Larry Johnson: The Strait of Hormuz Is a Ticking Time Bomb – The U.S. & Iran Just THREW DOWN

Hi, everybody. Today's Monday, June 1st, Larry, 2026. Good Lord. You know, when you get to be my age, man, this time starts just dripping, flying by. I thought, I thought we'd just celebrate, you know, New Year's Eve. Here we are six months later. Yeah, exactly. And just, by the way, nice shirt. You're, you're styling properly today. Yeah, just following you. I'm a bad influence. Yeah, you, Larry, I want to start with the breaking news of what's going on right now, because we moments ago, we've learned that Iran holds indirect talks and message exchanges with the United States, citing they're talking about Lebanon. And they said that as long as they have these sort of attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, there will be no talk between Iran and the United States. And what would be there? Iran and the resistance front have also reported they, they, they want, if something goes on, and if these, because Israeli wants to attack the southern part of Beirut in Dahiyeh. And there are many people there. Somehow it's impossible to evacuate all of those people in that, in Dahiyeh. And they said, here is what Iran said about they're going to close all the, these choke points, the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab all together. And everything going to get back to what it was, what it was during the war. But the difference right now is going to be Bab al-Mandab going to join. And it means that Yemen is going to join the fight. Where are we headed in your opinion and what's going on in the West Asia? Well, we need to, we need to cue up the old musical. Again, this is before you were born, the music man. We got trouble. We got trouble right here in River City. Yeah, exactly. We got trouble. Well, the, the entire, you know, Israel has been violating the ceasefire now for two weeks, but it's, it's like with over the course of the last five days, it's gotten worse. They, you know, because remember back, going back to April, was it April 14th, 15th, there was that initial ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran. So the basically U.S. and Israel stopped bombing Iran. And that was around April 7th, April 8th. And it took another three or four days before, you know, the Iranian position was, hey, this, you've got to include Lebanon and the attacks on Palestinians. That's got to stop. So that, that went into effect. I think that held for basically like five days, maybe a couple of weeks. And there were, there were some abuses, violations of that ceasefire. But it's, it's now, there's no ceasefire. Israel's back at full blown war, full back, full attacks on Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is firing back with missiles, rockets, and drones into Northern Israel. So that war is, that's back on full heat. And so with Iran taking this position, linking the two. And so that's, that, that is what's so new about this whole situation that, that the Iranians now are linking what goes on in Lebanon and in Israel to any kind of agreement with the United States. You can't separate. You can't pretend that this is just about a conflict between the United States and Iran. No, the lives of the Palestinians are also, at least Iran is the only country in the world standing up, trying to do something for those people. And now maybe the Houthis will join. We'll see. What do they have, Larry, in the Middle East? If something happens between Iran and the United States, from the Iranian sources, have learned that they have brought a lot of weapons to the Middle East, even more than what they had before the war started on February 28th. And this is one part, the offensive part, the offensive front, the defensive. We have to see the combination of the defensive capabilities and offensive capabilities. What do we have right now in the Middle East? Well, there are reports that, well, they're not public reports. Let me change that. I have been told by someone who has access, or let's call it a knowledgeable, they'll be referred to as a knowledgeable source with access, that China has provided Iran with, at a minimum, a supersonic anti-ship missile, but also apparently some other significant ballistic missiles that were not previously. They're solid fuel, which makes them easier to load up and fire off. Iran's in a position now with more weaponry than it had at the start of the war on February 28th. Let's think about it. So we had March, April. It's gone over more than three months now, three months and two days. And this is one of the things that Iran didn't do much of during that first really seven weeks of the war, or five weeks. The missile exchanges were over, of course, about five, six weeks, and then they got into the ceasefire, but did not aggressively go after the Israeli military airfields where these various planes are based. I wouldn't be surprised now to see that in this new phase. Actually, it's going to restart. It's going to restart this week. The