
0:56
Speaker 1: one of the potential missions under discussion is using ground
1:00
Speaker 1: forces inside Iran to extract highly enriched uranium buried deep
1:06
Speaker 1: underground now. Reuters also reported that for now, no decision
1:11
Speaker 1: has been made to send troops into Iran, even as
1:15
Speaker 1: the build up increases Trump's military options now. The President
1:20
Speaker 1: was asked about Iran as he was flying back to Washington,
1:23
Speaker 1: d C. And in just twenty seconds, the President had
1:26
Speaker 1: this to say.
1:28
Speaker 2: They are decimated right now. They're gonna give up nuclear weapons.
1:31
Speaker 2: They're gonna give us the nuclear dust. They're gonna do
1:34
Speaker 2: everything that we want to do. And you know what,
1:37
Speaker 2: they're going to go on and maybe have a great
1:40
Speaker 2: country again. But if they don't do that, they're not
1:43
Speaker 2: going to have a country. They're not even gonna have
1:46
Speaker 2: a country. So she's softer in that issue. Can to
1:49
Speaker 2: have other people, not too many?
1:51
Speaker 1: You notice the President used a very clear term there.
1:54
Speaker 1: They're going to give us the nuclear dust. They're gonna
1:56
Speaker 1: do everything that we want them to do. Now, the
1:59
Speaker 1: Democrat answer seizing on this moment as well as the
2:02
Speaker 1: media saying why would the president even consider something quote
2:07
Speaker 1: this dangerous? Well, because the uranium issue is at the
2:11
Speaker 1: center of this war. The International Atomic Energy Agency director
2:16
Speaker 1: said earlier this month that almost half of Iran's enriched
2:19
Speaker 1: uranium is up to sixty percent purity. Now that's an
2:24
Speaker 1: important number for you to understand. That's just a very
2:28
Speaker 1: short technical step from weapons grade, and it was stored
2:32
Speaker 1: in a tunnel complex and is probably still there we
2:37
Speaker 1: now believe. Reuters also reported that the IAEA estimate that
2:43
Speaker 1: Iran had four hundred and forty kilograms of sixty percent
2:47
Speaker 1: enriched uranium before the attacks, which the IEA said could
2:52
Speaker 1: provide the explosive material for roughly ten nuclear weapons if
2:57
Speaker 1: enriched furthers.
3:00
Speaker 3: A leader there.
3:00
Speaker 1: Also said the agency has not seen evidence that the
3:04
Speaker 1: stockpile was moved and still does not know the status
3:08
Speaker 1: of parts of the underground complex because inspectors have not
3:12
Speaker 1: been able to get in. That is a strategic logic
3:16
Speaker 1: behind this debate. If you are the Trump administration, you
3:20
Speaker 1: can bomb facilities, you can cripple on sites, you can
3:24
Speaker 1: destroy the air defenses, you can hit naval assets. But
3:28
Speaker 1: if a large stockpile of near bomb grade uraniums survives underground,
3:35
Speaker 1: then the threat is not fully gone at all. That
3:38
Speaker 1: is why this is being discussed not just as a
3:41
Speaker 1: military problem, but as a nuclear security problem worldwide. Reuters
3:47
Speaker 1: also reported that internal discussions have included the possibility of
3:52
Speaker 1: sending forces deeper inside Iran for longer periods of time,
3:56
Speaker 1: specifically because the material may be buried underground and also
4:01
Speaker 1: very difficult to reach. That means this is not some
4:05
Speaker 1: simple raid and leave scenario like we saw in Venezuela.
4:09
Speaker 1: It could require excavation site, security, logistics, air cover, and
4:16
Speaker 1: protection against Iranian retaliation.
4:19
Speaker 3: While that work is being.
4:20
Speaker 1: Done, President Trump himself has been crystal clear on the
4:25
Speaker 1: core objective, even if he has not publicly laid out
4:29
Speaker 1: a specific uranium seizure plan. As I mentioned, speaking aboard
4:34
Speaker 1: Air Force One, Trump said, I'm very strong on the
4:37
Speaker 1: fact that I don't want a Ran to have a
4:39
Speaker 1: nuclear weapon, because if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd
4:44
Speaker 1: use it immediately now. Trump also said that the United
4:48
Speaker 1: States was talking to what he described as a more
4:51
Speaker 1: reasonable regime in Ran right now, while again warning Tehran
4:55
Speaker 1: to reopen the strait of our moves or face US
4:58
Speaker 1: attacks on oil wells well as their power supply plans.
5:02
Speaker 1: And the White House has formally stated that President Trump
5:06
Speaker 1: has never wavered in his stance that Iran cannot be
5:09
Speaker 1: allowed to have a nuclear weapon. So when you put
5:14
Speaker 1: all of that together, the message from the White House
5:17
Speaker 1: really does seem to be unmistakable. Trump's position is that
5:20
Speaker 1: Iran cannot be allowed to keep that kind of material
5:24
Speaker 1: that puts it near a bomb. Whether that's achieved through diplomacy,
5:28
Speaker 1: surrender of the stockpile, or military force remains the open question.
