00:00Well, yes, but the point is, if there's not much seizing in the firing, because we've...
00:05Well, you should ask that to the Iranians. Don't ask me. We didn't fire. They fired on us.
00:08My point is, if you fire at a U.S. Navy ship, what are we supposed to do?
00:12Say, oh, there's a ceasefire. We're not going to shoot down your drone.
00:14That's a stupid question. That's a stupid position to take.
00:17Of course we fired back at them. They were shooting at us.
00:19That's what I would expect to do.
00:21Only stupid countries don't shoot back when you're shot at, and we're not a stupid country.
00:25Do you expect that, or have you conveyed any red lines to Iran where, you know, if the ceasefire, or
00:32whatever you call it, if they...
00:33Well, the red line is clear. If they threaten Americans, they're going to get blown up.
00:36I mean, that's... How much clearer can you be than that?
00:39If you fire on... If you are a missile-launching guy, whatever they call that job, and you're sitting there,
00:44and you fire a missile at the United States, and we saw you fire it, we're going to hit you.
00:48Of course we are. Who doesn't do that? Unless you want to get your ship sunk.
00:52I mean, we're not going to let our ships get sunk by the Iranians, with their little, you know, their
00:56drones that they're firing.
00:58You know, they don't have a navy anymore, but they bring out these little Boston whaler fishing boats,
01:02and they try to swarm you. We're going to blow those boats up if they're coming towards our boats.
01:05I don't know if that's a red line, but I hope they know it is by now.
01:08So if I were one of these Iranians on a fast boat, and they tell you,
01:11hey, your mission is to go after a U.S. destroyer, you're probably not going to survive.
01:15I think that's a red line.
01:17Well, we should know something today. I mean, we're expecting a response from them.
01:20We'll see what the response entails.
01:22The hope is it's something that it can put us into a serious process of negotiation.
01:26Obviously, we've seen the reporting overnight that Iran has established,
01:29or trying to establish some agency that's going to control traffic in the Straits.
01:34That would be very problematic. That would actually be unacceptable.
01:37I mean, the normalizing of their controlling of international waterways is both illegal,
01:42and it's just something that's unacceptable.
01:44And the world has to start asking itself, what is it willing to do if Iran tries to normalize a
01:49control of an international waterway?
01:52I think that's unacceptable.
01:53But we're expecting a response from them today at some point.
01:56We have not received that yet in the last hour, but perhaps that will come.
02:01Their system is still highly fractured and a bit dysfunctional as well,
02:04so that may be serving as an impediment.
02:07I hope it's a serious offer. I really do.
02:10Can you go for...
02:11Can you...
02:13We expect talks.
02:15I don't know if we've set the exact date yet, but we expect that there'll be additional talks.
02:19Look, it's one of the areas that I think we can work with Italy on.
02:23They can play a very productive role and a constructive role in providing resources to the Lebanese government.
02:28In the end, we all share the same goal.
02:30And by all, I mean including the Lebanese government and the Israeli government,
02:33that we want the relations between Israel and Lebanon, its legitimate government, to be very strong.
02:39The impediment to that is Hezbollah.
02:41Again, an Iranian agent, Hezbollah, who is victimizing not just Israelis, but Hezbollah is also victimizing Lebanon.
02:48The reason why Lebanon faces bombings, the reason why Lebanon faces violence is because of Hezbollah.
02:53It is Hezbollah that's imposing this on them.
02:55So I think we all share the same goal, which is a strong Lebanese government
02:58that doesn't have an armed Hezbollah operating within its national territory
03:03and posing a threat to any of its neighbors.
03:05And to do that, we have to empower and equip the Lebanese government to be able to confront that threat.
03:09And I think Italy and other countries, but Italy in particular, can play an important role
03:13in not just helping equip the government, but in cutting off the illicit financing that supports...
03:18helping them to cut off the financing that supports Hezbollah and the danger they pose.
03:23I think our negotiations, our role is with the Lebanese government.
03:27Lebanon should be governed by the Lebanese government.
03:29It should not have a terrorist group operating within its national territory
03:33that poses a threat both to its own people, including the Shia population,
03:37and to the government, and to Israel, and to its other neighbors.
03:40So that's what we're going to focus on.
03:42Mr. Secretary, can we come back to Cuba a little bit?
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