Iran's Nuclear Commitments and Global Oil Economy

There are a few things that we want we want durable commitments that are verifiable and backed up by inspections that Iran will

Denuclearize their entire country. Okay, we're gonna see how we get there number two. We want to see

What kind of an arrangement?

Actually exists in the Middle East between not just Iran in the United States, but the GCC Israel Lebanon

We're gonna play that situation out and then on the Strait of Hormuz

I mean

The Strait is open in the sense that to oil traffic

We're seeing more oil come out of the Strait of Hormuz and some some days actually more oil coming out of the Strait

Then came out before the war even started. So there's this element of the

You know where where the world oil economy is kind of getting back into gear

That's gonna take a little bit of time

But you've already seen the prices come way down

Now what the cynics will say as well if you look at the number of ships that are trafficking that's actually down from the pre-war

Start, but they're mostly talking about cargo ships and other vessels at least so far

What we've seen is the oil traffic has reached its its pre-war its pre-war height

So I think what the president told us to do is use this MOU to sort of refill the world's oil economy

Yeah to refill some stocks and then to see where the hand is

And, you know, if the, as I've said this repeatedly,

if the Iranians are willing to make the commitments that we would like them to make,

and are willing to back those up with verifiable milestones,

then we are going to change our relationship with Iran.

And if they don't do that, then nothing has really changed,

except for what we've already accomplished from the military campaign, which is a lot.

So, we kind of have two options here.

We have the option of pursuing a long-term deal with the Iranians,

but that requires a significant change in their behavior.

We have the option of banking our wins,

and then, of course, doing things on top of that if the president feels that we have to.

And I think both of those options are very much in play,

and the president's going to let this play out.

But what's happening right now is he's letting those options play out

in an environment where there is significantly less pressure on the world energy economy.

And this is my biggest frustration with right-wing critics of what we've done

over the last few months in Iran,

is that they don't realize how completely they were losing the political argument

because of what was happening to world energy markets.

So, what the president of the United States has done—

—You're talking about the critics who want more bombs dropping on Iran.

—Their attitude is just drop bombs and drop bombs and drop bombs,

and they can't really articulate to what end.

What the president is saying—

I'm okay. I'm willing to drop bombs and he's clearly shown that he's willing to drop bombs

But only if it serves an objective and so what he's doing right now is taking a lot of pressure off of the world economy

The world energy economy in particular while not giving up a single one of his gains and while preserving a lot of optionality

I think that's a very good place for us to be in but there's uncertainty because

No one can be certain what the Iranians are gonna do