00:00Five European countries issued a joint statement saying Alexei Navalny was most likely poisoned
00:04by a toxin found in South America, a South American frog. How come the United States
00:09didn't join the statement? Any response to it? And then, Mr. Prime Minister, sorry to interrupt.
00:16Thank you for your hospitality. On Venezuela, you strongly opposed America's removal of Maduro by
00:24force, saying it demonstrates a deepening breakdown of the international order. Do you still feel that
00:29way, given where we're at now? And also, you've denied saying that you were worried about President
00:35Trump's psychological state following your meeting with him in Mar-a-Lago. Can you explain how this
00:41was potentially misinterpreted? Let me go first on your question. I'm not going to talk about attacks
00:46on Iran or anything of that nature, because the President's made clear he prefers diplomacy and an
00:50outcome of a negotiated summit. Now, we're dealing with radical Shia clerics, okay? We're dealing with
00:55people who make geopolitical decisions on the basis of pure theology, and it's a complicated
01:01thing. I mean, no one's ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we're going to try.
01:06Steve Woodcoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling. I think they're traveling right now
01:10to have important meetings, and we'll see how that turns out, and we'll always comply with the
01:15applicable laws of the United States in terms of involving Congress any decisions. But right now,
01:19we're not talking about any of that. We are postured in the region for one simple reason,
01:23and that is that we understand that there could be threats to our forces in the region. We've seen
01:28them be threatened in the past, and we want to make sure that we have sufficient capacity to defend
01:32them if, God forbid, that were to happen. We'll follow whatever the law is on it, and it depends
01:40on the circumstance that will lead to it. But right now, we're talking about negotiations. We are focused
01:43on negotiations. That's what we're for. The President's made that clear. If that changes, it'll be obvious
01:48to everyone, and obviously whatever the law requires us to do, we'll do. With regards to your question
01:54about the frog toxin, no, it's a very serious thing. Look, those countries came to that conclusion.
02:00They coordinated that. We chose, doesn't mean we disagree with the outcome. We just, it wasn't,
02:04you know, our endeavor. Sometimes countries go out and do their thing with, based on the intelligence
02:08they've gathered. We obviously are aware of the report. It's a troubling report. We're aware of that
02:13case of Mr. Navalny, and certainly it's, you know, we don't have any reason to question it, or we're not
02:21disputing or getting into a fight with these countries over it. But it was their report, and they put
02:25that out there. And let me just make one more point, because I think you asked him a question in
02:29order to,
02:29like, see if you can get him against us with something about, oh, you can criticize us. A lot of
02:34countries
02:34didn't like what we did in Venezuela. That's okay. That was in our national interest. I'm sure there's something
02:39he'll do one day that we don't like, and we'll say, hey, we didn't like you did this. So what?
02:43That
02:43doesn't mean we're not going to be friends, we're not going to be partners, we're not going to be
02:46able to cooperate with one another. Countries express their opinion all the time. We have very
02:50close allies that didn't like what we did in that regard. I can tell you what, it was successful.
02:54We're proud it was necessary, because the guy was a narco-terrorist, and we made him a bunch of
02:59offers, and he chose, and look what's happened in Venezuela in the six weeks since he's been gone.
03:05Okay? It is a, now it's got a long way to go. There's still much work that needs to be
03:10done,
03:10but I can tell you Venezuela is much better off today than it was six weeks ago. So, you know,
03:16we're very proud of that project, and you know, I know some will disagree and didn't like, but
03:21irrespective, I think everyone can now agree that Venezuela has an opportunity and a new future that
03:26wasn't there six weeks ago.
03:28So,
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