00:00Do you think that the U.S. hasn't made it clear now what it wants and who should be making
00:06concessions to ensure that we don't end up back in this regional chaos again?
00:14So, Linda, I kind of reject the premise of your first question, not this question, but the premise of your
00:20first question that you asked my co-patent list was essentially what do we have to do to get us
00:24back to get the MLU back on track?
00:26And I object to the premise of that question because, to me, the MLU was actually flawed from the start.
00:31I was never a particularly big fan of this MLU.
00:34I viewed it as making far too many concessions right off the bat.
00:38Immediately, the U.S. naval blockade was lifted on Iranian oil exports.
00:41To be fair, that has since been put back into place.
00:44But a lot of the damage was done when it came to the immediate financial relief when it comes to
00:47billions of dollars of Iranian oil exports, unfrozen Iranian assets in banking institutions overseas, in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
00:56So, I was no fan of the MLU.
00:58But to your other question right now, which is has the United States done enough to make clear what we
01:05are asking, I think the question is both yes and no.
01:09Donald Trump has been very clear when it comes to making demands about a free straighter for Moose.
01:14That has been the number one target for the administration for weeks now, arguably for months now.
01:19And he has expressed quite clearly that he does not want the straight to be subject to acts of international
01:24piracy, to be subject to the whims and the capricious acts of the IRGC and various other de facto modern
01:32pirates when it comes to tolling and fees and things like that.
01:36But having said that, what I will say is I've been critical to an extent of the administration for not
01:41making crystal clear from the outset what exactly the United States is seeking to accomplish here in this Iran operation.
01:47Trump did that to an extent way, way back on February 28th, the very day that Khamenei was assassinated.
01:53He spoke from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
01:57And that was the clear articulation of what we're trying to do the way that we've seen.
02:00But since then, it's been at times clarity and at times, frankly, lack of clarity.
02:05From my perspective, Melinda, the United States' goals ought to be fairly clear.
02:08I've been saying for months that they should be, first and foremost, the clearing of the street reform was for
02:12sure.
02:13Two, the end of Iran's funding to its terror proxy network throughout the region, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and elsewhere.
02:20Three, would be an end to the ballistic missile threat to the GCC, to the Gulf, to Israel, frankly, to
02:25Eastern Europe and to all that are within roughly 2,500 miles,
02:28which is more or less how far we think they can shoot their ballistic missiles.
02:31And four, some resolution has to happen when it comes to the nuclear issue.
02:35There's still about a half a ton of 60% enriched uranium, which is just one step short of getting
02:40to fully 9% enriched weapons-grade uranium range we mount on a warhead
02:44and potentially launch on an international continental ballistic missile, which they also don't have yet.
02:49But the point is there are a lot of goals here, and I do wish the administration at times would
02:53be a little clearer when it comes to what we are seeking to do.
02:56At this point, it seems to me like getting back to an Epic Fury era full-scale military confrontation is
03:03exceedingly unlikely,
03:04so that kind of leaves the open end of the question as to what exactly we're doing
03:07and what does some sort of resolution potentially look like.
03:09I don't really know the answer, to be honest.
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