00:00The ambassador said there needs to be an agreement on Iran's position, its policies in the region.
00:09Well, we could not agree more strongly on that point.
00:12It is Iran's continued support for the most radical groups engaged in terrorizing on behalf of Iranian hegemonistic, to use
00:25their phrase, arrogance in the region, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, that are a critical part of all we are discussing
00:35today.
00:35Iran needs to decide. Does it wish to be a movement or a nation?
00:43Right now, the regime bases its own legitimacy upon the support for the most radical groups interfering with the sovereignty
00:53of their neighbors.
00:55Hezbollah in Lebanon could not be clear in the events over the past two weeks, acts as an arm of
01:02Iran, not as a Lebanese political entity.
01:06This has to come to an end. Is that easy to do? No, it's not.
01:11But let's be very clear here. The Iranian record in the region is a horrific one over the course of
01:18the last years since the 79 revolution.
01:22It is why the region fears Iran's hegemonistic bent. It is why the current escalation is as damaging as it
01:33is.
01:33Iran was a potential threat to the region, to the Gulf before. Now it is a realized, actual threat.
01:42And again, we come back to the strait. It has shown that despite all that has been done militarily to
01:49Iran,
01:49it retains the ability to keep the strait closed. This situation has to come to an end.
01:56There could be some in the region, though, Ambassador Satterfield, who could argue that same point about the US and
02:02Israel.
02:03I think, to be realistic, the number of people in the region right now who see Iran and its proxies
02:11as the primary threat,
02:13exceed those by far that see that threat coming from Israel.
02:17That part of the world or the world's policy has made a radical change over the course of the past
02:24decade.
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