Why a Nuclear-Armed Iran Would Threaten the Middle East

That may sound, I assure you that as bad as things may appear today, you think that them shooting at ships on the, in the Straits of Hormuz is bad right now, even though 13 to 14 million barrels are getting out every night?

Imagine if they had a nuclear weapon. They would hold the entire region hostage.

They would hold this nation hostage. Imagine North Korea, but North Korea is just governed by a guy that's a little, you know, you know.

And, uh, but, no, no, what I mean is, he's not interested in, like, conquering Japan, okay? He just wants to survive in his regime.

And I'm not excusing the terrible things that have happened there, I'm just saying.

But he's not, um, expansionist. He's not looking to, like, invade Japan and, you know, invade China, whatever. He's not...

These people are expansionists. They're revolutionaries.

And armed with a nuclear weapon... Last point I would make, every problem in the Middle East, every s- major problem in the Middle East, the Houthis attacking Saudi Arabia, the Shia militias that destabilize Iraq, the, the, the fighting elements that supported Assad in the destruction of Syria,

Hezbollah in Lebanon. Everywhere you turn, there's one common denominator, the Shia clerics of Iran and their expansionist mentality.

This is an extraordinary historic danger and one that cannot be ignored, because I know we think it's a half a world away, but nothing is half a world away anymore.

Nothing is. It will reach eventually and threaten our country, and it's a threat that has to be addressed.

And it's not easy to address these things because it's not popular to address them.

But to ignore them, which would have been the easiest thing for the president to do, frankly.

Four years in office, leave it for the next person to worry about.

But that's what he inherited, and he said, "I'm not going to leave it unaddressed."

But it's hard. It's not easy, and it's difficult, and oftentimes it inflicts, you know, pain, economic pain and otherwise.

So, uh, we recognize that. But victory is they can never have a nuclear weapon, one way or the other.

If it means they don't have the money for one or they don't have the, the, the equipment for one, we, we can never allow ourselves to live in a world, or our children, or any of you, to inherit a planet in which those people who have done these things and inherit, have a nuclear weapon.

They have killed tens and tens of thousands of their own people, slaughtered them in the streets. Then when you're injured, they go in the hospitals, and they kill you in your hospital bed, and oftentimes they will also kill the doctors and the nurses who treated you.

That's what they do to their own people.

Imagine what they would do to us if they had a nuclear weapon.