United States, the attacks are going to step up on both shipping in the Persian Gulf. There will be attacks, I think, on US naval vessels, and we're going to see, I think, more aggressive attacks by Iran on the airfields in Israel and in Jordan. So this, yeah, this is, I think, the lull that we've had now going back, you know, eight, nine weeks, that's over. The question is, why does Israel need to attack Doha right now, if the situation is going good in the southern part of Lebanon, if they're in a good position? And we've learned, Larry, from Hezbollah, they said an underground base belonging to Israel regime army, it says in this announcement by Hezbollah, in the occupied city of Tiberias, was targeted with rocket fire. And it seems that 137 officers and soldiers were injured in this attack, as reported by Hezbollah. So Hezbollah said that they hit and inflicted casualties on 137 Israelis? 137, but it counts all the, in the last two weeks, it says 137. It wasn't just one single attack. Okay. And it says, yeah, that's the number for two weeks. And that's why, you know, many people are asking, why does Israel need to attack Doha if they're doing great in the southern part of Lebanon, if they're crossing the Latani River? What is your answer to that? Oh, no, I have no answer to that. It is just, their idea is to kill and destroy as much as they can. And they see the Dahiya as a stronghold for Hezbollah. And therefore, you know, for them, killing women, children, there's no such thing as civilians as far as the Zionists are concerned. So, you know, they don't mind killing and flattening the area, just as they've done in Gaza. You know, it is, you know, what the government of Israel has been doing is a war crime of the highest order. It needs to be stopped. But, you know, the world is standing by doing nothing. You know, unfortunately, that has been typical throughout history. I mean, the Israelis, you know, talk about the Holocaust and that, oh, my God, that the Nazis tried to exterminate them. And the world knew about it, stood by and did nothing. The Houthis, they were attacked by the Tutsis in Rwanda. Again, a massive massacre, a million people. World, you know, sort of complained a bit about it, but didn't do it, didn't take any kind of action to stop it. And now we've got more than, we're going on two and a half years of Israel murdering Palestinian women and children, primarily, and then, you know, killing doctors, killing journalists, killing aid workers. And, you know, they're allowed to show up in polite company at the United Nations. They should be thrown out, shouldn't be allowed anywhere near it, should be isolated, should be treated like a plague. Instead, you know, they go along with it and then they get to go make their speeches at the UN and pretend that they're the victim. Israeli media reported, Larry, that the United States has proposed an arrangement to Lebanon under which attacks on Beirut, Beirut's southern suburbs, they're talking about Dahiya, would cease in exchange for Hezbollah's refraining, for Hezbollah refraining from targeting Israel, Israeli military forces in southern Lebanon. It somehow, it's just unbelievable what they're doing. You know, they're occupying the southern part of Lebanon right now. They're saying we're going to hit Beirut and the southern part of Beirut. But if you don't want us to attack you to destroy the civilians and you have to stop attacking us in the southern part of Lebanon, which they're occupying. Right. How ridiculous is that? Who's going to and Hezbollah rejected that. That's why. Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, look, there's there's a Yiddish word for this. C-H-U-T-Z-P-A-H chutzpah or as Michelle Bachman, a former congresswoman in the United States, she called it chutzpah. But, you know, that's what it is. It's pure chutzpah on the part of the Israelis. You know, that's along the lines of, you know, the kid that kills his parents and then pleads for mercy from the judge. Judge, you can't prosecute me. I'm an orphan. Yeah, you're an orphan because you killed your parents, you bastard. So, you know, here's here's Israel looking for leniency in the course of when people are responding to their attacks. And, you know, it's it's quite understandable that, you know, I can understand why they had asked that. And maybe their calculation was, hey, we asked what's the worst can happen? They'll say no. I think the situation is getting so serious, Larry, and we're going to have this war breaking out again. Here is what the Iranian one of the senior Iranian official said to the first news in Iran. The blood of a Palestinian equals to the blood of an Iranian. The blood of a Lebanese equals to the blood of an Iranian and Muslim community is one joint column side by side in this battle. And they're not going to give up on what they're asking for from the United States. And I don't see Donald Trump having any sort of solution for what's going on because he has not shown us any sort of leverage on Benjamin