Jon Decker has the latest on tense situation in the Middle East

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is John Mounts. I'm filling in for JT
today and we go now to Washington, d C. To
check in with John Decker because you've got the latest
on the situation involving Iran. Good morning, John, Hey, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yes, the President spent much of yesterday in the Situation
Room with his national security team considering what steps the
US may take in terms of military action against Iran.
More of that is expected today, and we could hear
from the President as early as this afternoon when the
new US ambassador to France has sworn in in the

(00:32):
Oval Office. That would be an opportunity if that opens
up to the press for the press to ask some
questions to the President about his current thinking about the
possibility of taking military action against Iran. What would that
look like, Well, it wouldn't be boots on the ground.
It could be military strikes by military jet by drones,

(00:55):
by cruise missiles. That's the type of thing that may
be contemplated by the President and his national security team.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
But we're talking about using American drones and American cruise missiles.
We're not talking about, like say, sending munitions to another country,
like say, helping Israel carry this out. We're actually talking
about that we would be the one to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, that's right, that's what's being contemplated. The President putting
out on social media yesterday a message surrender immediately all caps,
and we heard a message or return message reply coming
just within the past twelve hours from the Supreme Leader
of Iran saying that they will not comply with that
request coming from the President. So I think a lot

(01:36):
will be known within the next twenty four to forty
eight hours in terms of whether the US will get
involved militarily and whether it's necessary given the fact that
Israel is doing just fine on their own in terms
of going after Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
And that's an important point, John, because if Israel is
going to be able to score the win in this thing,
I'd almost rather have the United States's hands off off
of it, so that maybe we might be, you know,
not considered the target for more terror, although there's really
no rhyme or reason to the way these terror attacks work.
But I do know that our intervention in the Middle
East in the past has led to fomenting some sort

(02:12):
of angst against America, and then we have situations like
you know nine to eleven happened a few years later.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, yeah, I mean all things that you mentioned are
you know, factors that are considered about whether to get
involved militarily. You have a divide in the Republican Party.
You have hawks national security hawks like Ted Cruz that
are urging the president to take action. You have doves
within the Republican Party not elected, but you know, people
like Tucker Carlson that say this is not our conflict.

(02:40):
And so there is this divide, and you know those
views are also represented on the President's national security team.
The President seems to be at odds with what his
Director of National Intelligence, Tulci Gabbert, has said. She says
that she does not believe that Iran's nuclear weapons program
is far advanced. Resident disagrees with his own director of

(03:02):
National Intelligence on that front.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
John, What does a win look like for us in
terms of do we expect the iotola to step down?
Do we expect him to disarm all of his nuclear weapons?
All the above? What are we asking of them when surrendering.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
I don't know. I do not know the answer to that,
you know, I mean, the president says surrender immediately. I
don't know. What that means when you say surrender immediately,
it's a pretty vague term, you know, And so I
think that the President needs to be more clear in
terms of what it is that he's asking Ieron to
do to forestall the possibility of US military involvement in
this conflict.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Unless you know, Donald Trump is as much as he's
the commander in chief, he's also missed negotiator in chief.
And sometimes what you like to do when you come
to the negotiation table is you leave it sort of
open to see what they're opening salvo is going to
be in terms of Okay, we're willing to do this
and not that, And maybe he's looking for the Iotola
to actually say, okay, in that case, we will do

(03:59):
this or that or the other. But has there actually
been any talks between or even even proposed talks between
the Iyetola and Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
No? No, nothing direct, nothing direct on that front that
I know of, And I would not expect anything involving
the President reaching out directly. That would be at a
lower level, maybe national security advisor or Secretary of State
or secretary of defense. But the President would not pick
up the phone and speak to his counterparty.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
And run interesting. Is that usually the case or is
it because of the ground that we're on, because Iran
in America definitely not on friendly terms and haven't been
for the last fifty years.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, there's no diplomatic relations. John, I need to go,
but I'll talk to you more about this as this
certainly continues today. Thank you so much. Today I have
a good day.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Thank you very much, John Decker from Washington. Thanks for
the information, and it'll be interesting to see how this
plays out. I was like talking to John because he's
so close to the president, he's able to give us
that insight.