Joining us now is Brian Hook, former U.S. Special Rep for Iran, who, by the way, they basically put a bounty on him, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo, as well as the President of the United States, and it hasn't deterred him from speaking out. Brian Hook, welcome back. Thanks, Brian. Good to be with you.
So when you thought about Iran over the course of years, through your career, you must have thought about what would war with them look like, and maybe people at home should understand what they did to deserve this. Yeah. You know, going back to 1979, I think you and I are old enough to remember when they, the first thing that this government did was take our diplomats hostage. And in the world of sort of diplomacy, the one thing you leave the diplomats alone. And that was the first thing they did.
And they took all of our diplomats hostage. And it wasn't until they were released by President Reagan. Since that time, the Iranian regime is responsible for the deaths of over 1,000 Americans. In Iraq alone, Qasem Suleimani killed over 600 Americans. And then you think about all of the thousands of people who today are suffering with debilitating injuries.
Iran is responsible for the creation of Hamas, of Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and these proxies that terrorize the region. And I think President Trump recognized that now, thanks to. President Trump, what he did in the first term. And now in the second term, Iran has never been weaker, and this was the time to make a permanent shift in the balance of power. And that's something the president had thought about.
He was presenting a few war plans. Why do you think this was the moment? to do it. Because Iran because of the Twelve Day War. Iran proved to be a paper tiger.
And Iran relied, its entire power projection was based on missiles and proxies. And the third leg of the stool that they wanted to add to it. is the nuclear program. And what President Trump is doing in this war is addressing all three of these drivers of terrorism and violence once and for all. And I think because of the Twelve Day War, It was revealed that this Mythology that the Iranian regime had built around itself as being invincible, and they had all these proxies.
That evaporated. It has collapsed. The whole mythology around their deterrent capabilities has collapsed. And so. This was the time to really do something about these threats to peace and security.
So here's what Marco Rubio said when he talked about timing Cut 6. The assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties. And so the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces.
And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn't act. Yeah, and I think on top of that, too, when they have those nuclear talks and they say they have enriched uranium, and when they say they won't put ballistic missiles as well as support for proxy groups on the table, you really get the sense they were just doing delay of game tactics. Yeah. President Trump deserves a lot of credit for not falling into the Iran negotiating trap.
And it has worked across for decades with all sorts of U. S. Presidents. And it's the thing where Iran buys time at the negotiating table, wins sanctions relief, And then they use the relief to finance terrorism. That kills American troops and money for their nuclear program.
And so President Trump, through his through Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, through many rounds of talks over the course of the second term, gave Iran every opportunity to come to the table. We made clear what our red lines were. And it was clear, after only a few rounds of talks, that Iran was operating in bad faith.
So when we look at what's going to happen now, we have Ala Rashanjani, who seems to be in charge. He was the one who supervised the crackdown that could have killed as many as thirty southern, some say fifty thousand of the protesters over the last month. This is somebody I think who was told to me we are choosing to allow to live. What do you know about him?
Well, it's exactly what you describe. And one of the things that people forget is. In Tenaman Square? Ten thousand people were killed. And in this latest round of attacks, there were 32,000 Iranians who were killed.
The scale of this, it is the greatest mass atrocity in decades. And so Laranjani is one of the people behind it. And I think he is deeply detested by the Iranian people for his brutality. And for Taking a country of great natural wealth, It is such a wealthy country, and they squander it on proxies and on missiles and drones. and their nuclear program, and they don't invest it in their own people.
They have a worthless currency right now. They have no water in Tehran, but yet they've given a billion dollars to Hezbollah over in Lebanon. And who knows how much money, less money, but more money over to Hamas, let alone helping them script the October 7th attacks.
So when we look at the big picture, people also say one of the big losers here is China. Because they buy 80% of Iran-sanctioned oil and they get it at a discount, just like they did Venezuela. Do you see China as a loser here too? China is a very big loser, in the same way they were a loser in Venezuela. Mm-hmm.
And China made a very big diplomatic gamble on deepening ties with Venezuela and Iran. And President Trump has now taken that Chinese pawn off the table. China, as you said, Brian, they buy 80, maybe even 90% of Iran's oil at a very steep discount. And I think those days are probably over. And China announced like a $400 billion partnership with Iran.
Their Huawei systems are all over Iran. There is an enormous dependency. And China tried to turn Iran into a client state through its usual predatory economics. And now Iran is no longer going to be in the Chinese orbit. It's an entirely different world in the same way that Venezuela is no longer in the Chinese orbit.
So, this is, for President Trump's part, a very geostrategic move. It's not just about Iran, it's about Russia, it's about the war in Ukraine, it's about China, it's about Really protecting American lives against threats that Iran has presented. This is Ainslie Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52-episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told.
Listen and follow now at Foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.
So Brian Hook is our guest. He's the former U.S. Special Representative for Iran. It was very much a lot to do with the killing of Soleimani. And by the way, Iran's never recovered from that.
They've never organized their terror groups the same way. This guy was a forward thinker in evil ways, but he was forward and he was organized. And he was a true leader over there. Thankfully, they would have been unable to replace him.
So what challenges do you see going ahead? And I'm just talking to people like Dennis Ross. He says Karubi is somebody that was somewhat of a reformer and got put onto house arrest. Mousavi is somebody who ran for president and was critical of the way the elections were held there. And he is basically either in prison or on house arrest.
Is there somebody out there that would be less repressive and wouldn't look at us as Satan and Israel the same way? The short answer to that question is all 90 million Iranians. Um the Iranian people Two-thirds of this of Iranians were born after the revolution. It's not something that means anything to them. And they look across the Gulf at all of their Arab neighbors who are very prosperous.
And they want lives that are pre-revolution lives, that are based on freedom of worship. and economic growth. And no more of this exporting revolution and violence. And there are many people, I think, in the Iranian system who could step forward. You mentioned some of them.
But ultimately This regime has been incredibly effective at crushing dissent. And any time anybody has appeared in opposition, they are either jailed or killed.
So the Evan Prison is located wherever it's located in the Capitol. That's an infamous prison known for its brutality. It looks like the Israelis have informed people in that area to get away from it. And I think they're going to try to blow it open. I think they blew the doors open last time in the 12-day war.
Yeah, they did. I think they might find the next leader there. Am I wrong, Brian Hook? That's a great observation, because many of the political opponents of the regime, if they didn't kill them, they put him in Evan prison. And so that could be an opportunity.
And I'm sure Israel has thought through this extensively. Their planning is just masterful, and the way that they think ten steps ahead is extraordinary. I've never seen a partnership like this. We've already been in awe of what they've been able to do militarily over the last year since they were attacked in 2023, at least I am. And then to be able to work shoulder to shoulder with such a competent fighting force without having to lean on Europe.
Can you put that in perspective throughout your career? Usually it's coalition building first. You sell American people on a game plan and a war plan, and then you execute that plan. That's what we're used to leading up to Afghanistan and Iraq and the First Persian Gulf War. Not this time.
and not with the normal partners who seem to be coming along, but For someone who's had such a career as you have, describe how different that is. That's a great question, Brian. It wasn't that long ago when we were looking at like the first Gulf War about the coalition building that Jim Baker and George Bush 41 put together. And now this coalition is largely the United States and Israel operating with Incredible interoperability. And that's one of the challenges that even our military has faced that we've worked through.
We even have a challenge that we've had in the past, getting all of our different armed forces to be able to work together in a war. We not only have achieved that, we are in complete sync and interoperability with Israel's military. And now I am hopeful, Brian. That Iran's attacks on all of our Gulf partners. Will have the unifying effect of bringing them off the fence and fully engaged.
I mean, what they've been doing attacking all these civilian centers around the Gulf is barbaric, and I think it's going to backfire. It sort of seems like Iran is panicking. And now I think the coalition is going to get larger. Brian Hook, thanks so much. When someone puts a bounty on your life, you reacted so cool and calmly, but it must be a satisfying feeling knowing that a lot of those people are dead.
Brian Hook, thanks so much. Thanks, Brian.