Netanyahu. Well, I'm hoping that Iran was able to play the stock market on this, you know, do what Trump's been doing. So Trump over the last, now we're going on 14 weeks, 13 weeks. What he would do is he would announce, hey, we got a peace agreement. It's, man, this should be signed any day now. Well, we're close. We're so close. And as a result, what would happen? The price of oil would go down. The stocks, the price in the stock market would go up. So by shorting stocks or buying puts where you could, you know, you could profit off of these changes. So if I'm Iran, I'd start, you know, I'd set up a company where you can, you know, you can put, you know, invest billions and just come out and say, nope, hey, the negotiations are off. In fact, we're getting ready to deploy a nuclear weapon. Oh, man, the stock market would go crazy. They could cash in on that, you know. Now, I don't think they're doing that, but that would be, you know, it's just a reminder that the other spillover effects of this conflict that the, if you've been watching the U.S. stock market, it has been behaving as if there is an actual deal almost in the bag. It's close, so close. And, you know, there have been some of us who are saying, no, no, that ain't happening. It's not true. Stop getting taken in by, you know, this is another version of Donald Trump is like Lucy from the Charles Schultz, Charlie Brown cartoon. Lucy would hold out the football. Come on, Charlie, kick it. Charlie come running up and try to kick it. She'd pull the ball away. He'd fly up in the air and land on his ass. That's been Donald Trump. Now, 13 weeks. Oh, we got a deal. It's almost, oh yeah, man, we're close. We're close. Now, as Ron said, we're not even talking to the United States now. There's nothing to talk about until the issues of the Palestinians and the Lebanese are addressed. Have a nice day. I think there is no way. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Larry, I think there is no way to continue with the current situation in the West Asia, in the Persian Gulf, because we're having this blockade on Iran. And sooner or later, they're going to have some sort of confrontation and escalation. And that's going to be the war, the real war between Iran and the United States. Coming back to the main question, the same question that I asked before, you forgot to mention that in your response, which is the capabilities, defensive capabilities on the part of Israel. Let's assume the war starts again. And how is that going to be, how the United States going to be able to defend Israel? Well, defend it with what? Air defense systems, for example? We did Patriot system. We know that Iron Dome is failing, you know, every time. They cannot intercept even these rockets from Hezbollah. Yeah, the Iron Dome is designed to intercept, let's call them subsonic rockets. It is not designed to deal with supersonic or hypersonic ballistic missiles. The fact of the matter is, neither is the Patriot missile PAC-3. It's proven ineffective. But let's say it was effective. The United States doesn't have enough. They have effectively run out. All we can do is public accounting. And the total number of missiles in the US inventory, the most generous assumptions, would put it over 6,000, about 6,400 at the end of 2025. So as of five months ago. Now, since then, they've probably added, again, to be generous, another 360 per month, five months, maybe. Because the other issue is China's cut off rare earth minerals, which are essential ingredients. You know, it's like trying to bake a cake and not using any sugar or flour. You're not going to have a cake. So here's, but with that, you know, 6,400. And then when you do the math, you've got to fire two Patriots at a minimum to intercept an incoming threat. So that means that 6,400 is capable of defeating 3,200 missiles fired. That's assuming that all of that was retained by the United States, except we know for a fact that at least 2,000, 1,500 to 2,000 of those PAC-3 missiles went to foreign governments, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, Australia. So you subtract that, well, now we're down to like, you know, 4,400, which means, okay, we can intercept 2,200 missiles. Okay. How many, and we gave 1,000 in addition to the, you know, the 2,000 sold to foreign governments, we gave another 1,000 to Ukraine. So that 1,000 missiles, that means they could intercept up to 500 incoming targets by Russia. Well, hell, just last, you know, was it a week ago? Russia fired equivalent of more than 500 missiles on one day. So you see, the numbers just don't add up. So this is the living, the reality is that Israel and the United States do not have an effective air defense system. They don't have it. Does not exist. Yeah. Here is what Donald Trump said, Larry, in his interview with Fox News. A good deal look like for you? Well, first of all, there's no deal that's good enough because the media will cover it. And we're making a great deal. We're going to make it great. The other would just go back