5:34
Speaker 1: Reuter is also reported on Friday, the Trump's broader piece
5:38
Speaker 1: demands to Iran included dismantling its nuclear program, and the
5:43
Speaker 1: White House official said the President is willing to listen,
5:47
Speaker 1: but if Iran fails to accept the reality of the
5:51
Speaker 1: current moment, they will be hit harder than ever before.
5:56
Speaker 1: At the same time, that same Reuters reports that Trump
5:59
Speaker 1: has no plans to send ground troops anywhere at this time,
6:04
Speaker 1: but he is keeping all options on the table. In
6:07
Speaker 1: other words, the Trump doctrine is deliberately holding strategic ambiguity,
6:12
Speaker 1: publicly signaling strength and privately preparing contingencies. Now, as for
6:18
Speaker 1: the Pentagon, or as some call it, the Department of War,
6:23
Speaker 1: the public message has been more about capability and pressure
6:27
Speaker 1: than about confirming any single operation. The Pentagon build up
6:32
Speaker 1: now includes the arrival of the eighty second airborne troops,
6:36
Speaker 1: about twenty five hundred Marines over the weekend, and other
6:39
Speaker 1: forces already in theater, all of which expand the presence
6:44
Speaker 1: operational menu that is again something the president wants. The
6:49
Speaker 1: White House is March's first statement announcing Operation Epic. Fury
6:54
Speaker 1: said Trump authorized what he called a precise, overwhelming military
6:58
Speaker 1: campaign to eliminate what it described at the time as
7:02
Speaker 1: the Iranian nuclear threat, destroy ballistic missile capability in capacity,
7:08
Speaker 1: degrade proxy networks, and cripple Irans naval forces. That matters
7:14
Speaker 1: because it shows the administration's framework. This is not being
7:18
Speaker 1: described as a limited symbolic campaign, but as a war
7:22
Speaker 1: effort aimed at ending the nuclear threat decisively. Now Here
7:27
Speaker 1: is the danger, and it's enormous. A mission to seize
7:30
Speaker 1: uranium is far riskier than airstrikes. That is something the
7:34
Speaker 1: present is having to deal with, and any use of
7:37
Speaker 1: US ground troops, even for a limited mission, carries major
7:40
Speaker 1: political and military risks as well. Troops could face Iranian missiles,
7:45
Speaker 1: their drones, their mines, ambushes, booby traps, and prolonged exposure
7:50
Speaker 1: inside hostile territory. That is something the present has to
7:54
Speaker 1: weigh as well. And Reuters also report that the uranium
7:57
Speaker 1: extraction option could require US per personnel to stay inside
8:01
Speaker 1: Iran longer than other scenarios because the material is believed
8:05
Speaker 1: to be deep underground. That means higher risk of casualties,
8:09
Speaker 1: higher risk of escalation, and higher risk that a targeted
8:13
Speaker 1: mission turns into a broader ground conflict, exactly the kind
8:17
Speaker 1: of Middle East entanglement that Trump campaigned against. Again, this
8:22
Speaker 1: is all of the things the President has to think about,
8:25
Speaker 1: and that is why you're hearing about other options in parallel.
8:29
Speaker 1: We also know that there's another report that the administration
8:32
Speaker 1: has weighed seizing cart Island, which handles about ninety percent
8:37
Speaker 1: of Iran's oil exports, and has discussed operations tied to
8:41
Speaker 1: securing maritime passage near the Strait of Hormuz. Those are
8:45
Speaker 1: different missions, obviously, but they point to the same reality.
8:49
Speaker 1: The US build up is not one dimensional. It is
8:52
Speaker 1: creating leverage for multiple possible in games, squeezing Iran economically,
8:59
Speaker 1: force open ship lanes, or if all else fails, move
9:03
Speaker 1: to physically secure the nuclear material itself.
9:07
Speaker 3: So where does that leave us right now?
9:09
Speaker 1: The fact is the President wants multiple options, and what
9:13
Speaker 1: we do know is that the IAEA says a significant
9:17
Speaker 1: amount of RAN sixty percent rich uranium, likely remains underground
9:22
Speaker 1: at its site. President Trump's own words show a view
9:25
Speaker 1: denying a RAN a nuclear weapon a non negotiable. And fourth,
9:30
Speaker 1: the administration is still signaling that diplomacy is possible even
9:34
Speaker 1: while preparing for harder options. I wanted to keep you
9:39
Speaker 1: updated on this because I think it's important, and obviously
9:42
Speaker 1: a lot's happening quickly.
9:43
Speaker 3: One thing is for sure.
9:45
Speaker 1: The President wants to figure out what he's going to
9:47
Speaker 1: do as fast as possible. He wants us to get
9:50
Speaker 1: out as quickly as possible as well, and he wants
9:53
Speaker 1: to have a world where Ran doesn't have a nuclear weapon.
9:58
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has come out talking about who he's talking
10:01
Speaker 1: to in Iran, the new regime they are in place,
10:04
Speaker 1: and the President also making it very clear if they
10:07
Speaker 1: do not agree with the negotiations with America, we will
10:10
Speaker 1: blow up their power infrastructure easily. They better make a deal.
10:16
Speaker 1: President Trump suggesting in a message on Monday morning that
10:20
Speaker 1: a new and more reasonable regime has taken over Iran
10:23
Speaker 1: and is talking with Washington, DC. He warned yet again,
10:27
Speaker 1: he is willing to obliterate Iran's energy infrastructure his exact words,
10:31
Speaker 1: if the talks do not lead to a durable agreement.
