00:00The Prime Minister mentioning attacks on civilian areas, on holy sites.
00:04We also saw attacks seemingly very close to a nuclear research facility in Israel as well.
00:08I wonder if you could kind of get us up to speed on where things stand with that.
00:12The strikes were on Dimona. I gather that's close to this nuclear research facility.
00:16How close exactly did it sustain any damage, and how does this kind of change the trajectory of this conflict?
00:23Well, the strike in—first of all, good morning, David, Christina.
00:26The strike in Dimona resulted in fatality and a number of people injured.
00:31Not too far from Dimona, a missile hit a rod where we had close to 100 people injured, 10 of
00:39them seriously.
00:40So it did result in some mass casualties.
00:44It did not strike our research center, but that's certainly where it appears they were aiming,
00:50although they do aim to maim and kill as many innocent people as possible.
00:56They target residential areas, and as the Prime Minister said, religious sites, tourist sites,
01:01wherever they can create the most damage.
01:03But we're proceeding according to plan.
01:05This is not instant soup.
01:07This is a war against a regime.
01:09It's been in power for five decades and has brutally suppressed its people
01:13and, of course, continues to be a threat to the entire region.
01:18Ambassador, who carried out the strike next to the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran?
01:22Was that Israel or the U.S.?
01:24To the best of my knowledge, Israel did not strike at Natanz.
01:28But again, this is a coordinated effort, and I don't believe that we discuss particular operational issues online.
01:36But I do not believe that Israel struck at Natanz.
01:39I also want to ask you, the messaging from the American president has been saying that the U.S. has
01:45been very successful.
01:46Iran's military capability has been completely degraded.
01:49But we see the strike this morning, and we see the strike against Diego Garcia.
01:52What is your assessment of Iran's current strike capability?
01:55Because it seems like they still are able to cause damage.
01:59Well, again, this is something that doesn't transpire overnight.
02:02This is a large, malign regime that has to be dealt with.
02:08Look, just imagine that they would have a nuclear-tipped weapon.
02:14The ballistic missiles that they're firing right now would have a nuclear tip.
02:18The way that the world is being held hostage right now at the Strait of Hormuz would be that much
02:24more difficult, that much more threatening.
02:28You know, a barrel of oil would reach $250 if they wanted it to.
02:34So this at some point has to be stopped.
02:37This is a malign regime that's holding the world hostage.
02:39And it's going to take some time, hopefully not too long.
02:44But we see dramatic cracks in the system.
02:47The edifice of this tyrannical regime is cracking.
02:51It has not opened up to wide chasms yet.
02:54But that's the direction it's going.
02:55We're seeing a degradation not only in their ability to fire these ballistic missiles, to get their drones off, but
03:03also in the morale.
03:04We have small units within the system of the IRGC and the Basij, which are not turning their weapons yet
03:12on their superiors, but they're not showing up for work.
03:14And that's a first.
03:17It's developing.
03:18And it's a process.
03:19We never knew exactly when the Soviet Union would fall or exactly when the Romanians would turn their guns against
03:25Ceausescu.
03:26But this is a people, 92 million, who want freedom, who want something else, who don't want the boot of
03:32the repressive regime on their necks anymore.
03:35So it's quite possible that we're going to see these cracks develop more and refusal on the part of these
03:42brutal people to turn their guns against their own citizens.
03:46Let me ask you about that.
03:48You mentioned those 92 million people.
03:50You see the devastation and destruction that Israel and the U.S. have rendered on Iran's military sites and other
03:56places.
03:57If we do not see Iranians rise up, if we don't see regime change in any sort of traditional sense,
04:03are we at a moment or near it when Israel and the U.S. might say,
04:06look, both of those countries have devastated this country sufficiently.
04:10There won't be regime change.
04:12It's worth packing up and going home.
04:13Or is that really the end goal here?
04:15And what's your assessment of the level of patience and timeline for that to happen?
04:20David, the end goal here is that there is not a power, an entity in Tehran, which is capable of
04:28firing massive numbers of ballistic missiles,
04:33achieving a nuclear weapon and supporting proxies around the region.
04:37If that can be achieved through the collapse of this regime, so be it.
04:43If not, that's the minimum we have to achieve.
04:46Remember, you know, everybody's kind of surprised when negotiations stop.
04:51But, you know, look, these people are murderers.
04:53They're mass killers.
04:55And murderers do not tell the truth.
04:58So to go into a negotiation with people who lie as a matter of a matter of fact, I mean,
05:05look at the ICBM that was fired yesterday.