and finish it off militarily. But this would go faster. It's probably better on a humane standpoint. There's something nice about it. Also, you know, save a lot of lives. And whether it's the other side or not, you save a lot of lives. But we're close to a very good deal. And if we can make it good. Otherwise, we just start up with the Department of War, as we call it. And it's been very successful. You saw Venezuela. It was a one day win. And this is really a win already. We've defeated their military, essentially defeated their military. I would rather get a deal because we can open the straight immediately upon signing. The one guarantee that I have to have is. And slowly but surely, we're getting, I think, what we want. And if we don't get what we want, we're going to end it a different way. The question is, Larry. He said that we defeated Venezuela militarily. I haven't seen any sort of fight between. That was fine. Yeah, that was that was an inside job. Three individuals that were part of Maduro's security team. And I mean, we're talking senior people. Coordinated conspired with the United States. To disable Venezuelan air defense systems to pave the way for U.S. special operations forces to go in and grab them. Big difference from, you know, big, big difference from what's going on now with respect to Iran. You know, this isn't this isn't a one day. This was in a four day operation. This is, you know, look at the it's it's three months and two days. Started on the 28th. So you got all of all of March, all of all of April, all of May. And now the first day of June. So it is, you know, Trump's lost. He's lost control of the narrative. But do you see the Iranian position getting harder or softer? Well, as of today, it's much harder. You know, they said negotiations. We're breaking off negotiations. We're not we're not going to talk to the United States now until they come back with a serious deal, an agreement to stop the killing in Lebanon and in Palestine. Yeah, he he said something in the same interview. Larry, he said the problem he has is the Strait of Hormuz. And here is what he said about the Strait of Hormuz. But that was very unpopular. As soon as I won, it became unbelievably popular. Well, we're winning Iran. It's a total win for us. I mean, we had to do it. Look, two things were there. Number one, the Strait has to be opened immediately and has to be free. No tolls, et cetera, et cetera. And number two is they can't have a nuclear weapon. That's all there is. It's very simple. And then we're going to get out of there and we don't need the Strait. You know, we don't need it because we have more. So we produce now because of us, me, we produce more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined times two. Think of that. We double what they did. Add Saudi Arabia and Russia. Multiply it times two. And we're going to be much higher with it, with the oil superpower far greater than even Saudi Arabia, even Russia. Yeah, that's a lie. That's flat out not true. Or it's in terms of crude oil, the Russia and China combined produce more than the United States in terms of crude oil. The United States, if you count in all. Russia and Venezuela. Well, yeah, yeah. But I mean, Russia and Russia and Saudi Arabia. That's Saudi Arabia. Yeah. If you count in, so he gets to that number where if you look at all of all petroleum related products, including liquid, natural gas and et cetera, yes, the United States produces a little more total than Saudi and Russia combined. However, the United States oil that it produces is, you know, we'll put it in terms of alcohol. I liked how this fellow that Danny Davis interviewed, Art Berman, referred to it. You know, you got you got your light beer, you got your wine and then you got your hard liquor, you know, your tequila and your whiskey. The oil that the United States produces is light. It's like light beer. It's good for producing gasoline and maybe aviation fuel, but it is not good and you really can't produce diesel with it. So as a result, it is true that the United States is a net exporter of this light oil. A lot of that goes to Europe, but it's a net importer of diesel. And where does he get that diesel from now? Venezuela, Saudi Arabia coming out of the Persian Gulf, Russia. So the United States is still is not energy independent, as Trump's claiming. It's, in fact, energy dependent on diesel, which is the most important fuel in the economy because it runs the trucks that haul the products from store to store to store. So that's where, you know, Trump is just either he doesn't understand and he's being told to lie or he does understand that and he's just lying himself. I don't know which it is. How serious is this rate of foremost for Donald Trump? On one side, he says we have to open it up and with no tolls or any sort of fee. And the other hand, he says we don't need this rate of foremost. So what it is, what's his main purpose? What's his main objective in these sort of talks? You talk to both sides and after all, you're