10:35
Speaker 1: Trump made the declaration a message on his website True
10:38
Speaker 1: Social What remains of the Iranian government after the elimination
10:42
Speaker 1: of the Supreme Leader, has repeatedly denied Trump's claim that
10:47
Speaker 1: it is in conversations with the American government, while also
10:50
Speaker 1: stating that it has responded to America's proposals, which would
10:55
Speaker 1: be impossible without a conversation.
10:58
Speaker 4: Now.
10:58
Speaker 1: President Trump smiling through that in a statement saying that
11:02
Speaker 1: not only is America pursuing regime change in Iran, but
11:05
Speaker 1: the regime change has already happened, saying the United States
11:08
Speaker 1: of America's in serious discussions with a new and more
11:12
Speaker 1: reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran. He
11:17
Speaker 1: followed up that comment with a threat. Great progress has
11:20
Speaker 1: been made, but if for any reason a deal is
11:23
Speaker 1: not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if
11:27
Speaker 1: the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, we
11:31
Speaker 1: will conclude our lovely state in Iran by blowing up
11:34
Speaker 1: and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells,
11:40
Speaker 1: and carg island, and possibly all desalization plants, which we
11:46
Speaker 1: have purposely not yet touched.
11:49
Speaker 3: Quote unquote.
11:51
Speaker 1: The President went on to say this will be in
11:53
Speaker 1: retribution for our many soldiers and others that Iran has
11:57
Speaker 1: butchered and killed over the regime's seven year reign of terror.
12:02
Speaker 1: Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now President
12:05
Speaker 1: Trump is seriously weighing also a military operation, we're being
12:09
Speaker 1: told to extract nearly one thousand pounds of highly enriched
12:13
Speaker 1: uranium from Iran. And While the Iranian government has not
12:17
Speaker 1: responded directly to Trump's statement at press time, the Foreign
12:20
Speaker 1: Ministry spokesman confirmed on Monday that Iran had received and
12:25
Speaker 1: was contemplating negotiation messages from the United States. At the
12:30
Speaker 1: same time, that individual also dispairs the proposals as being unrealistic, illogical,
12:36
Speaker 1: and excessive, but his statement nonetheless confirmed the existence of
12:41
Speaker 1: some form of communication between individuals and power in Iran
12:46
Speaker 1: and the White House. Specifically, Donald Trump quote, our position
12:51
Speaker 1: is clear. We are under military aggression. Therefore, all our
12:55
Speaker 1: efforts and strengths are focused on defending ourselves, according to
13:00
Speaker 1: translation by the Saudi outlet there the government of also
13:04
Speaker 1: Pakistan claimed last week that it was mediating talks between
13:08
Speaker 1: America and Iran, handing Tehran a fifteen point proposal from
13:12
Speaker 1: the White House. Trump shortly thereafter claimed that Iran quote
13:16
Speaker 1: gave us most to the points, and that he would
13:19
Speaker 1: be asking for a couple of other things. The president
13:22
Speaker 1: also announced that he would not target any energy infrastructure
13:26
Speaker 1: Iran through April the sixth. That would be Easter Sunday,
13:29
Speaker 1: talks are ongoing and despite erroneous statements to the contrary
13:33
Speaker 1: by the fake news media and others, they are going
13:36
Speaker 1: very well. The president said, thank you for your attention
13:39
Speaker 1: to this matter. He also claimed that Iran was begging
13:42
Speaker 1: for a deal, contrary to the declarations in Iranian state media,
13:48
Speaker 1: clearly to keep the people in Iran in line. Also
13:51
Speaker 1: indicating the existence of talks and those talks actually being
13:55
Speaker 1: very real, was the head of the International Atomic Energy
13:59
Speaker 1: Agency is the IAEA, who told Italian media on Wednesday
14:04
Speaker 1: that talks about the Iran war would take place in
14:07
Speaker 1: Pakistan as early as this passed weekend. Another example of confirmation.
14:13
Speaker 1: Three weeks of war have left their mark, which caused
14:16
Speaker 1: a lot of damage affected Iran's economic, energy and productive infrastructure.
14:22
Speaker 1: This will make the conversation quote a little bit different now.
14:26
Speaker 1: Pakistan did host talks on the Iran war this weekend,
14:30
Speaker 1: but reports indicated that neither Iran nor the United States
14:34
Speaker 1: of America quote participated. Instead, the event offered an opportunity
14:39
Speaker 1: for Pakistan to discuss the war with officials from Saudi
14:42
Speaker 1: Arabia and Turkey, as well as Egypt. Now, according to
14:46
Speaker 1: the Egyptian Foreign Minister. The objective of the talks is
14:48
Speaker 1: to de escalate tension and encourageing negotiating process between Iran
14:53
Speaker 1: the United States of America to spare the region comprehensive chaos.
