English transcript

It seems to me, I've known Trump a long time, it seems to me he's looking for an off-ramp.

This has got way more complicated than he thought it might be.

What does an off-ramp look like for Donald Trump right now where he could claim

some kind of legitimate victory without losing too much face? Because ultimately,

as we know with him, that will likely be his biggest calculation.

First and foremost, he has to restrain the Israelis. As we've seen over the course of

the last two weeks, every single time that President Trump says he wants some form of

a de-escalation with the Iranians, the Israelis go and take major strikes against Iranian energy

or other key Iranian targets, basically to disrupt the potential for any kind of de-escalation.

No negotiations with the Iranians will be successful until the Israelis are restrained.

You have to do that by saying to the Israelis, we will help you defend yourself, but we will

not give you the capability to go on the offense. If you guys go on the offense,

you're going it on your own. The Israelis have never been told that before. We have to be very,

very serious about that. Step two is going to the Iranians in a very serious way.

Talk about lifting sanctions that will give them some economic relief, but will also

get the Straits of Hormuz open back up again for commerce to get the flow of energy going once more.

The negotiations are going to be very challenging. I think President Trump has the skills and the

force of will to make this happen. But unless we restrain the Israelis, all of our efforts

will be for naught.