trying to open up this rate of foremost. It's not just about Donald Trump. Here is Marco Rubio somehow begging UN to open up this rate of foremost. Here's what Rubio said. That's for the UN, right? As a function, as something that functions that can solve global problems. What is the purpose of the UN? The UN was supposed to be a place where you could peacefully resolve global conflict. Right now, you have a country who is unlawfully, criminally, and illegally taking possession of an international waterway and blowing up commercial vessels and putting mines in the water. I don't know people appreciate like how outrageous this is, how unacceptable it is that any country would fire and try to sink commercial vessels or put mines in the water. Both of these things are illegal. And so we're going to take it to the UN. Is he talking about the United States? Yeah. Last I checked, it's the United States. It's firing on commercial vessels, firing missiles into engine rooms. That's not Iran. That's the United States. So yeah, he's a boy. He should be outraged at what his own country is doing. You know, this, the whole economic phenomena of the, it's not just the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, but it was the damage that's inflicted on the energy, and I'll call it the commodity infrastructure. And Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar in particular, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. We don't have any reference point in history to point to about what the full consequences, effects of this are. That we have never, and you know, the last, you know, let's say 150 years. So, or listen, let's count that, you know, the oil, the start of oil in the world economy, did it start becoming an issue like 1890? Let's go 1900. So 126 years. We have never had a situation where 20% of the world's oil supply got cut off. So, you know, that's cut off. There's no more out. It's not a matter of flipping a switch and producing more. We've gone from this level down. So 20% of that's gone. 10% of liquid natural gas, again, that's provided by Qatar. That was their principal export. That's no longer available. The production of helium, 44% of that is off the market. And when you consider helium as a critical ingredient for manufacturing computer chips, and what we're witnessing is now with the advent of AI and the so-called AI revolution, that that is AI revolution is driven by having computers that are in these data centers. And so those computers have to have computer chips. And what's happened to the computer chip market? It's not. Instead, the prices on it are soaring now because there's a shortage of chips, because the price of the helium has actually, it's off the market. It's not coming back anytime soon. Same thing then with, we're finding that with fertilizer, the combination of urea and sulfur, those two items, which also came out of the Persian Gulf. So my point is, the world has never seen a disruption in the supply chain like this in modern history. In the last 126 years, we've never seen it. So we can't necessarily sit down and say, okay, this is how these effects are going to play out because we have no record of that ever happening. We're going to discover how it's going to play out. But you can make a prediction that I think is reasonable that if you have now cut off that supply, then the other products that are made from those basic items, those are going to decrease in supply and the prices of them are going to go up. So at a minimum, we're going to see a major inflationary spike, globally, not just in one country, globally. So even though the United States is a net exporter of this light crude, we're having to pay a lot more for diesel. So that price is going up. And because there's a shortage of oil, even the light crude in some areas, more competition from other countries wanting to buy that. So we're looking at a minimum of both that increase inflation and a slowdown in the economy, ergo what's known as stag inflation. Does anybody in Israel care about what you've just said? No, in Israel, they're like your teenage kid. When your kids get old enough to go to college and you give them a credit card, okay, here, and then you don't yell at them about being mindful of their spending. You just let them spend whatever and you pick up the bill. That's Israel with the United States. Israel can do whatever the hell it wants. The United States picks up the bill. Israel never has to pay. I think the message, Larry, for Lebanese and Hezbollah, from Lebanese and Hezbollah is that as long as the Israel is in the southern part of Lebanon, they're going to hit the northern part of Israel. That's the reality that is not going to change without Israel having, you know, without Israel changing its behavior in the southern part of Lebanon. And I don't see Israel, you know, somehow changing its policies or withdrawing from southern part of Lebanon anytime soon. And nobody seems to, in the United States, do you see any sort of willing to do such a