14:58
Speaker 1: The Pakistani government also added that while Iran did not
15:01
Speaker 1: directly participate, Pakistani officials had a phone call with the
15:05
Speaker 1: Iranian Foreign minister to discuss Tehran's position. Now, most of
15:10
Speaker 1: Iran's response to the current hostilities by the United States
15:13
Speaker 1: has been to target its neighboring countries with missile and
15:17
Speaker 1: drone attacks, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Other countries Irana's
15:21
Speaker 1: bomb include Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Israel, Cyprus. Iranian officials
15:27
Speaker 1: have claimed the strikes are intended to target American and
15:30
Speaker 1: Israeli sites, but in reality they are targeting a variety
15:34
Speaker 1: of civilian sites instead, including energy facilities in many of
15:39
Speaker 1: the Gulf states, which brings us to a one on
15:42
Speaker 1: one interview done on Good Morning America on Monday morning
15:46
Speaker 1: with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I think it's incredibly
15:50
Speaker 1: important you hear what Marco had to say. Take a
15:53
Speaker 1: listen to the interview.
15:54
Speaker 5: Would be on mister Secretary, thank you for joining us
15:56
Speaker 5: this morning. Let's talk about the president's comments overnight talking
15:59
Speaker 5: about taking the oil on carg Island. How would he
16:02
Speaker 5: do this? Why would he do this? Won't it take
16:04
Speaker 5: ground troops?
16:06
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, it's important to remember the objectives
16:08
Speaker 6: of this operation from the very beginning, where we were
16:11
Speaker 6: going to We are destroying Iran's navy. We are destroying
16:14
Speaker 6: their ability to their missile launchers by a significant percentage.
16:17
Speaker 6: We're going to wipe out their defense industrial base, meaning
16:20
Speaker 6: their ability to make new missiles and new drones in
16:22
Speaker 6: the future. Because opposed a great threat to the region.
16:25
Speaker 6: This Iran that you're seeing now, this is Iran at
16:27
Speaker 6: its weakest point. Imagine them two years from now if
16:30
Speaker 6: they had thousands of more missiles, the thousands of more
16:33
Speaker 6: missile launchers and factories to make even more. That was
16:35
Speaker 6: an unacceptable risk. It needed to be addressed, and President
16:38
Speaker 6: Trump is addressing it now. They are making threats about
16:42
Speaker 6: controlling the hormone straits and perpetuity, creating a tolling system
16:45
Speaker 6: and the like.
16:46
Speaker 7: That's not going to be allowed to happen.
16:47
Speaker 6: And the President has a number of options available to
16:50
Speaker 6: him if he so chooses to prevent that from happening.
16:52
Speaker 6: In happening, obviously, I'm not going to discuss what those
16:55
Speaker 6: options are, and we're not going to discuss military tactics.
16:58
Speaker 6: The Department of War would be in charge of those things.
17:01
Speaker 6: I'd refer you to them, but obviously they're not going
17:03
Speaker 6: to discuss it with you either. But there is a
17:05
Speaker 6: way forward here to achieve our objectives. We are going
17:07
Speaker 6: to achieve our objectives in a matter of weeks, not months.
17:10
Speaker 5: Well, let's talk about taking the oil, because the President
17:12
Speaker 5: laid out that objective last night, and taking the oil
17:15
Speaker 5: will take ground troops, won't it.
17:18
Speaker 6: Well, again, the Iranians are threatening that they're going to
17:21
Speaker 6: set up some permanent system in the Straits of Hormuz
17:24
Speaker 6: where they get to decide who goes through international waterways.
17:26
Speaker 7: That will never be allowed to happen.
17:28
Speaker 6: By the way, the rest of the world should take
17:29
Speaker 6: note of that they have more at stake there than
17:31
Speaker 6: we do. We get very little of our energy in
17:34
Speaker 6: this country coming through the Straits of Hormones.
17:36
Speaker 7: The rest of the world gets a lot more.
17:37
Speaker 6: That said, the President has several options at his disposal,
17:41
Speaker 6: and the Department of Wars preparing optionality for the President
17:44
Speaker 6: for this and various other contingencies that might arise. That's
17:47
Speaker 6: what always needs to happen situations like this. But what
17:50
Speaker 6: I want the American people and the people watching this
17:52
Speaker 6: broadcast to know is that fundamentally what this is about
17:55
Speaker 6: is the destruction of their air force, which has been
17:57
Speaker 6: largely achieved, the destruction of their navy, which has been
18:00
Speaker 6: largely achieved, the destruction of their factories that they make
18:03
Speaker 6: all these weapons with, which is we're well on our
18:06
Speaker 6: way to achieving. And a substantial reduction in the number
18:09
Speaker 6: of missile launchers that they have so that they cannot
18:11
Speaker 6: continue to threaten their neighbors in the future.
18:13
Speaker 7: All of those objectives are.
18:15
Speaker 6: Being met ahead honor, ahead of schedule, and should be
18:19
Speaker 6: able to achieve in a matter of weeks.
18:21
Speaker 5: As you're speaking, though, the President is expanding the objectives.
18:24
Speaker 5: Just a couple of minutes ago, he put out his
18:26
Speaker 5: post on True Social saying that we're in discussions now
18:29
Speaker 5: with a new and more reasonable regime in arom But
18:32
Speaker 5: he also added that if those discussions don't yield fruit,
18:36
Speaker 5: the United States will blow up and completelybliterate all of
18:39
Speaker 5: their electric generating plants. All their oil wells and carg
18:42
Speaker 5: island and possibly all desalinization plants which we have purposely
18:45
Speaker 5: not yet touched, is what he said. That's a great
18:47
Speaker 5: expansion of the objectives.