05:07I mean, they claim for years and years we don't have an ICBM.
05:10Well, they did.
05:11And the ICBM that can be fired at 4,000 kilometers, you know, give them a little bit more time
05:16and they're going to have an ICBM that's going to hit Chicago.
05:19So these people, they come in with their with their Cheshire Cat grin, their smugness and lie.
05:25So what is what is negotiation worth with people who murder and lie?
05:30We have to achieve a situation where they simply are not capable of wreaking havoc on their neighbors and on
05:38the entire world.
05:39To that end, I wonder if there are any concerns that it might have been a miscalculation to go after
05:44some of Iran's historic sites, to go after some of the energy infrastructure, because does that make it harder to
05:49accomplish that goal, to either get a regime that doesn't threaten Israel or its allies, or if the regime does
05:56fall to then install a functioning government if the country and the infrastructure isn't there?
06:01That's a great question, Christina.
06:03Look, there's a there's a dilemma here.
06:06OK, I mean, and it's a fair dilemma when we're talking about strategy.
06:11If the regime is going to stay or some form of this regime is going to stay in power, then
06:16it's absolutely necessary to devastate their national infrastructure.
06:21So they're incapable of malign actions in the future.
06:25If they're not going to stay in power, then you don't want to destroy the national infrastructure because you want
06:30them to be able to resuscitate themselves.
06:33So we're moving, I think, in a parallel fashion.
06:37And that's going to depend.
06:38You have to make an assessment from day to day, from week to week.
06:41That's very much an operational assessment on the part of our militaries.
06:45So I think it's going to become clear over the next week or so.
06:49But we're marching in that direction to completely eliminate the possibility where there's going to be an entity in Tehran
06:56which is going to be able to fire these ballistic missiles, support the Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
07:03I mean, just think about it.
07:04If tomorrow, you know, the Houthis take over the Bab al-Manda passageway, you know, the Straits of Aden.
07:12So we're going to have a situation where, you know, the entire world market is going to be shut down
07:17because of the whim of an Ayatollah sitting in Tehran.
07:21I mean, this is just simply unacceptable.
07:23It can't continue.
07:24And they've been calling our bluff now for five decades.
07:28And this has to stop.
07:30For us in Israel, it's an absolutely existential issue.
07:34Immediate existential issue because we see what these ballistic missiles can do.
07:38And if they have hundreds that they can fire in every round, which was their plan after the June war,
07:45to build thousands of these medium-range ballistic missiles and fire them all at once in order to overwhelm our
07:52multilayered missile defense system.
07:54If they're able to do that, you know, Israel is a tiny country.
07:58It's the size of New Jersey.
07:59We simply can't allow that to happen.
08:01But it's not just Israel.
08:03I mean, look at their firing to all their neighbors, to Saudi Arabia, to Oman, to the Emirates, to Bahrain.
08:08They're particularly focused on the Emirates because the Emirates, you know, is a projection of a very moderate Islam that
08:15accommodates the West, that accommodates Judeo-Christian civilization.
08:18They hate the Emirates more than anybody else.
08:20And that's why they fired so many of these drones into the Emirates.
08:23And we're delighted to be able to assist them as much as we can.
08:27Mr. Ambassador, let me interrupt, if I could, just because we're...
08:30At the end of the day, this malign regime has to be brought down.
08:33Last question here is just about Lebanon.
08:35You'll forgive a basic question here.
08:36But what are Israel's goals there?
08:37We see 800,000 people displaced there.
08:39Torrential rains affecting many of those people who have been displaced.
08:42As we look at where there might be daylight between Israel and the U.S., do you feel like the
08:47U.S. supports Israel's attacks on Lebanon?
08:50And where do you see them leading to?
08:52Well, let me push back on that question, David.
08:55Israel's attacks on Lebanon are a reaction to Hezbollah's missiles being fired into our cities.
09:00We are not going to allow a terrorist entity that has taken over our northern border, has sapped it of
09:07its strength, to fire missiles into our communities.
09:09It's just that simple.
09:11I mean, just imagine that, you know, you had missiles coming over from Canada into Montana.
09:15I mean, you'd erase the other side of the border.
09:17So we want peace with Lebanon.
09:19There's no reason in the world we can't live in a harmonious peace with our northern neighbor.
09:23Most of the Lebanese want it as well, but their country has been occupied by this terrorist entity.
09:28So we have to protect our northern border.
09:31And ultimately, the Lebanese themselves have to rid their country of this malign influence coming up.
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