thing or put pressure on Israel? Well, again, that's what Iran now has done. I'm seeing the headlines over my computer here. So they're closing the Bab el-Mandab. They are shutting down. Now they've said they're going to stop all traffic coming out of the Strait of Hormuz. So up to this point, Iran was allowing ships to pass and ships were, you know, paying the fee. But now, accordingly, if the news is accurate, Iran said nothing's going to get out. So they're going to really shut it down. So, you know, the combination of those two factors means the global effect on the world economy is, it's going to be real now. They can't pretend that, oh, this is just temporary. It's not temporary. So this is going to force the United States to act, to put pressure. Well, what it ought to do, I'm not sure it will, it ought to force Trump to call Netanyahu up and say, cut this ---- out now. And you're going to end your attacks on Lebanon now. That's going to stop. We're cutting off all aid now. Okay, that, you know, so that would be a move in the right direction. That would then provide an opening for the United States and Iran to get back to talks. But I don't see that happening, at least this week. And I think in the face of this challenge by Iran, the United States is going to ramp up. So yeah, we're seeing today that this is, you know, the situation now, it's going to get worse. We've had, you know, sort of, let's call it eight weeks of calmness, so to speak. At least, you know, Iranians have not been dying. So more Iranians are going to die. But this also means Saudi Arabia, Qatar, they're going to have a choice to make. They're going to either shut down US military operations from their territory, or if they allow those military operations from the territory, like Kuwait is, they're going to be attacked and they're going to be, they're going to suffer significant damage beyond what they've already suffered. Do you see the war starting as an Iranian attack on Israel because of the attacks in Lebanon? Israel wants to attack Dahir, wants to destroy Dahir right now. They issued an evacuation announcement. And how do you see the Iranian reaction to that? Are they going to hit Israel? Yeah, I could see, you know, up to this point, Iran has always waited to be attacked to attack. But I see in this situation that they would inform the United States and Israel. Israel stops this within, you know, the next 12 hours, or we are going to, we will destroy, we will attack and destroy Israeli military targets that are involved with these operations that are killing Lebanese and Palestinians. So it would not surprise me if Iran decides to do that. It sounds like they're fed up now. I think they've decided, okay, this has gone on long enough. Because the original ceasefire was supposed to stop this. Instead, Israel's just basically going, hey, **** you. We're going to do whatever we want. Okay, so now we'll see if they pay a price for that. Who's actively supporting the United States or facilitating American attacks on Iran? We had in the weekend, we had American attacks and Iran in response to Kuwait. Is that because they're using Kuwaiti territory as the base at the origin of these attacks? Yeah, yeah. No, that's why they went after Kuwait. And they're also good. They have in Kuwait, Larry, that is different, or the other countries, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they don't want to be part of it. But they're somehow cautious about getting involved into this active war. Yeah, my understanding is that the Saudis have limited U.S. ability to use Saudi airfields, Prince Saud Air Base, the PSAB, as they call it, in particular, for military operations against Iran. Normal hauling troops in and out, let's call it indirect stuff, yeah, they allow that. But they're not allowing the active combat support operations. Kuwait is, and now Kuwait's getting hit. And I think the intensity of those hits against Kuwait are going to increase. Same for UAE. I don't see UAE is not showing any signs of wanting to back off or not create a provocation. So yeah, this can be a bad week. The good news is you and I will have something to talk to Colonel Wilkerson about on Friday. Is these rumors about UAE being involved on those attacks on Iran, is that sort of rumor or they were actively involved in those attacks, American-Israeli attacks on Iran? I'm not sure how. Again, I think they were more in the facilitation. They don't have a massive air force. So whatever participation or role they played, it was more symbolic. It was more of a gesture than it was actual substance that made a difference. But substance or not, it made them a legitimate target as far as Iran is concerned. And I'm surprised more damage has not been done to the UAE. Like I said, if this now continues to heat up and expand, which I think it will, then you're going to see more damage in the UAE, particularly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Larry, here is what Donald Trump said about the story in the war against Iran. Yes, by the way, and shouldn't have been in Iran. But Iran has the capability. If we didn't hit them with the B-2 bombers nine months ago, they would have a nuclear weapon right now. And it would be a whole different story. Probably would have used it. You probably wouldn't have had a you wouldn't have had Israel, but you probably wouldn't have had a Middle East. And then where do they go from there? Is there any sort of evidence to support what he just said? Oh, heavens no. I mean, you know, he just he makes his stuff up. It's as part of his confabulation, you know, where he creates a story in his mind, believes it's true, even though it's not, and then sells it as being true by repeating it over and over and over. So, you know, but there's that that is just baseless. No fact that was because Iran didn't have a nuclear weapons program. They were quite clear about that. But then, you know, United States had to had to create this narrative that, oh, yeah, we had launched these attacks to stop to stop Iran from developing a nuke. Well, you know, we've seen this from the United States over and over and over. We create the problem. And then we claim that because that problem exists, we need to go solve it. We did that particularly with Saddam Hussein. You know, our invasion in 2003, we got to stop his weapons of mass destruction. But we knew he didn't have a nuclear program. Saddam left chemical and biological weapons. Well, where the hell did they get that? Did Iraq get those? They got those from the United States, provided courtesy of a CIA program that joined CIA Department of Defense program over, you know, chemical weapons that included mustard gas and nerve agents, G, sarin. That was provided via precursor chemicals that the United States helped procure and send to Iraq. So, you know, here, once again, the United States is creating a problem that, you know, we keep saying they're going to get there. They got a nuke and we have to attack them. And so finally, at some point, the Iranians come to the conclusion, you know what, if we had a nuke, they'd leave us alone. Just like they leave Kim Jong-un in North Korea alone. So let's get a nuke. It could, you know, it could lead Iran to absolutely do that. And as Trump was, he was accurate in that regard. While Iran has the technological, scientific skill to build a nuclear device, the easier way for them to get it is buy one from Pakistan or North Korea. That way you've got it, you've already got it. It's proven, it's tested. And you get to tell the United States, hey, look, look at what we have. Yeah, I think Donald Trump is forcing them to do that because there is no way. They don't want this war. They don't want this continuous war in the West Asia, not only against Iran, against Lebanon, against Gazans, against Palestinians. That's why there has to be a permanent solution to what's going on in the West Asia. There is no way to negotiate to find some sort of temporary ceasefire or truce. So what would be the outcome for the Iranian people? Nothing. Yeah, no, it is the, as you know, by virtue of your religion, within Shia Islam, it is a real fundamental belief that you do not kill innocents, that if you're engaged in war, you don't kill non-combatants. And that has been one of the major reasons behind the fatwa initially issued by the Ayatollah Khamenei is that a nuclear weapon, by definition, is going to kill innocents. It's an indiscriminatory weapon. So it's one that is going to kill non-combatants. And, you know, Iran has always chosen to avoid those weapons. They did it with the same with the nerve agents and the chemical agents that the United States was helping provide and equip Iran with. I mean Iraq with, because Iran never retaliated by doing it itself. So that, you know, I think that's one of those things where it is a fundamental principle. It's something that they, it's not just a theological concept confined to the clergy. It's something that is pervasive throughout. It is a fundamental belief within Islam, at least the Shia version. And you can correct me if I'm wrong. No, you're right. Totally right. 100% on spot on. But Larry, when it comes to the state of Hormuz, these Europeans are screaming, this is against international law. This is, you know, harming us. But they have never condemned the occupation of Lebanon. They have never condemned the attack on Iran. And who are these people and what would be their policy? What is the sign of any sort of understanding on their part or any sort of influence on the global economy, on the global, on the international law, or the way that, you know, the people all around the world are perceiving their policies. There's totally, there's somehow they say against, you know, we're not happy with Venezuela. But when something happens, we're all in. Let's do it. Yeah, don't you love how they trot out international law when it's convenient for them? When the United States in contradiction of international law invades Venezuela, not a word, quiet. When the United States and Israel