00:00The Press, in terms of the war and the timeline, given this administration has put timelines out there before, what
00:05you just said about no negotiations happening with Iran, will this war be over by the time of the midterm
00:10elections?
00:11Mr. Well, Caitlin, again, I don't, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now there is no active shooting. I
00:16recognize there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations, again, major combat operations lasted for about
00:24six weeks.
00:25And since then, we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with Midnight Hammer. With Epic Fury, we destroyed their defense
00:33industrial base for producing weapons and also a lot of their conventional military.
00:37And then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program. But when you ask, when will this
00:43end? You're asking me a question like, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?
00:47I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You'd have to ask the Iranians. When
00:53will the Iranians shooting at ships stop having an effect on world energy markets?
00:57And the answer is, it has less effect day by day. So what we're going to do is not depend
01:02on the Iranians behaving responsibly or negotiating in good faith.
01:05What we're going to do is use the tools that we have at our disposal to ensure that the American
01:11people, one, never have to deal with the threat of an Iranian nuclear program.
01:14And two, that world energy markets are properly supplied.
01:19But so it's up to the Iranians when this war ends?
01:21Well, if the Iranians keep on shooting at commercial ships, again, we have, I think, a responsibility, but certainly we're
01:33the only ones with the capability to ensure that the Iranians are not destroying world energy markets.
01:39And our attitude is, we're not going to set an artificial timeline because, let's just say, hypothetically, let's say I
01:45told you three months.
01:46Let's say I told you three days, okay?
01:48And then the Iranians start blowing up oil and gas ships, and the United States is the only country with
01:53the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market.
01:57Well, what I would say is it would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy and our timeline
02:03for an Iranian nation that simply cannot honor its commitments and cannot stop shooting at commercial ships.
