00:00Do you think the leaks related to that telephone conversation, that infamous telephone conversation
00:05between Trump and Netanyahu, were designed precisely for that reason, for President Trump
00:11to show the world, to show Iran, to show Israel that it's he, not Prime Minister Netanyahu,
00:18who calls the shots?
00:19Well, of course, I think he's trying to find an off-ramp.
00:22It's a very uncomfortable position for the United States to be in, despite the fact that
00:27in the U.S., there is a narrative that they have won the war, the war is going well.
00:33Generally, in comments and observations and facts on the ground, looking at the situation
00:41from the global economy and from the perspective of Iran, the United States finds itself in
00:48an extremely awkward position.
00:49It has not won the war.
00:51The need for Trump to pull back and to find a way to claim a win under these circumstances
01:03is something we're seeing him try on a number of fronts.
01:06So that call, I think, was part of it.
01:09The statement to Netanyahu, the statement about the Hezbollah, the fact that he claims that
01:15he's in a dominant position in the embargo, for example, all of these are different parts
01:22to a mosaic of trying to find an off-ramp so that he can say the United States has won.
01:29Meanwhile, I think the Iranians are simply holding fast to their original demands.
01:35I do not see that he has yet acquiesced to those demands.
01:39And so the Iranians are simply, I think, showing that the diplomatic process is at a stalemate
01:47at the moment until the United States either moves forward in the negotiations or simply withdraws.
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