00:00Yeah, look, it wouldn't be a useful exercise to rank who is more threatening to the region, Iran or Israel,
00:07because both have exhibited disturbing tendencies to the countries in the region.
00:12And it depends on at what era and decade that you can reference who comes before the other.
00:18And concerning Iran's hegemonic tendencies, those go prior to the revolution as well.
00:26I mean, we've seen the occupation of the islands from the UAE.
00:30We've seen the claims on Bahrain as well upon Bahrain's independence.
00:34And this was even before the Islamic revolution.
00:37So there is a pattern there that needs to look inwards and try to modify itself.
00:43If the regional exercise, which I also believe in, by the way, the regional way of operating with one another.
00:50But we need to come to terms with one another on the basis of how we see each other.
00:55And that's not there.
00:57I mean, we abide by the rules-based international order from the Gulf states.
01:02And that's how we try to perform matters forward.
01:05Now, if you want to build something that involves all the countries, you need to also respect the sovereignty of
01:12these states.
01:12And that will come with different defense partnerships.
01:16And we've seen the same thing from the Iranian side.
01:18They also have their own defense partnerships.
01:20So to try to clothe a regional formula, which is needed, but with the tools of intervening in other countries'
01:28decisions and choices, is not going to bode well.
01:31And that's been the source of action.
01:32And obviously, the non-ending interference.
01:36We've uncovered three Hezbollah sleeper cells in the last two weeks in Kuwait alone.
01:41And there is a whole history that I can trace to different countries with that behavior.
01:46We haven't reciprocated in that way when it comes to meddling into Iranian affairs, because that's not our interests.
01:52We're building healthy, viable nations that need to survive in a global sense.
01:58That's what we aspire to.
01:59That's our compass.
02:00We don't need to dwell in the past, and we don't need to be pretty focused on interfering in other
02:06countries' affairs to score points in that sense.
02:08And also to the point of meddling that was mentioned, the regime in Iran has been built on anti-Americanism.
02:17So to them, also trying to have a deal with the Americans could be ironic, because something like the JCPOA,
02:24which was hailed as a success by Ambassador Musabiyan, we've had issues with it in the Gulf.
02:29I mean, again, as you said in your own notion, we're sharing the region, the neighborhood.
02:34No one has consulted the Gulf states in it.
02:36Yet we bear the consequences.
02:38And that's why any future negotiation or deal has to include all the relevant parties to ensure that there is
02:46a continuation of that deal without any disruptions moving forward.
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