Larry Johnson & Col. Wilkerson: Is War Between US/Israel and Iran Inevitable?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]What has happened in the last two days?

[00:00:02]One of them was the American tankers, oil tanker tried to you know to pass through the s of formos which Iran hit at least they fired some sort of missiles cruise missiles toward the tanker just a warning sort of missiles but last night we've learned that the United States tried to four US warships tried to enter this this trade of Hormuz which it was the same sort sort of reactions from Iranian and we had the American attack on the city of Bandar Abos which is close to the Persian Gulf right >> and then Iranian response on Kuwait American base in Kuwait.

[00:00:46]>> This is putting that aside. On the other hand, Donald Trump is trying to sell us that everything is going well. We're going to reach some sort of agreement.

[00:00:54]And even JD Vance yesterday said the same thing moments ago before coming to this live.

[00:01:02]Here is what the head of Iranian parliament tweeted. He says three three points in his tweet. One, we cease concession not through dialogue but with missiles in negotiations. We merely make them understood.

[00:01:22]Make them understand.

[00:01:23]>> Right? We have not trust.

[00:01:26]We have no trust in guarantees or words.

[00:01:29]Only actions are the measure. No actions will be taken before the other side acts. The winner of any agreement is the one who is better prepared for war for the day after. Here is what do you see?

[00:01:47]Do you do you feel any sort of negotiations or talk or peace happening?

[00:01:53]your understanding.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah. No, there uh the United States is strange is strangely silent right now. Um and let let me let's put it into time frame. I judge it in like 12 hours ago. So it's 10 p.m. at night. Um that is early morning uh Iran time and there was no action. 24 hours before that is what you just described where the four ships tried to go through the go uh the the straight and Iran stopped them. We again we don't know if they fired missiles directly at the ships or but it stopped it and in response to that the United States uh attacked they launched some bombs but apparently they didn't hit anything important.

[00:02:44]However, uh Iran fired a a missile as a warning shot at the air base in Kuwait from where those flights, these combat air patrols had originated.

[00:02:58]Um then 24 hours before that, there had been a similar uh ship tried to sneak through. Iran stopped it. That one the United States killed uh four sailors in in small boats. So they actually they hit Iranian targets. So as we look at this progression on day one it was very aggressive. They hit and killed Iranians.

[00:03:21]Day two they fired shots but they didn't kill Iranians.

[00:03:27]And now in the last 12 hours they haven't responded at all. The United States.

[00:03:33]So that tells me that there's u there's something going on that uh Iran has delivered a message to the United States. And I think the combination of that missile that was fired at Kuwait because they they they put the US on notice. We're going to destroy this air base if you keep this up. You know, we're not we're not going to break the ceasefire, but if you continue to attack and provoke, we're going to take out that air base. And as a consequence of that, I right now we've seen we've seen at least I don't know if it's permanent or or at least a temporary standing down of US aggressive missions against Iran.

[00:04:17]Uh Iran's positions have been very very clear. Uh and this is they were contradicted yesterday by what Donald Trump said. Iran wants uh immediate sanction relief and they want their assets unfrozen. Trump yesterday says no no there's not going to be any immediate sanctions relief and we're not unfreezing a single thing. Uh Iran's going to maintain control of the straight of Hormuz. Trump says no no no they're not. So this fight claiming oh yeah we're really near agreement if what Trump is saying reflects the US position. They're nowhere near at all.

[00:04:56]But uh the United States keeps coming back to the nuclear issue.

[00:05:02]Iran has said that's for discussion later. That's not for discussion now.

[00:05:06]The now issue is get the relief sanctioned relief, return the frozen assets.

[00:05:14]We'll we'll maintain control of the straight of Hormuz. And this war against the Palestinians and Lebanese has got to stop now.

[00:05:25]Carl.

[00:05:27]>> Well, I think Larry has described it pretty well. I would add that his last point, which I think is adamant with the Iranians, ain't going to happen.

[00:05:39]BB is going full hog and looks like he might go for the entire country of Lebanon before it's over with. And he's even got people in Beirut now screaming and all because he's attacking with the air force assets that clearly aren't Hezbollah or if they're Hezbollah it's a real stretch to prove that they are. Um so that's the flying the ointment as far as I see it tactically on the ground that BB Netanyahu is paying no attention to this at all. But a bigger problem I think Larry just referred to indirectly perhaps but nonetheless he referred to it and that is that if we do have any diplomacy going on even through third parties through Oman, Pakistani, whomever, if we do have any going on, how do you conduct it coherently when Donald Trump makes these pronouncements all the time which are probably as divorced from anything they're doing on the ground with third parties in terms of diplomatic maneuvers completely. So you get one person, people, exchange, whatever on the ground that forms some view of one particular issue like for example the state of Hormuz and then all of a sudden Donald Trump comes out and condemns Oman or some other egregious move. How the hell do you do any coherent diplomacy with your prime diplomat? And that's what the president is supposed to be really making these pronouncements all the time. They're disconnected from reality and disconnected probably most of the time from the diplomacy being conducted third party or otherwise. I don't know how you do this. I I simply don't. And is it just to keep everything so confused? So essentially BB can do what he wants to whenever he wants to. Now he's expanded in Gaza and he's going fullb boore again in Gaza and he is talking about this was in Haret's headline this morning. He's talking about 70% How do you get 70% of Lebanon and stay anywhere near the Latani River?

[00:07:45]>> Um this is crazy. It's just crazy. I You can't figure out what's happening and I think it reflects Trump's desperation. I think he does not know how to get out of the mess he's got himself into, but he does have some visceral view that he needs to.

[00:08:03]>> Hey, let this this just uh came across the wire from Donald Trump.

[00:08:10]Iran must agree that they will never have nuclear weapon or bomb. The Hormu straight must be immediately open, no tolls for unrestricted uh shipping traffic in both directions.

[00:08:23]Um, all water mines, bombs, if any, will be terminated.

[00:08:29]And we have removed through detonation numerous such mines with our great underwater mind sweepers. Iran will complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any mines that are left, which will not be many. Ships caught in the straight due to our amazing and unprecedented naval blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of heading home. Say hello to your wives, husbands, parents, and families from me, your favorite president. The enriched material, sometimes referred to as nuclear dust, which is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains, caused by our powerful B2 bomber attack 11 months ago. sitting on top of it will be unearthed by the United States which it is agreed is the only country along with China with the mechanical capability of doing soil or doing so in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran plus the International Atomic Energy Agency and destroyed doesn't make sense but that's what it says no money will be exchanged until further notice other items of far less importance have been agreed to. I'll be meeting now in the situation room to make a final determination. Thanks for your attention to this matter. President Donald J.

[00:09:48]Trump.

[00:09:51]Uh there's so much wrong with that. Uh you know, >> and who wrote it for him? I mean, >> yeah.

[00:09:58]>> A hodgepodge of defense department, State Department, Trump's lackey. I mean, who wrote that crap for him?

[00:10:04]>> Even Miller.

[00:10:07]>> I don't know if that's Miller. There's this one woman, young woman, she's in her 20s. I I wouldn't be surprised if she's writing, you know, she's being told what to write. She's she writes it.

[00:10:17]And with the minds, as an example, uh the United States hasn't exploded a bunch of them. Number one, but by the Department of Defense's own estimate, it's going to take six months to clean the mines up. Six months. Okay. So, and that's assuming that there's no threat uh from Iran. Uh Iran is not going to allow the United States to come in and quote dig up the nuclear dust. That ain't happening. U there would be if any Iranian that agreed to that there'd be a coup. U so uh you you've got that and Iran has you know we we'll see what is actually going to be agreed upon in the situation room. the the things that Trump says, "Oh, all these other items of less importance," those are actually the key items.

[00:11:11]>> Yeah, Carl, I re really feel that Steven Miller has a very substantial role in the Trump administration.

[00:11:20]>> Oh, I do. Yeah.

[00:11:22]>> Yeah. Together with Jared Kushner, these are two important characters. One of them is part of the administration. The other one, Jared Kushner, is not even part of the administration, but he's so important. He here is what Steven Miller said about the situation in the Middle East.

[00:11:42]>> When did he say this?

[00:11:42]>> President Trump is the one who's going to make that decision. And President Trump alone, he's directly personally involved in the negotiations making sure that the results are up to his standards. As you've outlined, Iran has made significant material and dramatic concessions to the United States that would have been impossible only a short time ago because of the military battlefield defeat that they have suffered and the embargo continuing to choke the life out of their economy. But let's understand something else. It's very important to baseline this all on where we are today versus where we started. When Obama signed the Iran nuclear deal, the so-called JCPOA, Iran was on a guaranteed path to a nuclear weapon to being the dominant power in the region to being the richest and most militarily threatening nation in the entire Middle East with the ability to launch ballistic and ultimately nuclear weapons to Europe and eventually the United States. Now, because of President Trump, their economy has been dismantled. Their nuclear program under Operation Midnight Hammer has been obliterated. Their entire defense industrial base has been eradicated.

[00:12:54]Their navy's at the bottom of the sea.

[00:12:56]Their air force at the bottom of the sea. Their entire leadership class has been decapitated. It is the most complete, thorough, total military thrashing in the history of armed conflict. Four weeks and a country decimated to that degree, to that extent. And now here we are at the end of that with the ramp putting on the table a complete reopening of the straight as has been discussed and many other concessions that are going to be unveiled in the time to come. But again, there's no deal until there's a deal.

