00:00Senator Cotton, Iran is a lot weaker today than they were a year ago.
00:07Hezbollah has been eliminated as a proxy or seriously weakened their missile attack on Israel has been intercepted.
00:16What is your assessment on whether that makes them more likely to reach a deal along the lines that you have outlined today?
00:27And what is your assessment on how that has impacted their desire for a nuclear weapon or their decision-making on whether to restart things?
00:37Well, I think Iran has always lived in mortal terror of the United States and what the United States might do to the Ayatollahs,
00:46especially when we have a strong president like Donald Trump or Ronald Reagan.
00:50When President Trump directed the killing of Iran's terrorist mastermind in January of 2020,
00:56Iran largely pulled in its horns for the rest of President Trump's first term.
01:02When Ronald Reagan sank half of Iran's navy in 1988, Iran again pulled in its horns.
01:09It stopped mining the Arabian Gulf, and within just a few months, the eight-year Iran-Iraq war ended.
01:17A reporter asked President Reagan in the midst of that conflict as he walked across the South Lawn to Marine One if we were now at war with Iran.
01:27And Reagan chuckled, as he often did, and said, no, Iran wouldn't be so stupid.
01:32And Iran has been exposed in many ways over the last year, both through the destruction of most of its air and missile defenses by Israel and retaliation last year when Iran struck Israel,
01:48and also by the devastation that Israel has visited upon Hamas and Hezbollah and that we've done to Iran's proxies in Yemen.
01:59So I think there's no question that Iran is in a much weaker position to deter military action if that's necessary to end its nuclear program.
02:09The president recognizes that.
02:11Leaders in the region recognize that.
02:13Most notably, the Ayatollahs recognize that.
02:15And I think they, again, are deathly afraid.
02:18Now, they probably hope that they can bluff the president or tap him along in a way that minimizes the threat to their nuclear weapons program.
02:28But the simplest way for them to avoid such action is to completely dismantle their program, to turn over their centrifuges, to turn over their uranium.
02:40And at that point, as Senator Graham has said, we could talk about some kind of civilian nuclear program,
02:45a program that a couple dozen nations around the world have, none of whom enrich uranium.
02:52That's fine. That's good.
02:53Does the Senate need to approve a deal in order for it to last into the future?
02:57I think, obviously, if any other nation wants the most durable and lasting kind of agreement with the United States, it would be in a treaty form.
03:10And that was one reason why President Obama's deal was so weak,
03:13and something that I and Senator Graham and most other Republican senators caution the Ayatollahs about before reaching that deal,
03:19is that an agreement between the American president, whoever he or she may be,
03:26and a foreign leader can be reversed by future presidents, which President Trump rightly did seven years ago today.
03:33So if they want the most durable and lasting kind of deal,
03:37then they'd want to bring it to the Senate and have it voted on as a treaty.
03:41I think the statute that I think Senator Cotton helped lead regarding us having a say about the JCPOA,
03:50what's the name of that statute?
03:52Inara.
03:53Inara.
03:53The Iran Nuclear Agreement Rule Act.
03:55Yeah, so that allowed us to at least have a say about it.
03:59It wasn't a treaty.
04:00I think, at a minimum, that would happen.
04:03But I talked to, actually, Secretary Rubio about this.
04:05A treaty with Iran in this space is only possible if you get 67 votes.
04:12There's no way you're going to get 67 votes unless they completely dismantle
04:16and shut down the path that Senator Cotton has described toward a nuclear weapon in a way that's verifiable.
04:22But also, you're not going to get 67 votes for a treaty regarding their nuclear program
04:28unless they deal with a missile program and their terrorism activity.
04:32So is it possible?
04:33Yes.
04:34If Iran changes, I would urge the Ayatollah to seriously consider what Secretary Rubio and Witkoff are proposing.
04:44You can have what you claim you want, which is a peaceful nuclear power program, if you dismantle.
04:51But it's more than that.
04:52You can have a better relationship with the United States if you do the things that Senator Cotton laid out.
04:58But without fundamental change, there is no pathway to a treaty in the United States Senate.
05:04And I would just add to that that Senator Graham is right.
05:07I mean, Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was hugely controversial because it was so weak,
05:12because it paved their path to a nuclear weapon.
05:14That's why it was opposed not just by Republicans, but by Democrats as well,
05:18to include Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate.
05:21I don't foresee a situation in which we'd be voting on a deal that would resemble anything like President Obama's deal
05:30and therefore would be so hugely controversial.
05:32Secondarily, on the nuclear power front, it's also customary in some cases for the Congress, not just the Senate,
05:42to pass ordinary legislation that supports the so-called 1-2-3 agreements we have with other countries around the world
05:48to provide them with peaceful civilian nuclear power.