launch an unprovoked war of aggression, the same kind of war that the Nazis unleashed on the world on September 1st, 1939, the world says nothing. Now all of a sudden, oh, this is an outrage. This is a violation of international law. That's why, look, that's why the United States, the United Nations no longer has any credibility because it has become just, if it suits the interest of the United States or Europeans, it's not against the law, it's great. If it irritates the interests of the United States or the Europeans, all of a sudden, by God, it's an international issue that has to be addressed. So this is, you know, I think there will be another, I'm sure, emergency session of the United Nations. Now, Russia was in charge of the UN Security Council this last month. So their tenure ended on Sunday. So I don't know who has it for June, but whoever is chairing the UN Security Council, they're going to be, it'll be a busy, at least first week or so, it's going to be very busy. Isn't that amazing that Rubio is asking UN to open up the Strait of Hormuz? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. They have destroyed UN, Larry. They have destroyed UN. There is no UN there. Just think of what they did with the case of Israel. Every time they vetoed anything against Israel. And right now they're talking about UN, help us to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah. You could probably, you could create a song for the UN Security Council. You know, the Beach Boys had this song, help me Rhonda, you know, you know, we come up with the lyrics for help me UN, help me. Help me get Israel out of my life. That should be, you know, one of the refrains. But yeah, look, I, we've talked in the past about this emergence of a new world order. We're witnessing the birth of a new world order. The so-called old world order, the one that's been in place for the last 80 years, 81 years, you know, going back to World War II. And that includes the Bretton Woods financial system, the United Nations, sort of an international political system. These, and then the, you know, we get into trade agreements and organization for security and cooperation in Europe and all these other, the World Court, the International Court of Justice, all of this was an infrastructure created in the aftermath of World War II, Geneva Convention. And that was all done because of the horror of what had been experienced in World War II. And that valve, okay, we don't want to have this happen again. What can we do to stop it? Well, now that whole system, it's coming unraveled. The United Nations is now about as relevant as the League of Nations was in 1939. The League of Nations had, at that point, existed for almost 20 years. What was it doing to stop World War II? Nothing. And it remained on the, it continued to exist. I think its offices were in Geneva, Switzerland. Continued to exist until the United Nations was created and then League of Nations disappeared. So now I think we're going to be coming to something, a new international order, that instead of having a UN Security Council that gives the United Kingdom and France veto power, you know, these are two nothing countries. They're irrelevant. They have good people that live in them. I'm not at all attacking the people, but let's be honest, France and the UK are completely, they're like toothless chihuahuas now. Little tiny dogs that yap a lot, make a lot of noise, can be obnoxious, but they don't really carry much bite. And instead replace them with India. India should have a seat at that table. You can make a case that actually Brazil, you know, in terms of population, Brazil's in the top 10 of all nations in the world. So, you know, make it more fair. Africa's not represented on the UN Security Council permanently. You know, it's, you know, different countries get a chance to do a rotation, but Africa itself as a continent is not represented. So the, and frankly, Latin America, Central South America, not represented. So they need to come up with a new system. And then I see that's where this whole movement with Russia and China and BRICS, that's where this is headed. The French Navy intercepted a tanker originating from Russia. And the operation was in the Atlantic together with the United Kingdom. It says that they, this movement of these tankers are against the international sanctions. Is there any sort of definition in the international law about international sanctions? Which we know that the sanctions are by the United States and its European allies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it is, this is a clear violation. So it is, I expect to see Russia retaliate. And, you know, so that's going to add another dimension to all of this. But hey, I forgot to, I'm going to have to jump. I've got another, I got an 11 o'clock in Turkey. So I don't, or actually it's an Islamabad. So I don't, I don't want the Pakistanis mad at me. They have nuclear weapons, you know. Thank you. Thank you so much, Larry. All right. We'll see you Friday. Bye.