Cenk Uygur + Mike Huckabee - Netanyahu's 'Stand Down' Plot + Israel 'Terrorism'

23:09Piers Morgan:We have, of course, the ongoing Iran war, which many people believe President Trump took America into because he bought in to a sales pitch from Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Mossad, that if they took out the Ayatollah and his top people, then there would be a collapse of the regime. The people would rise up and this could all happen very quickly. That clearly has not happened. I think President Trump is desperate to get out of this war. We're seeing now an escalation in the region with the Houthis attacking Saudi interests. And now the Saudis having real problems getting their oil out. It may even be, according to what I read this morning, that capability may just end completely next week.

23:56Piers Morgan:And that's 4 % of the world's oil market just stopped. So there are serious repercussions going on here. And there's no sign of this ending, certainly no sign of Iran and its regime collapsing, and no sign of the enriched uranium they had being handed over, no sign of any undertaking to stop any desire to have a nuclear weapon. They continue to attack Gulf states when they feel like it, which has caused enormous issues there. The whole thing is a gigantic mess. And yet Benjamin Netanyahu, this is a 40 year project for him that's come to fruition. I imagine he would he'll take as long as he wants to try and get what he wants, which is to bring down this regime.

24:40Piers Morgan:And his interests, therefore, do not align with American interests or the wider global interests in this. Yeah. So let's break down a different perspective. So from an American perspective, we were told that this war was about preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Now, that's inconvenient because it's an obvious lie. Why is it an obvious lie? Our intelligence community already told us before the war that they do not have a nuclear weapons program at all. Tulsi Gabbard said that in Congress. It's on tape. There's no question about it. Then, number two, we attacked him anyway in the first war against Iran, the 12-day war.

25:18And then Trump said definitively, we all heard it with our own eyes. I mean, we heard it with our own eyes. We heard it with our own ears. It's all with our own eyes. And he said, yeah, we've completely destroyed their nuclear weapons program. Their facilities are completely gone. So why are we in this war? We have no interest at all. And then there was this absurd talk about we have to destroy all of Iran's ballistic missiles and drones. Then we're never going to leave. That's an impossible task. And why do we have to destroy every drone in Iran? That doesn't make any sense at all. They said, oh, we have to make sure that Iran doesn't have certain proxies.

25:53So we have to be in charge of Iran's foreign policy? No, this has nothing to do with America. Literally, absolutely nothing to do with America. And it is empirical. It has been proven over and over again by our own government. When you look at the Israeli perspective, on the other hand, this war is awesome. If you're for the Greater Israel Project, not if you're a normal Israeli citizen. So the Greater Israel Project means taking more and more land. And what have they done? They've solidified that they have 70 % of Gaza. They're ripping the West Bank to shreds right now. And they took southern Lebanon.

26:25By the way, they're also occupying southern Syria. But southern Lebanon now is a part of the reason that Israel wanted this war. While we're distracted in Iran, they've taken more land. So that's one win for them. Number two, they want to destroy all of their regional competitors. So once they wipe out Iran, either through regime change or through civil war, and they have stated this on the record, then they feel like Netanyahu gave a speech about after the war started saying we are going to be the only regional superpower and we might even become a global superpower, he said. And then the last piece for the Israelis that's so great about this war for the radical Zionists is it also destroys the Gulf countries.

27:06So the UAE and Saudi Arabia have made a terrible mistake by making an alliance with Israel, de facto. Some of it is on the record. Some of it is de facto. They thought, well, if we're good with the Israelis and the Americans, we'll get protected. That's funny. No. Once the war started, Israel said to America, you work for us. You will protect us and only us. So our bases in the region were exposed, and that's why 18 Americans have died, and that's why hundreds of Americans have been injured. So Jordan got hit. All the Gulf countries got hit. And Saudi Arabia waking up to that as we speak, going, oh, so it turns out America's not going to protect me.

