U.S. Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz’s Interview on The Story with Martha MacCallum
Ambassador Mike Waltz
U.S. Representative
New York, New York
AS DELIVERED
MARTHA MACCALLUM: So, joining me now, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz. Ambassador, always good to have you with us. Thank you for joining us. You know, I’m thinking about Mark Rutte and NATO, and you think about how different this situation might be had our allies come and flooded the Strait with us in order to claim it as international water, which it is. We’re now in a slightly different situation from that, so what point would you want to be made to Mark Rutte today about where we are?
AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ: I think he’s going to hear loud and clear, the Europeans are our allies, of course NATO are allies, but Martha, we need capable allies. We all grow up hearing stories, at least I did as a historian of the vaunted British Navy. We all remember Margaret Thatcher and the Falkland scenario, where she sent that task force down there. Do you know how many ships the British Navy was able to deploy when asked? One. One working destroyer, and they’re down to 13 total. The rest of them don’t really work. So, it now—former Prime Minister Starmer, the British have a real problem on their hands in terms of their social spending compared to their defense spending. We need allies with real capability, and that’s why you’ve seen President Trump for 10 years push NATO to spend more on defense. We need that capability as we deal with the entire rest of the world.
MACCALLUM: So, with regard to the funds, because a lot of people are, you know, have a lot of questions about the oil income that Iran will now have. They had oil sanctions against them for so many years, they were selling discounted oil to China, but is it true that they are now selling full price oil, and that they could make $8 to $10 billion off of these new oil sales?
AMBASSADOR WALTZ: Well, it’s as Secretary Bessent said, it is a temporary license on the sanctions, the sanctions aren’t being lifted, it is a temporary license while we go through these negotiations. And as the President repeatedly said, if they don’t live up to their end of the bargain, if they don’t negotiate in good faith, they aren’t prepared to finally give up this obsession with the nuclear program, they get slapped back on, and all options are on the table.
MACCALLUM: So, you’re saying this is a 60 day deal to allow them to function like a normal country and sell oil all over the market at full price?
AMBASSADOR WALTZ: Most of that will go—from my understanding, most of that will go to China. And then separately you’ve got the unfrozen funds. Those unfrozen funds will go into escrow, and as the President, just truthed, just reminding the world that they are going to buy excess crops from our farmers—wheat, soybean, and other agricultural products. We have no issue with the Iranian people, and the Iranian people have suffered under this regime. In fact, we’re starting to see executions now of some of the imprisoned protesters start to increase, which is completely unacceptable. It has been denounced by the UN and a number of countries. We have no problem with helping the Iranian people get fed despite the mismanagement of this regime, but those unfrozen funds are going to go into escrow. We control it and they buy excess farmer crops.
MACCALLUM: So, I want to preface this question by saying that we’re in a completely different position than we have been in in 47 years, in terms of Iran’s inability, in terms of Iran’s decimation of their military, their economy. They’re absolutely on the ropes. They’re clearly scrambling at this point to, you know, to hang on. The leadership has hung on at this point. But back in the Biden administration, they unfroze funds in a hostage swap, and when that happened, everyone, you know, criticized the Biden administration—said, how can you possibly control the money that you’re unfreezing and saying that it’s going to humanitarian things? I mean, I’m sure you probably said that at the time. That this money is fungible, right? So, explain to everybody how you look at that part of this deal.
AMBASSADOR WALTZ: Two important differences. One, if you just send them the billions, and then basically trust them to buy humanitarian goods, versus where we have control over the escrow, that’s very different. Number one. Number two, when you essentially have six hostages being released for $6 billion dollars, you’ve now put a billion dollar per hostage price on the head. You’ve now put a price on the head of Americans all over the world, versus a means to an end, a very temporary means to an end to finally rid the world of this regime’s obsession with a nuclear program. I think those are two very different goals and very different results. And then finally, Martha, you know, it’s worth reminding everyone: economy devastated, military devastated, not just that they no longer have the Assad regime in Syria, which facilitated Iran all over the Middle East. Lebanon is in a far better place. We have direct talks between the Lebanese government and the Israeli government for the first time ever, in terms of finally disarming Hizballah. The Houthis, by the way, have been quiet after we bombed the hell out of them last year. And the Iranian regime is absolutely desperate, and you know, I think no president has ever negotiated from such a position of strength. And the final piece, not Obama, not Biden, had a credible military option on the table that the Iranians have seen loud and clear that they’re going to use, so all of those—let’s give this a chance.
MACCALLUM: And I’ve said that many times, you know, these things take time. I mean, the fall of the Berlin Wall took time, and the chips are falling for Iran in a number of very constructive ways, and we get information so quickly now. So, I think everybody weighs in every step of the way. Last question for you. Interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal that talks about how China is putting all these transactions into their own currency now, so that it goes through a Chinese system rather than the SWIFT system out of Belgium, that they’re trying to sort of corner the market on currency and transactions on the global scale in a way that will give China some dominance with Iran in some respects. Is that something that worries you?
AMBASSADOR WALTZ: Listen, but we have to look at the broader piece here. I mean, Iran, you know, right now, by some estimates, three, four hundred thousand barrels a day, at maximum two million barrels a day, as opposed to the Gulf Arab allies, where Secretary Rubio is right now, and I was there two weeks ago, are all trading in dollars. You have Venezuela coming online, you have Guyana, which is the largest offshore reserves discovered in recent memory. The strength of the dollar is absolutely solid. I wouldn’t worry about Iran and China in trying to muck around.
MACCALLUM: Great, good to hear. Thank you very much. Michael Waltz, great to have you with us as always. The Ambassador to the United Nations for the United States. Thank you, sir. Always good to see you.
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