18:49
Speaker 6: Well, well, I think the first point the president makes
18:52
Speaker 6: is he prefers the pomacy. As I said, those efforts
18:54
Speaker 6: are nascent. There is messages being relaid back and forth,
18:57
Speaker 6: some conversations going on, including through intermediary and.
19:00
Speaker 7: He always prefers that.
19:01
Speaker 6: Look, if the Iranian regime had come forward at any
19:04
Speaker 6: point in the past and said we're going to walk
19:06
Speaker 6: away from our nuclear ambitions, We're going to do nuclear
19:09
Speaker 6: energy the way every other country in the world, primarily
19:12
Speaker 6: almost every other country in the world does it, and
19:13
Speaker 6: that is through a peaceful means in which you bring
19:15
Speaker 6: in the fuel and it's.
19:17
Speaker 7: Supervised and so forth.
19:18
Speaker 6: We're going to stop supporting terrorist groups across the region.
19:21
Speaker 7: Look at this region.
19:22
Speaker 6: Every single terrorist group in this region has a link
19:25
Speaker 6: to the Iranian regime. Every single one the houthis Hes,
19:28
Speaker 6: belah Hamas, the Shia militias that are attacking everyone out
19:32
Speaker 6: of a rock, every single one of these groups and
19:34
Speaker 6: all the destabilization in this region tracks directly back to
19:37
Speaker 6: the Iranian regime. Those things have to be addressed, and
19:40
Speaker 6: if Ron had been willing to address to us in
19:41
Speaker 6: the past, we wouldn't be having this interview on this
19:44
Speaker 6: topic right now. Their refusal to do so, and they're
19:47
Speaker 6: continuing move towards one day acquiring a nuclear capability. These
19:50
Speaker 6: people are lunatics. They are insane. They are religious zelots
19:54
Speaker 6: who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon
19:56
Speaker 6: because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future and
19:59
Speaker 6: all of their neighbors that, by the way, which is
20:01
Speaker 6: why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the
20:03
Speaker 6: efforts work.
20:03
Speaker 5: You call them lunatics with the President just had this
20:06
Speaker 5: post where he says we're in discussions with a new
20:08
Speaker 5: and more reasonable regime. Let me try to pin you
20:10
Speaker 5: down on that. Who is this new and more reasonable
20:13
Speaker 5: regime is The United States is in direct contact with them?
20:17
Speaker 6: Well, I'm not going to disclose to you who those
20:19
Speaker 6: people are because if probably would get them in trouble
20:20
Speaker 6: with some other groups of people inside of Iran. Look,
20:22
Speaker 6: there's some fractures going on there internally, and at the
20:25
Speaker 6: end of the day, I think that if there are
20:27
Speaker 6: people in Iran who now given everything that's happened, are
20:30
Speaker 6: willing to move in a different direction for their country.
20:32
Speaker 6: That would be great. Imagine in Iran that and instead
20:35
Speaker 6: of spending their wealth billions of dollars supporting terrorists or weapons,
20:39
Speaker 6: had spent that money helping the people of Iran, you
20:41
Speaker 6: have a much different country. So we are always hopeful
20:44
Speaker 6: that that would exist over there. It's unfortunate. The people
20:46
Speaker 6: of Iran are incredible people. The people who lead them
20:49
Speaker 6: this clerical regime that is the problem. And if there
20:52
Speaker 6: are new people now in charge who have a more
20:54
Speaker 6: reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news
20:56
Speaker 6: for us, for them, for the entire world. But we
20:58
Speaker 6: also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even
21:02
Speaker 6: the probability that that is not the case.
21:04
Speaker 5: But they are. Is that the case or is it not?
21:07
Speaker 5: I'm just trying to get some clarity on that.
21:09
Speaker 6: Well, what I mean is, yeah, Look, so you have
21:10
Speaker 6: people that are saying some of the right things privately.
21:13
Speaker 6: Obviously they're not going to put it out in press releases,
21:15
Speaker 6: and what they say to you or put out there
21:16
Speaker 6: for the world doesn't necessarily reflect what they're saying in
21:19
Speaker 6: our conversations.
21:20
Speaker 7: But at the end of the day.
21:21
Speaker 6: We have to see that these people end up being
21:23
Speaker 6: the ones in charge, seeing if they're the ones that
21:25
Speaker 6: have the power to deliver.
21:26
Speaker 7: We're going to test it. We are hopeful that that's
21:28
Speaker 7: the case. There are clearly people.
21:29
Speaker 6: They are talking to us in ways that previous people
21:33
Speaker 6: in charge and Iran have not spoken to us in
21:35
Speaker 6: the past. Some of the things they're willing to do,
21:37
Speaker 6: some of the things they're saying they're willing to do.
21:39
Speaker 7: Obviously they have to go do it.
21:40
Speaker 6: We're going to test that proposition very strongly because we
21:43
Speaker 6: always prefer to settle things through negotiation and diplomacy, but
21:47
Speaker 6: we also have to be prepared for the fact that
21:49
Speaker 6: that effort might fail. That we are dealing with a
21:51
Speaker 6: forty seven year old regime that still has a lot
21:54
Speaker 6: of people involved in it who aren't necessarily big fans
21:57
Speaker 6: of diplomacy or peace.