27:44They're only going to protect Israel. And Israel's going, hey, we have the Leviathan gas field. We're going to take the gas field off the Lebanese waters. We're going to build a pipeline to Europe. So you're going to need us. And the fact that the rest of the oil and gas producing countries are destroyed in this war, Netanyahu thinks is a great boon to Israel. So Israel loves this war. We hate this war. The Gulf countries hate this war. The world hates this war. So we're in this gigantic mess of a war to make the radical Zionist government of Israel happy. That's why there's protests all across the world.

28:22This is insane that the whole world is being brought to their knees by this two-bit country that is clearly fascist, clearly rogue and out of control.

28:32Piers Morgan:What do you say to people who are watching this? And many people will be agreeing with you. There'll be many people going, oh, Chek Nugent, again, everything's Israel's fault. He blames Israel for everything. And yet the reality of the region and the situation is that Israel, for decades now, has been repeatedly attacked by Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, the Iranian terror tentacles spread out all over the region in a concerted effort to take out Israel, to take down Israel, and brazenly admit they want to get rid of Israel. And they say, look, we're facing an existential threat. So, yeah, we are a small geographic country, but we're a powerful democracy in a region with no other democracies.

29:20Piers Morgan:And we're facing a constant threat from people attacking us, and we have to defend ourselves. And October 7th was a manifestation of all of this on a grotesque, gargantuan scale that required a gargantuan response. Yeah, so this is the classic Israeli defence, which goes back to the old Golda Meir line, where she said, we'll never forgive the Palestinians for making us kill their kids. No, nobody's making you kill anyone. And so this idea that, oh, we're doing self-defense. Well, why are you doing self-defense? Because they have a theory. Their theory is everyone in the world is anti-Semites, but particularly the Arabs, the Muslims, the Palestinians.

30:04They're vicious anti-Semites. And if they ever got freedom, they would murder us all. They would murder us just because they irrationally hate Jewish people. Right. Now, I have a different theory and the rest of the world agrees with me. And you could bet the polling backs that up. So the other theories, maybe they're attacking you because you're occupying them. Is that complicated? Do I have to speak slower? You understand that you're keeping five and a half million Palestinians as your prisoners. Now, Gaza is only the size of Las Vegas. Now they're stuffed over 2 million people into 30 % of Las Vegas.

30:41So that's an open-air concentration camp. And you're puzzled as to why people are bothered by you or might want to fight back against that? And now you're ripping the West Bank to shreds. You've done 75 October 7th. And no, Lebanon didn't start that war. Israel started the war against Lebanon. Iran didn't start the war. Israel started the war against Iran. So they live in an imaginary world where they're angels and they have a right. God told them they have a right to kill those people and take their land. And they're so puzzled that the people would then fight back. And then they go, well, that's terrorism.

31:18You can't, you know, do what Hamas and Hezbollah are doing. OK, as you know, Piers, I've said this a million times on your show. No problem. That's terrorism. Then what are the Israelis doing? They are doing supernova terrorism. They are the largest terrorist group in the world. And I'm just taking their definition. Do you kill civilians on purpose? Hamas' civilian kill ratio is 67%, indicating, well, if two-thirds of the people you killed are civilians, you're doing it on purpose. And they say that's intent. Fair. Israel's civilian kill ratio is 83%. It is the largest of any terrorist organization in the world.

31:54Clear intent and 75 times the number of civilians killed. So if you do a massive terrorist strike against the Palestinians over and over and over again, what do you think they're going to do? And the Israelis say, no, we have an infinite right to self-defense, which includes killing your kids and taking your homes, all of your property, your olive farms and your land. You have no right to self-defense. You're dirty, lower, inferior Muslims. And you should know that we're going to rule you forever. And that is not an exaggeration. They voted to never free the Palestinians. Let that sink in. The Israelis say that they should be their, Palestinians should be their permanent slaves and they should be occupied forever.

32:38They should be driven from the land. And then they go, well, I can't figure out why people don't like us. Are you kidding me? And I'm telling you, if you support Israel out there, wakey, wakey, like break this spell that the radical Zionists have put on you. The number one target of the radical Zionists is not the rest of us. It's Jews. They're saying to other Jews, hey, you know what? It doesn't matter if you get hurt. It doesn't matter if you're blamed. You have to be pro-genocide. And I'm going to tell everyone, you love genocide. