Lt Gen Kellogg: There’s only one reason Iran was enriching uranium at this high of a percentage

[00:00:00]Now, let's go to Iran. We'll talk about General Keith Kellogg, former US special envoy for Ukraine, co-chair of the AFPI Center for American Security. Um, Keith Kellogg, welcome back. One thing I saw in your notes, I thought it was very interesting, a presidential finding, and I think you're referring to covert action in Iran in order to overthrow the regime. It's something that General Keane and I talked about, and actually we talked about it last night also, Brian Hook, Mike Sorrell. I mean, this is like Reagan, you know, overturning communism using whatever covert means we can, uh, whether it's money or arms or whatever, intelligence, USA and Israel. Is that what you had in mind, Keith Kellogg, covert operations?

[00:00:50]>> Yeah.

[00:00:51]Yeah, Larry, I have. By the way, you're on fire today. That's for sure. Look, what I've said is that there's really five things we need to be doing a little bit different than we've been doing in the past. One in the five are number one, negotiations. Look, we need to understand these guys negotiate differently than we do, and we should understand that Zarif, who is their foreign minister, has written a book called Principles of Negotiation, and he calls it marketplace negotiations.

[00:01:18]Basically, his parents were rug merchants. It's like going to buy a rug in the Middle East. It's bartering back and forth, and we're not really used to that. We need to be thinking about how we do these negotiations going forward.

[00:01:29]The second part I talked about is decapitation. That means we make it they we make it to them unfathomable to come outside because we're going to target every one of them as we go forward. And I think we've started to do that, or we have done in the past. I think the president should keep doing it cuz you're on the right track. The third is seizing land. I've said take Kharg Island, you take Larak Island, which is important. Look, that gives the president easy as he wrote in the Art of the Deal, leverage. You have now something that they own that controls 90% of their economy and we're not going to give it back till we're tired of it or you come in and negotiate properly till let's get it get to a conclusion on this war. The fourth one is this is the part you talked about, the resistance. There is resistance in Iran and you can come up with a presidential finding to the agency and said that we're going to support them, not we're going to invade Iran proper because I've never been for that. I've only been for strategic hits like Kharg or Kharg Island. But if we can actually help them as well starting with one province at a time planting a planting a provisional flag of the Iranian resistance like the National Council for the resistance resistance of Iran. Do something like that. So develop this as we go future and we into the future and we can support them and arm them and maybe give them some advice because right now that resistance in Iran which I've just had a month ago talked to the leaders in Paris from the NCIR. It's really distributed. They really don't have a plan and they don't really know what to do and they lose people because there are so no planning behind it. They're not well organized for combat. I think that's the important part. And the the president's got this one right when he talked earlier outside of Air Force One. Have him go to the American people. Tell them what he's doing. He's got a great poll with the American people. That was proven again last night and what he's doing and I think if he gets that poll and he goes to the American people and he explains what he's doing in Iran is not for our generation. It's for our kids and our grandkids. We cannot afford to have a nuclear Iran. We know that will totally destabilize the Middle East. And when you're enriching uranium to 80% why are you going there? When when I honestly normal the normal use in the private sector for Iran is between 3 and 5%. The old joint comprehensive plan of action, we said Iranians can can enrich uranium at 3.67%.

[00:03:57]They were at 80%. Why were they going there? The only reason you go to that percentage of enriching uranium is to get to a nuclear weapon. No other reason. And when you got a missile fleet that can get all the way to France, that gives you a a huge problem. I think the president's right on this. I just think the American people will be behind him. He just needs to go there. There's going to be 30% of the American people don't want that.

[00:04:20]That's on the Democratic side. But look, they're the same people who says the sun's going to start and it's going to rise on the West Coast and not the East Coast. I understand that. And just deal with that and deal with the people who are for you, explain what you're doing to the American people because nobody else is doing that. And go out there and and and basically end this exercise, complete the deal, finish it. Look, I said something this morning when I was Capitol Hill. Here's the fear I've got.

[00:04:46]We've all seen sports. We've all played in sports. The fact is if you leave an inferior team on the board ready to fight into the fourth quarter of the ninth inning, something can screw up and you end up losing the game. And that's what they're doing. They're playing for time right now. Close this deal out, finish them off, let's go on the next problem.

[00:05:06]>> Well, I think the president knows that.

[00:05:07]I think he's crossed his own Rubicon because he's lost patience with the Iranians as he must. And I think, you know, in addition to your I mean, decapitation and covert operations, you've got epic fury. The other one's economic fury. I think economic starvation is going to be very very effective, Keith. And I think this time around we're not going to lift any sanctions. We're going to keep them right where they are and we're going to let Treasury man, Scott Bessent, do what they had been doing very well.

[00:05:38]And then they were called off for a while, but now I think they're resuming.

[00:05:42]>> Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right, Larry.

[00:05:44]I think they're going to The president's going to keep the pressure on. He knows what the risks are. One thing I would say, if somebody asked me what I would what would I say to the president, I said, "You know, Mr. President, one thing I've always told you in the first term as well, trust your instincts. In the art of the deal, that was your fourth point in negotiations. Play by your instincts.

[00:06:02]They're rock-solid. They're really good.

[00:06:04]You know it and I know it. Go with them.

[00:06:06]And those advisers who are saying something different, don't listen to them."

[00:06:11]>> All right. Keith Kellogg, General Keith Kellogg, thank you very much. Great to see you. Uh great to come on.