21:58
Speaker 5: And if it fails, the war expands. What's that up, sorry,
22:01
Speaker 5: if it fails, the war expands.
22:04
Speaker 6: Well, the war is at this operation, okay, And that's
22:07
Speaker 6: what this is. It's about very specific objectives. The President
22:11
Speaker 6: laid them out on the first night of the operation.
22:13
Speaker 6: I'll repeat them to you now because I hear a
22:14
Speaker 6: lot of talk about we don't know what the clear
22:16
Speaker 6: objectives are here. They are, you should write them down.
22:18
Speaker 6: Number one, the destruction of their air force. Number two,
22:21
Speaker 6: the destruction of their navy. Number three, the severe diminishing
22:25
Speaker 6: of their missile launching capability, and number four the destruction
22:29
Speaker 6: of their factory so they can't make more missiles and
22:31
Speaker 6: more drones to threaten us in the future. All of
22:33
Speaker 6: this so that they can never hide behind it to
22:36
Speaker 6: acquire a nuclear weapon. That was our objective from the beginning,
22:39
Speaker 6: that remains our objective.
22:40
Speaker 7: Now.
22:41
Speaker 6: We are on pace and in fact the head of
22:43
Speaker 6: schedule in some of those things, and we are going
22:45
Speaker 6: to achieve those things in a number of weeks, not
22:47
Speaker 6: in a number of months.
22:48
Speaker 5: Mister check Jury, thanks for time this morning.
22:50
Speaker 1: It's really interesting to see how much the media is
22:53
Speaker 1: willing to change, alter, and lie to you to try
22:56
Speaker 1: to make you think that somehow what we're doing in
22:59
Speaker 1: Iran is a failure when clearly in reality it's a
23:02
Speaker 1: massive success already, and the Secretary of State making it
23:06
Speaker 1: very clear that Trump Doctrine is working. Over the last
23:10
Speaker 1: thirty days, the United States and Israel have carried out
23:13
Speaker 1: more than eleven thousand strikes against Iran military infrastructure. We're
23:18
Speaker 1: now learning from the White House translation, this mission the
23:22
Speaker 1: President is doing is working. The strikes have been against
23:26
Speaker 1: Iran's military infrastructure that include missile systems, naval assets, weapons depots,
23:34
Speaker 1: and systemically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten the region
23:38
Speaker 1: and more importantly, threaten US the US. And now President
23:42
Speaker 1: Trump is signaling very clearly that this war is nearing
23:47
Speaker 1: its end. He said this directly, This won't last much longer.
23:52
Speaker 1: Why because Iran has been in his words, significantly debilitated
23:58
Speaker 1: their military capability. He has been crippled. Their ability to
24:02
Speaker 1: launch sustained attacks has been severely reduced, their leverage gone.
24:07
Speaker 1: And now because of the overwhelming show of force, something
24:11
Speaker 1: else is happening behind the scenes that matters just as
24:13
Speaker 1: much as the bombs and the strikes. Iran is really
24:17
Speaker 1: feeling the pressure. The White House is now saying negotiations
24:22
Speaker 1: are progressing quickly. That is something that the White House
24:26
Speaker 1: has said that the media can't believe, and Democrats don't
24:29
Speaker 1: want you to believe because they want this to be
24:32
Speaker 1: a quagmire. They want this to be a never ending war.
24:35
Speaker 1: They want to use it politically to hurt President Donald Trump. Now,
24:39
Speaker 1: after weeks of decisive military action, the regime the chance
24:43
Speaker 1: death to America is now signaling they may be willing
24:46
Speaker 1: to come.
24:47
Speaker 3: To the table.
24:48
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen, by the way, by accident, and it
24:51
Speaker 1: doesn't happen by weakness from President Trump either. This happens
24:54
Speaker 1: because Donald Trump made it clear the United States while
24:58
Speaker 1: he's in charge, leads through strength, not through appeasement or
25:02
Speaker 1: sending pallats of cash like the Obama administration did. And
25:06
Speaker 1: President Trump is also making it clear there is a deadline.
25:11
Speaker 1: Iran now has until early April to comply, and if
25:15
Speaker 1: they don't, the President has also made it very clear
25:18
Speaker 1: what comes next will be even more devastating. Now let's
25:22
Speaker 1: talk about the strategy a little bit more, because this
25:25
Speaker 1: is where this administration is drawing a very sharp contrast
25:28
Speaker 1: to the past. Number one, they've said they are not
25:31
Speaker 1: in favor of an endless war, and number two, the
25:34
Speaker 1: Trump administration has made it clear this is not nation building.
25:38
Speaker 1: This is decisive action, the White House says, with a
25:41
Speaker 1: clear objective to eliminate the threat, force a resolution, and
25:46
Speaker 1: then get the hell out. In fact, President Trump is
25:49
Speaker 1: already saying that once a job is done, the US
25:52
Speaker 1: can step back, and even the straight of Hormuz, one
25:55
Speaker 1: of the most critical shipping lanes in the world, will
25:57
Speaker 1: stabilize once Iran backs down. That's called understanding leverage, and
26:02
Speaker 1: that's called understanding power as well. Now let's also not
26:06
Speaker 1: forget this. Israel is fully aligned with a strategy. They
26:10
Speaker 1: see this moment for what it is a historic opportunity
26:14
Speaker 1: to eliminate what they've called next essential threat to them,
26:17
Speaker 1: and together the US and Israel now have total air superiority,
26:22
Speaker 1: and Iran's ability to project power is collapsing in real time.
