‘It has to be someone that doesn't threaten Americans’: Waltz on next Iran leader

And let's turn to United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Michael Waltz. Good morning to you, Ambassador. President Trump last night wrote on social media to UK's Prime Minister Kier Starmer concerning rumors that that the UK might provide some warships to help the US. But he wrote, President Trump, that's okay, Prime Minister. We don't need them any longer. We don't need people that join wars after we have already won. Do you believe we've already won this war? >> Well, Martha, thank you. Uh, and in many ways, uh, we are seeing tremendous success in our military objectives, uh, on this war. Uh, Iran's navy is largely sitting at the bottom of the ocean with over 40 ships uh, now sunk. uh major degradation uh to their ability to produce the ballistic missiles that have been striking so many of their Gulf neighbors uh Israel and elsewhere. Uh major degradation to uh their ability to produce these missiles. We already took down uh the um the the nuclear enrichment program back during Operation Midnight Hammer uh last year. Air Force largely destroyed, uh air defenses largely destroyed, major leadership figures decapitated. Uh so in terms of our military objectives, uh the president is right. We are uh not only ahead of schedule, we are winning. >> You are winning, but he said we have already won. What else do you have to do? And how long will it take? Well, look, we'll just let the the statistics from our central command commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, uh speak for themselves. Uh we've seen uh ballistic missile launches from Iran uh largely degraded. Uh we're the figures uh that they're putting out around 90% reduction from the first days of the war a week ago. uh drone launches down 70 to 80%. Uh those are still significant. Uh we're still seeing Iran lash out in all directions uh at its neighbors at our allies Kuwait, Bahrain, uh UAE, Jordan uh and Saudi Arabia and others. Uh so at the end of the day uh what the president is focused on uh is an Iran that can no longer pose a threat to Americans uh in an American first foreign policy but also no longer uh pose a threat to our allies in the region. And I know a lot of folks are you know focused on how this war uh initiated. Uh, but I could tell you as a veteran, uh, I can't, you know, I I just can't put my mind around how many Americans have been attacked and killed, uh, from Beirut, uh, to the Iraq war, uh, and to hostages. Uh and you know, God forbid that we ever have uh an Iranian regime, this radical cleric-led regime that is ideological and fanatical to have their hands on the nuclear button. Uh that is something that you know God bless President Trump for taking the action now and not waiting until we have a situation where not only Iran has a nuclear program but is hiding behind tens of thousands of ballistic missiles and drones so that no one can ever get at it. Uh he took that action now. Uh and I want to ask ending but this is this is an important point. This is ending a 47-year war that Iran began in 1979 that they began under Jimmy Carter. President Trump is taking bold, decisive action to end it. Uh and and thank God for it. >> Let's let's talk about regime change. The Iranians are apparently very close to naming a new leader. The Israelis say they will take out any new leader they choose, any new supreme leader. Uh, President Trump has talked about regime change, said he wants to say in the next leader, where does that stand and how do you see that working? Well, as as President Trump just said uh last night that, you know, he wants to see uh a leadership in Iran, and this is just a kind of a common sense approach here. Uh he wants to see leadership in Iran that no longer threatens the United States or allies in the region. uh that isn't attacking civilian airports, ports, shipping terminals, hotels uh and you know and and and lashing out in the way that it is that can't hold energy supplies uh uh hostage uh in terms of the rest of the world that and certainly uh isn't going to continue to do everything he can uh everything that they can uh to build a nuclear weapon. Uh so it has to be someone uh that we can deal with. It has to be someone that doesn't threaten Americans, attack Americans uh and and try to attack us and our allies at any given chance. So the president laid out his goals. No nuclear weapons, no long-range ballistic missiles, no uh uh ongoing support for its terrorist proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis uh and others. and uh that that has to be a regime that that we can deal with and stops attacking us in the world. >> I I want to ask you about the Straight of Hormuz. It's effectively closed and the price of gas at home has already risen 14%. What are you going to do to keep the straight open? Well, the president has laid out uh a number of measures along with our energy secretary Chris Wright, our secretary of state uh Marco Rubio uh and our defense uh or excuse me, our secretary of war Pete Hegsth. Uh the uh Development Finance Corporation led by Ben Black has laid out uh a multi-billion dollar insurance program for these ships. Uh our Navy is prepared to start escorting if necessary. pipelines, new pipelines are coming online that will move uh some of the oil and gas around the straits of Hormuz. But this is precisely the problem. Iran has been threatening to do this, holding the regime hostage for many, many decades. And we are now eliminating their ability to do so. whether that is uh uh shore to ship missiles where they can attack them, their fast boats, their mine layers, all of that infrastructure, all of those military threats are now being taken down and destroyed. And again, we need to see an Iran that doesn't attack its neighbors uh and doesn't hold energy supplies hostage for its radical aims. And I can tell you, Martha, I'm here at the UN uh and the Gulf Arabs who were not so united in recent months around issues like Yemen or Sudan or or others, they are absolutely in united now. They are insensed. Uh and I expect that you'll see additional diplomatic uh and possibly military action uh from them in the coming days and weeks. >> And just a final question here, Mr. Ambassador, I want to talk about the girl school in Iran that was bombed, especially you as a veteran. Uh Iranians say 175 people were killed, mostly young girls. The president last night said in his opinion, based on what he's seen, it was done by Iran. Uh Pete Hagsth said they're still investigating. The New York Times did a meticulous look at that satellite photos. They're not saying the US would do that on purpose, but they said it appears that the US is responsible for that bombing. Why did the president say he believes that it's Iran? >> Well, I'll leave that uh to the investigators uh to to determine uh we've saw we've seen instances like we saw in Gaza, for example, uh where Hamas immediately blamed the Israelis. uh the international community jumped on it and it turned out it was an errant uh rocket from Hamas. So we've seen those kind of incidences in the past. Uh as Secretary Hegsth said, it's under investigation. I can tell you as a veteran in no uncertain terms. Uh the United States does everything it can to avoid uh civilian casualties. Sometimes of course tragic mistakes uh occur unlike what we see from the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis uh the Iranian regime uh who just massacred 30 to 40,000 of its own people uniformly universally condemned uh by the countries here at the United Nations. Uh and it, you know, it it's a little rich uh hearing accusations from the Iranian regime after they literally just machine gunned their own people in the streets after they killed uh a young lady, Masa Amini, uh an Iranian woman for daring to wear a hijab uh and their gross and just disgusting human rights abuses over the decades. All of that uh is on in the verge of change. uh we hope and that's why you're seeing Iranianameans and Iranians around the world celebrating in the streets that Ayatollah Himei uh is dead and can no longer uh massacre his own people. >> Okay. Thanks for joining us this morning, Mr. Ambassador. We appreciate it. >> All right. Thank you.

Martha Raddatz interviews U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, on “This Week.” ––– Subscribe to ABC News on YouTube: https://abcnews.visitlink.me/59aJ1G ABC News is your daily source of breaking national and world news, exclusive interviews and 24/7 live streaming coverage. https://abcnews.com Download the ABC News app for the latest headlines and alerts: https://abcnews.com/devices Connect with ABC News on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABCNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abcnews TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@abcnews X: https://twitter.com/ABC Threads: https://www.threads.net/@abcnews WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VajTNakKWEKkXoAPIR11 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/abcnews