00:00And Marco Rubio said over the weekend, and he was at the Munich Security Conference giving a lot of sideline
00:06chats too,
00:08said Donald Trump prefers diplomacy when it comes to these talks with Iran.
00:13But we can't forget the military buildup that we're seeing in the region.
00:18It's not small. It's nothing. It's huge.
00:21It is huge. The USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea is a big deal as well, alongside other U
00:27.S. carriers.
00:27That is a classic power projection more than anything else as well.
00:32That's a symbol of deterrence, and I think that's the key message that we're hearing here.
00:36Rubio said it. Trump has said it previously as well.
00:39Not just that, though. There's guided missile destroyers in the region.
00:41There's combat ships. There's the Fifth Fleet, which operates out of Bahrain, which have made their way to the region
00:46as well.
00:46And Gerald R. Ford, that is also on the way, so you'll have two aircraft carriers in the region.
00:51That is a serious show of defense.
00:53And if that's something that Iran is looking at now, thinking, OK, we're going to go to the table,
00:57mainly because 150 miles off our coastline, these ships are ready and waiting,
01:02and they are within our reach, and they can do whatever we want.
01:05Keeping in mind that they're in Richmond, and this is a pre-2025,
01:08when we know that a lot of that nuclear capability was taken out.
01:11At that time, we were looking at 9,500 kgs.
01:14That's 9.5 to 10 tons of enriched uranium.
01:20And they reckon hundreds of more tons that are sitting there that are close to enrichment at 60%,
01:26which is terrifying to think that.
01:27But the carriers are not just symbolic.
01:29These are strike aircraft.
01:31That's what they're there for.
01:32The missile defense systems that are in there as well.
01:34They're rapid response systems.
01:35It's pressure diplomacy is what we're seeing from Washington right now.
01:39I think it will work because, as Rawi said, Iran's going to come to the table.
01:43They might roll back on their enrichment program.
01:45We know that it suffered a devastating blow to their enrichment program last year when they were attacked.
01:50But Washington is saying, look, we want to have a deal.
01:52We prefer that.
01:53But we would be prepared for escalation if it's needed.
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