“Embers of an Uprising”: Iran Could Be Near the Breaking Point

President Trump says the U.S. is prepared for more strikes against Iran after retaliating yesterday for the regime's attacks on commercial shipping and American forces in the Middle East. Trey Yinks can give us more. He's in Tel Aviv. Hi, Trey. Good morning. Dana, good morning. Overnight, Iran launched yet another attack in the Gulf targeting Kuwait with missiles and drones. Sirens sounded there, sending people into shelters and prompting the Kuwaiti foreign ministry to call the attack a flagrant violation of the country's sovereignty. The event came after President Trump indicated on Wednesday the United States is prepared to strike Iran again when needed. Took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz. Some defensive, some offensive. We're taking out a lot of ships. They can't see it because they have no radar because we blew it up. And we blew up much more than their radar last night. It was a very heavy attack last night. And we're prepared to do another one anytime we want. Reports indicate the United States is ramping up efforts to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz, getting 18 million barrels out of the Persian Gulf while escorting 40 commercial vessels on Tuesday. While the critical waterway remains a source of regional tension, officials believe the recent U.S. strikes further degraded Iran's ability to threaten the Strait. Inside of Iran, economic pressure is mounting. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant told Fox News, we're telling friends and foes, do not deal with this evil regime. The Iranian rial continues to deteriorate in value as the Iranian people are starting to feel the strain. Look, I'm not in favor of sanctions, but I'm not in favor of war either because both have a negative impact on our lives and drive inflation higher. The only way the situation can improve is through negotiations, although they don't seem to support negotiations either. Here in Israel, defense officials are warning about the possibility of an Iranian attack during the Jewish high holidays later this month. Dana? All right, Trey, thank you. Meanwhile in Washington, President Trump reviving the push for a regime change in Iran after diplomacy fell short. He's calling on Iranians to rise up and fight. As of three months ago, they had 52,000 protesters were killed. Can you imagine this fellow? And now I hear the number is probably 20,000, 25,000 more. They have close to 65,000 protesters killed. The only answer is that they're being shot. The regime is getting weaker and weaker by the day, and at some point they're not going to be able to shoot so easily because I think the people aren't going to take it. For more on this, we're joined by Rich Goldberg. He's a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is also the former National Security Council director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction. Rich, good morning to you. Thanks for joining us today. Tailing off what the president just said there, is it realistic for the Iranian people to rise? How are they supposed to do it without having weapons? Well, first of all, I think we give the president credit for putting himself in a position where he can make this policy a reality. He has flipped the script on the IRGC. You hear a report that we got 18 million barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz without an MOU, without a deal, without an extortion racket. You know how much the Iranians got out of the Strait of Hormuz the same day? Zero, because we have the naval blockade in. You combine that with what Treasury Secretary Besant is doing, we are squeezing the oxygen, the life out of the IRGC, out of the regime. So we know the embers of an uprising are there. It's how do you turn embers into fire? And so to your point, if the people know they're going to get mowed down, if they believe that they're going to be fired upon, they don't have weapons, that obviously is quite the barrier for them rising back up. They probably want to do it. So how do you accomplish that? You have to do more than just the economic strangulation. There has to be sustained political and ideological warfare. We should be derecognizing them in international fora. We should be saying this is an illegitimate regime. We should be going after the people who really believe in the regime and saying, religiously, who are you taking orders from? It's not a supreme leader, never seen him. This is a bankrupt regime, not just economically, but ideologically. You need covert operations. The Israelis can help here. Give them the authorization. Weapons, training, communications, defection programs, sabotage, targeted assassinations, the full gamut there. That's how you actually empower the people. But the president is creating the environment for that to be successful if he uses all of the tools available. And it seems like he is. The president is putting the full court press on Iran, both economically and militarily. The U.S. has been doing a lot more bombing in recent days. Here's what he says about that. They were trying to rebuild their radar systems and a missile system and a mine drop. You know, we got rid of all the mines in the Hormuz Strait. They were trying to build a rocket that drops mines. Who does that? Did you ever build a rocket that dropped? I never heard of such a thing, but that's what they were doing. They were building it. It was almost finished, so we took it out. We saw that they were building it. We see everything that they're doing. They can't go to the bathroom without us seeing it. So, Rich, they're getting hit with bombs as well as crippling sanctions. And what do you make of the fact that the Iranian proxies really haven't been active recently? We're not seeing a whole lot from Hamas, from Hezbollah, from the Houthis in Yemen. Does that say to you that Iranian influence and their resources are really starting to run thin? It could be a resource issue. Obviously, if the Iranian people, and you're seeing the prices going sky high and your currency being devalued, you have to wonder why this regime continues to send their money to Iraq and to Yemen and to Lebanon and not to themselves. But we obviously are pursuing our own policies with the new government in Baghdad to crack down on the militias. I think that policy is working. We've seen the Saudis taking it to the Houthis in Yemen and with the United States to the militias in Iraq militarily. The Israelis are working with the government of Lebanon and the United States to box out whatever Hezbollah might do at Iranian direction. So I think we are squeezing the proxies while we are also squeezing the head of the octopus. Both are needed at the same time. But the fundamental thing here is, if not now, when? And if not Donald Trump, who? I think that's how the president should be thinking about this historic moment in front of him and use all the tools available to squeeze this regime into the ashbin of history. And as he said multiple times, they will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon as we are now six months into this conflict. Rich Goldberg, thanks so much for your time this morning.