Trump ‘LOSING PATIENCE’ with Iran: Amb Mike Froman on potential peace deal

So the president posted a truth social saying Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern, appearing to refer to his previous post where he threatened Iran's power plants and bridges if they do not open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford says the president is urging Iran to take that diplomatic off-ramp. What he is telling people is that I want to give them a diplomatic out. He's trying to give them every opportunity to make the right choice, do the right thing, and I think that window is going to be open for a little while longer. But after that, it's going to close decisively, and the president will take action. President Trump told Fox News' Trey Yings that negotiations are currently underway, and he believes there's a good chance a deal could be reached by tomorrow. However, Trump warned that failure to comply could result in the U.S. seizing Iran's oil. Iran's parliament speaker responded to the threats, claiming the U.S. will gain nothing from what he termed, quote, war crimes, and saying the only solution is for the U.S. to end this, quote, dangerous game. President Trump will deliver a press conference tomorrow where he will also likely discuss the successful rescue of the F-15E crew member who was shot down over Iran on Friday. But joining us now is Ambassador Mike Froman, former U.S. trade representative and current president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ambassador Froman, first of all, happy Easter. Thank you for taking the time with us. We're so happy to have you. Thanks for having me. So, we've seen the Truth Social posts today. The left is not happy about them. But President Trump issuing a very stark and very colorful warning to Iran. Do they take the off-ramp or do they face the consequences? What do you think is going to happen? Well, I think we've all learned to sort of separate the signal from the noise. And the signal here is clearly that the president is losing patience with the Iranians. He's set deadlines before, but now we have a massive amount of armaments in the region. We've gotten the flyer out, thankfully, over the last 24 hours. And he seems to be saying that this time he means it, that if they don't reopen the Straits of Hormuz by Tuesday, there will be further attacks on their infrastructure and on their power plants. I think the real question is on the negotiation side of things. We're now talking about talking. We're trying to get to the table and have a meaningful negotiation. When you look at the 15-point proposal that the president has laid out and the five-point response that the Iranians have laid out, there's almost no overlap. So, it's hard to see a fundamental agreement on the underlying points. Hopefully, we can return to a situation that existed prior to the war when the Straits of Hormuz was open and oil and other products were flowing through there freely. Ambassador Froman, thanks very much for joining us this evening. I want to talk about Iran's leadership. The U.S. and especially the Israelis have been targeting Iran's leadership. But behind all of that is the Revolutionary Guard Corps. They have been entrenched in Iranian society for decades. Do you get the sense that after this conflict is finished, or at least as part of all of this, that there could be a better government that emerges? Or is this an Iranian government that will emerge that's more dangerous? Well, there's no signs. Westerners are often looking at Iran to say, where are the moderates that we can deal with? And we've done so for decades. There's no real sign that the current leadership in Iran is moderate in any way, whether it's the new Ayatollah or, of course, the IRGC, as you mentioned, which controls not just the security apparatus very effectively, putting down protesters, killing tens of thousands of them, but also controls a significant part of the economy. And so, it's very unclear. At the end of this conflict, Iran is clearly going to be a much weakened military power, with its nuclear capability, its missiles capability and other capabilities that it has seriously degraded. But it still may be a very oppressive regime without much moderation to be seen. Ambassador, on that note, we've taken out many of Iran's leaders. How difficult does that make negotiations? Who are we negotiating with? How familiar are we with them? We don't have a lot of visibility into what's going on inside Tehran itself, at least not publicly. And so, yes, the new Ayatollah hasn't been seen. The IRGC is still very much in power. The Speaker of the Parliament is engaging publicly. And with us, the foreign minister is engaging. And so, we deal with the people that we can deal with. We don't really know who's calling the shots back in Tehran, which complicates the negotiations. But again, hopefully behind the scenes, more clearly, more clear things are being said to each other. There's more space for negotiation. And hopefully, we're having real communication between whoever they tee up and the folks on our side. Ambassador, you mentioned, you said, we have our proposals, they have theirs. There's not much light in between them. It's very difficult to negotiate, correct? Is there a possibility that you don't need a deal? We stop attacking you, you let the strait open. The simplest of all, just no fighting. Is that possible, that something like that could happen? That's not only possible, it may be the most likely solution. I think that the difference now is that Iran has demonstrated that even with seriously degraded air defenses, missile capabilities, drone capabilities, and naval capabilities, it can still wreak havoc. It can still shoot down planes, sink ships, or damage them, chill shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. And it may tighten its control over the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S., which has traditionally been in the business of keeping open the sea lanes of communication, these important shipping lanes all around the world. That's been a fundamental principle of the U.S. Navy, of the U.S. military strategy. If we're no longer in that business, then Iran may well impose a toll or let only those ships that it is comfortable and wants to let out into international commerce. Ambassador, how has this war changed the regional relationship, not just the United States and Israel and Iran, but also the Gulf countries? It seems, you know, Iran's response has been extremely aggressive going after the countries that hold the U.S. presence. How does that change the politics and the geopolitical conversation in the region? You're absolutely right. I mean, the decision by Iran to retaliate not just against Israel and the United States bases, but against against Kuwaiti oil facilities, Qatari gas facilities, lots of other countries in the region, including Oman, has now driven those countries to want to take action, want to defend themselves and conceivably to work more closely with a U.S.-led coalition in the region. And so these countries are looking at their security going forward. They see an Iran in the future that may be wounded, but maybe like a wounded animal in the corner that strikes out at its neighbors in unpredictable ways. And that's a very dangerous situation for them. They're going to want to have close relationships, I believe, with the U.S. going forward. Ambassador Lisa here, if I heard you correctly, you said the potential end result could be walking away after reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. If that's the case, was this worth it? If that if that's the end result? Well, like for 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized not just the region, but U.S. interests around around the world. I mean, what has changed over the last year has been the willingness of the U.S. together with Israel and some of its regional partners, some of the U.S.'s regional partners, to take military action to to change the dynamic. So to the 12-day war last year, to bomb the nuclear facilities, the aggressive efforts to degrade their missile capabilities, to sink their official navy. Those are all new elements there. And we leave Tehran in a much, much weakened position. They're no longer going to be able to wreck the kind of havoc they did before. But they still this is the thing about asymmetric warfare. You know, for the U.S. in asymmetric warfare, asymmetric war has to win. Iran just has to survive. It just has to not lose. And with relatively few capabilities, it can still cause a lot of chaos in the region. Ambassador Mike Froman, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thanks for having me. Now on Fox one.