26:26
Speaker 1: Even Israel is starting to put timelines on their own action,
26:30
Speaker 1: saying they believe that they have about two more weeks
26:33
Speaker 1: of strikes and then they will probably end up wrapping
26:38
Speaker 1: things up. Israel even said in another statement today they
26:42
Speaker 1: are prepared for strikes for several weeks to come, but
26:46
Speaker 1: they understand that the window is also closing, and this
26:49
Speaker 1: was not about actual invasion, Israeli's military spokesman saying on
26:54
Speaker 1: Tuesday that Israel is prepared to keep operating for several
26:58
Speaker 1: weeks to come. Minister hinted that the war against Iran
27:02
Speaker 1: was definitely beyond the halfway point, as it has now
27:05
Speaker 1: entered its fifth week. We are prepared to keep operating
27:08
Speaker 1: for weeks to come if need be. We have the
27:11
Speaker 1: targets for that, the munitions for that, demand power for that,
27:14
Speaker 1: and it's up to the leadership to decide, is what
27:18
Speaker 1: was said from Israeli's government. The Israeli Defense Force said
27:21
Speaker 1: on Tuesday that all of it's critical and essential targets
27:25
Speaker 1: in Iran will have been destroyed by Passover, which begins
27:29
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. The IDF to find critical targets as Iranian
27:33
Speaker 1: weapons that directly threaten Israel, including key elements of its
27:38
Speaker 1: nuclear program, while essential quote unquote targets are key elements
27:43
Speaker 1: of the Iranian military industrial complex that do not pose
27:47
Speaker 1: an imminent threat by themselves, such as satellite launch facilities.
27:52
Speaker 1: So you add all this together, and critical and essential
27:55
Speaker 1: targets make up about thirty to forty percent of the
27:59
Speaker 1: bombing objective set by Israeli leadership before the operation began.
28:04
Speaker 1: The IDF said it would be possible to declare victory
28:08
Speaker 1: after eliminating the remaining critical and essential targets, but it
28:11
Speaker 1: would prefer to continue degrading Iran's military industrial complex to
28:16
Speaker 1: weaken the regime. This goal seems consistent with Israel's hint
28:21
Speaker 1: that a few more weeks of air strikes are obviously
28:24
Speaker 1: being planned. Israeli warplane struck major rane and weapons factories
28:29
Speaker 1: in Tehran over the weekend, including plants that manufacture key
28:33
Speaker 1: ballistic missile.
28:33
Speaker 3: Components and drone engines.
28:37
Speaker 1: As well, The IDF said it was also able to
28:40
Speaker 1: destroy several of Iran's temporary command centers, eliminating high ranking
28:45
Speaker 1: officers who were inside, as well as some of Iran's
28:48
Speaker 1: remaining anti air weaponry. On Friday, the IDF set a
28:52
Speaker 1: massive attack involving over fifty warplanes, inflicted severe damage on
28:57
Speaker 1: their heavy water reactor and enrichment facility that produced yellow
29:03
Speaker 1: cake uranium powder for nuclear fuel. Netnyahu even said on
29:07
Speaker 1: Newsmax on Monday that the operation in Iran is beyond
29:11
Speaker 1: the halfway point in terms of mission success, although he
29:14
Speaker 1: did not say or wish to put a schedule on
29:18
Speaker 1: the remainder of the war. We've already degraded their missile capabilities,
29:22
Speaker 1: destroyed factories, and eliminated key nuclear scientists, he noted, praising
29:27
Speaker 1: the steady progress of the mission so far.
29:31
Speaker 4: We're into this war just over a month. Now, you're
29:34
Speaker 4: the war Prime Minister, and I think i'd like to
29:39
Speaker 4: understand what you feel you've achieved Israel in the United
29:42
Speaker 4: States working together so far in this war. And when
29:46
Speaker 4: do you think we might see light at the end
29:49
Speaker 4: of the tunnel mission accomplished.
29:52
Speaker 8: Look, if you remember what happened before the war, Iran
29:54
Speaker 8: was the great bully of the Middle East and the world.
29:56
Speaker 8: It was the prime sort of state terrorism across many continents,
30:03
Speaker 8: including in the Western Hemisphere, including by the way, with
30:06
Speaker 8: Venezuela and with others. And they killed and named more
30:11
Speaker 8: Americans than any other force in recent decades. Thousands and
30:14
Speaker 8: thousands killed and maimed in Afghanistan by Iranian IED's. They
30:19
Speaker 8: bombed your embassies. They tried to kill President Trump twice
30:22
Speaker 8: or so, trying to kill them. Most importantly is they
30:26
Speaker 8: chant death to America. They also say death to Israel.
