00:00We've been following developments in Iran very closely here at Arabia English all week.
00:05A highly unpredictable 12-day war, and events seem to come to a fairly hasty conclusion.
00:13Are you confident we're now going to see a lasting peace?
00:15I think it's very early innings, and what we know now is not necessarily what's going to happen.
00:22I think what we need to understand are two big things.
00:24First, Iran has been seeking to build a nuclear program of conventional weapons, of non-conventional weapons to attack the United States and others for quite some time.
00:38Those are not eliminated overnight, and we need to be very careful about what the damage assessment is.
00:43And then the second piece is Iran has spent an enormous amount of time making sure that their nuclear program is buried, very difficult to attack.
00:52It was a critical issue to make sure to take these out, but it is far too early for us to know exactly what has happened.
00:59The key question for us right now, Michael, is to understand how much damage was done, how lasting is that damage, and what else needs to be done to stop Iran from having a nuclear program.