[00:13:29]Nothing's final till it's final. And President Trump's been clear that he reserves the option now or at any time in the future to do whatever is necessary to defend and protect America's national security.

[00:13:44]Yeah, let me let me make a couple of administrative comments before we go into the real meat of it. Look under his name. It says deputy chief of staff for policy. I've been very close to four presidential administrations, intimately so with two.

[00:14:06]Never in the history of presidential administrations has a deputy deputy mind you chief of staff had such power as he just intimated and had such a position to articulate the lies written for him by Israel that he just articulated. And how do I know that Israel wrote most of that? because it's been coming out in haretses in little pieces from BB and others for about a week or two already.

[00:14:38]Steven Miller is an agent working in the White House for BB Net. Now, of course, we've all known that all along, but to have this prominence when he gets it in his mind to come out and speak like he did there is a bastardization of everything this the the system stands for, particularly in the White House.

[00:15:00]The deputy chiefs of staff are supposed to manage the cabinet level and other equivalent agencies within the government. One of them manages half.

[00:15:11]Maybe it includes state, treasury, and a couple of others. The other one manages the other half. That's not what they're doing. They're letting him be a spokesperson for BB Netanyahu from the podium of the president of the United States. And most of what he said there was propaganda and very difficult to determine if any of it is true, but pretty well determined that a lot of it was false. So why is he occupying this position that the president himself or the chief of staff, if he empowers her to be so, ought to be articulating.

[00:15:46]I I would say it shouldn't be any of the administration of the chiefs of staff, deputies or primaries. It should be the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, if he could speak intelligibly, or someone else empowered in the mainstream of the cabinet to speak. Why is he speaking?

[00:16:08]That's the big administrative question.

[00:16:11]Why is he speaking as if if he were as if he were the president of the United States and in real terms, more articulately, but lying much the way the president does. This is a mystery to me administratively. This is a mystery.

[00:16:26]What are they doing?

[00:16:28]>> Yeah, >> Larry. The last sentence he said I think is so important for Iranians. He said it doesn't matter what they get by these talks and negotiation. If if we could so-called negotiations, the all options are on the table. It means that the United States can decide to against attack again attack Iran over and over. It depends on the decision on the part of the president of the United States. This is the whole concept of this is the whole problem with the Iranians right now. They're talking about what is the main point of talking with the United States if we finally get to the battlefield. So, let's do it on the battlefield. What is the point of talking with Americans? When it comes to the nuclear program, they're basically talking about there is no point on that.

[00:17:18]If you are part of NPT then every we can enrich uranium. If that's the problem, we can get out of NPT. There are people, many people are arguing that right now in Europe.

[00:17:30]>> Yeah. The um narrative construction that Miller was engaged in to paint uh Iran as so desperate. They're so so damaged, so defeated that they'll accept any agreement now that we we the United States have beat them down and they're begging begging for an agreement. Well, that's just simply not true. Uh in fact, the opposite is true. It's the United States that's begging for uh an agreement. Uh, I'd recommend, you know, not not to do cross uh public, you know, uh, cross advertising, but Danny Davis had a a geologist, an oil expert named Art Burman did an extensive did an hourong interview with him the other day, and I'd really encourage people to go watch that because he he he he provides uh a lesson on what's really going on in the oil market and despite you like here was Donald Trump yesterday claiming oh man the United States we're the biggest on the oil and everything else and Burman had a great uh metaphor he said you know uh let let's assume that oil is like alcohol so what do you want to drink are you looking to just throw back a few beers or some wine or do you want to get drunk if you want to get drunk break out, you know, the Jack Daniels 100 Proof. He says the US oil is really it's it's the equivalent of uh light beer and wine. It it's it's not really the kind of oil that is it's not the oil that's needed to produce diesel.

[00:19:26]And the diesel oil comes from it's imported. So the United States is actually importing 10% of its oil. Now, these were things I had I didn't know, but uh he he had the facts out. So, what what he's suggesting is the that the the economic consequences from this shutdown of oil out of the Persian Gulf is that the real experts know it's building and building and building and when it explodes on us, when the final impact comes, it's going to be devastating. So, that's what's in the back. That's what's driving in the back of the mind the Trump folks. we got to get a deal with Iran. But what what Stephen Miller said there uh regarding uh the suggesting such total US dominance, it it's just it it's dangerous. What what I don't know is does he really believe his own >> Yeah. or um is he just saying that in order to you know for the public relations line you know public diplomacy part but secretly he knows how screwed they are that that I don't know >> and it's far more dangerous Nema if he believes it far more dangerous in my view >> I agree