30:30
Speaker 8: But they say America is the great Satan. They're religious
30:34
Speaker 8: zealots and they have to wipe out Western culture led
30:37
Speaker 8: by America, and Israel is considered the little Satan because
30:42
Speaker 8: we're just standing in their way of conquering the Middle East.
30:44
Speaker 8: Which is their preliminary step of getting to America and
30:49
Speaker 8: hitting America. So this is a regime that has been
30:52
Speaker 8: targeting America for forty seven years. It's their rezone, detroits,
30:57
Speaker 8: their reason for being. They're completely ideological fanatics who are
31:03
Speaker 8: not necessarily responsive to, you know, the careful calculation of
31:07
Speaker 8: costs and benefit. So they do things that other countries
31:10
Speaker 8: don't do. You have countries that are adversarial to you,
31:13
Speaker 8: But I don't hear North Korea chanting death to America.
31:17
Speaker 8: I don't hear China chanting both Korea.
31:20
Speaker 7: I don't hear Russia.
31:20
Speaker 8: You know, these are all countries which you have which
31:23
Speaker 8: are adversarial to you, but they're not seized by this fanaticism.
31:28
Speaker 8: But Iran is. So. Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons
31:31
Speaker 8: and the means to deliver them to every American city.
31:34
Speaker 8: And this is what this is about. Preventing them from
31:36
Speaker 8: having this intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons to tip them,
31:44
Speaker 8: which could threaten the life of every American. That's why
31:47
Speaker 8: President Trump chose to act to prevent them from doing this.
31:51
Speaker 1: Now you can obviously hear they're from ben Renette Yahoo
31:53
Speaker 1: that he understands he has a mission that he's trying
31:56
Speaker 1: to accomplish. That mission is a little bit different than
31:59
Speaker 1: the US's mission. It may take a little bit longer
32:01
Speaker 1: for him to be able to do what he needs
32:03
Speaker 1: to do to protect his people, and clearly the President
32:06
Speaker 1: understands that. What's also interesting is what we said earlier
32:09
Speaker 1: today on Fox News Channel.
32:11
Speaker 3: Take a listen to Brian Mask.
32:12
Speaker 1: He's the Republican from Florida, the House Foreign Affairs Chairman,
32:17
Speaker 1: and this is what he had to say about what's
32:18
Speaker 1: happening not only on Wall Street, but also the price
32:21
Speaker 1: of crude oil and the strait of Horror Mouz, as
32:23
Speaker 1: well as Donald Trump's outline for what he's trying to do.
32:27
Speaker 9: So let's bring in now our House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman,
32:30
Speaker 9: Florida Republican, Brian Mast. Welcome to you, sir. First, I
32:33
Speaker 9: want to ask you about the breaking news that seems
32:35
Speaker 9: to be sending markets much much higher at this moment.
32:38
Speaker 9: The Dow up nine hundred and twenty points. It's a
32:42
Speaker 9: big turnaround for where it was earlier today, and it
32:44
Speaker 9: seems to be hinging on this report to reports, one
32:48
Speaker 9: from the Wall Street Journal, one from the New York Post, First,
32:50
Speaker 9: the Wall Street Journal reporting that President Trump is telling
32:53
Speaker 9: AIDS reportedly that he's willing to end the war without
32:57
Speaker 9: fully reopening the Strait of Horror. Is the concern, apparently
33:01
Speaker 9: from the President is that this would push the Epic
33:05
Speaker 9: Fury operation past its six week deadline. I want to
33:08
Speaker 9: get your thoughts and your reaction first to that.
33:11
Speaker 3: A couple of reactions.
33:12
Speaker 10: Just Number one, the President had outlined a goal from
33:14
Speaker 10: the beginning. He's trying to stay within the parameters of
33:16
Speaker 10: what he outlined. Number Two, you have, of course, golf
33:19
Speaker 10: partners in the golf partners in the region that are
33:22
Speaker 10: unwilling to see the Straits of Hormuz be this toll
33:25
Speaker 10: road for a run where they can simply charge for
33:28
Speaker 10: anything that goes in or out of there. They're not
33:30
Speaker 10: going to allow that to take place. And so there's conversations,
33:33
Speaker 10: debate everything going on with that as well. And if
33:35
Speaker 10: the United States accomplishes its mission of destroying every single
33:39
Speaker 10: piece of Iranian military hardware, the drones, the Navy, the
33:42
Speaker 10: Air Force, the ballistic missiles, everything that can reach out
33:45
Speaker 10: and touch us, as has been our goal, then we've
33:47
Speaker 10: essentially controlled the straits in the way that we decided
33:50
Speaker 10: from the onset that we wanted to control this.
33:53
Speaker 1: It is very clear that Wall Street and also the
33:55
Speaker 1: rest of the world is reacting to President Donald Trump
33:58
Speaker 1: making it very clear he does not believe this war
34:01
Speaker 1: is going to last that much longer. He also believes
34:04
Speaker 1: that we are accomplishing our mission, and that is about
34:08
Speaker 1: safety and security. We'll see what happens in the days ahead,
34:12
Speaker 1: and we'll cover it all for you. Make sure you
34:14
Speaker 1: share this podcast with your family and friends, put it
34:17
Speaker 1: up on social media wherever you are, and we appreciate
34:20
Speaker 1: you listening every day.
34:21
Speaker 3: We'll see you back here tomorrow.