00:00A ceasefire, a negotiation, that's what we give.
00:03And what they give is that the straits are going to be reopened.
00:05There seems to be a disagreement about whether Lebanon was included in this proposal.
00:09And the Speaker of the Parliament, who you're going to sit across from the table from in Islamabad,
00:14has just said that he thinks negotiations would be unreasonable while that war is ongoing.
00:18So would you ask Israel to hold off strikes to allow some space for these talks?
00:22Well, first of all, I know there's been some conversations between the Israelis
00:26and the leadership of our country today.
00:28I haven't been involved in that because I've been busy doing stuff in Hungary.
00:31I'm actually supposed to get an update when I get on the plane.
00:34But let me say a couple things.
00:35First of all, I actually think, and there's a lot of bad faith negotiation
00:39and a lot of bad faith propaganda going on,
00:43I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding.
00:46I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't.
00:51We never made that promise.
00:52We never indicated that was going to be the case.
00:54What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran,
00:57and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.
01:02Now, that said, the Israelis, as I understand it, again, I'm supposed to get a fuller report when I get
01:07on the plane,
01:08have actually offered to be, frankly, to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon
01:14because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful.
01:18That's not because that is part of the ceasefire.
01:21I think that's the Israelis trying to set us up for success,
01:24and we'll, of course, see how that unfolds in the next few days.
01:26But, look, if Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered
01:33over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them
01:37and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire,
01:40that's ultimately their choice.
01:41We think that would be dumb, but that's their choice.
01:44What's happening on the ground in Iran is that you have, clearly, the position of the government,
01:49which is to negotiate with the United States of America.
01:52You have the position of the President of the United States,
01:54which is to send the negotiators to Pakistan and engage in this good faith negotiation.
01:58And then, yes, you have some crazy people at the fringes of the Iranian system
02:03who are leaking anonymously either for propaganda purposes
02:06or because they're embarrassed or because they don't like what happened.
02:10And the final point when I say they don't like what happened,
02:12what we know is that the United States accomplished its military objectives.
02:16What we know is the United States could have imposed significant additional military
02:20and economic costs on Iran and still has the capacity to do so.
02:24But we thankfully at this point, I think, have a ceasefire.
02:28Thanks to the leadership of the President of the United States,
02:30we have the Iranians promising to open the Straits of Hormuz,
02:33and we have a negotiation that's supposed to start this weekend.
02:36That's the truth. I think it's a good first step.
02:39We're going to see if we can make more progress here in the days to come.
02:43Iran is continuing to block the Straits of Hormuz.
02:46Do you have an expectation of when that strait is going to be open?
02:49Well, we've already seen an increase in traffic today.
02:52Hopefully, we'll see an increase in traffic tomorrow.
02:54We actually think that we are seeing signs that the Straits are starting to reopen.
02:58I think you guys have probably seen oil prices have come down.
03:00So I think the oil markets, the gas markets are seeing the same thing.
03:03But the President is very clear.
03:05The deal is a ceasefire, a negotiation.
03:08That's what we give.
03:10And what they give is the Straits are going to be reopened.
03:12If we don't see that happening, the President is not going to abide by our terms
03:16if the Iranians are not abiding by their terms.
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