00:00President Biden in the U.S.
00:20Frankly, the way to put it, these are innocent bystanders.
00:22These are countries that, and ships and so forth, that have nothing to do with any of this,
00:26and nonetheless are being caught in the middle of it and being held hostage,
00:29merely because Iran could do that, just as the regime brutally slaughtered tens of thousands
00:35of their own citizens for the crime of peaceful protest, because they're unhappy with the quality
00:41of life or the lack of quality of life in Iran today. And so they're sitting ducks. They're
00:45isolated, they're starving, they're vulnerable, and at least 10 sailors have already died as a
00:50result of the civilian sailors. So already many nations privately and some publicly have asked
00:55the United States to help free their ships and to restore freedom of navigation in the
00:59Straits of Hormuz and this critical artery of global trade.
01:02Can you talk about what the goal is with that resolution? And there was a similar one last
01:06month that was vetoed by China and Russia. You spoke to the Russian foreign minister. Do you
01:11have an assurance that Russia will be on board with this now?
01:13Well, we don't know. Look, I mean, everyone wouldn't want to see this vetoed again. And
01:17we've made some slight adjustments to the language, but I don't know if it'll avoid a veto or not. But
01:22I think it's a real test for the UN, right, as a function, as something that functions to,
01:27that can solve global problems. What is the purpose of the UN? The UN was supposed to be a
01:32place where you could peacefully resolve global conflict. Right now you have a country who is
01:37unlawfully, criminally, and illegally taking possession of an international waterway and
01:42blowing up commercial vessels and putting mines in the water. I don't know if people appreciate,
01:46like, how outrageous this is, how unacceptable it is that any country would fire and try to sink
01:51commercial vessels or put mines in the water. Both of these things are illegal.
01:56And so we're going to take it to the UN and we're going to give it another chance to be
01:59a forum
01:59in which we're not even asking people to, like, commit troops to the region and help blow up their
02:03Iranian boats. All we're asking them to do is to condemn it, to call on Iran, to stop blowing ships,
02:08to remove these mines, and to allow humanitarian relief to come through because there's humanitarian aid
02:14that's trapped. That's it. This is a very modest request. And if you're telling me that the
02:18international community and hundreds of countries cannot rally behind that, then I don't know what
02:23the utility of the UN system is, if it can't even solve something as straightforward as that.
02:27But the Straits of Hormuz do not belong to Iran. They don't have a right to shut it down
02:31and blow up ships and lay mines. And that's what they've done. That needs to be addressed.
02:36Otherwise, and it cannot be normalized under no circumstances until we live in a world where we
02:40accept, okay, this is normal. You have to coordinate with Iran. You have to pay them a toll in order
02:44to go through the Straits of Hormuz. Not only is that unacceptable in the Straits, you're
02:48creating a precedent that could be repeated in multiple other places around the world.
02:52The whole world should join us in this condemnation.
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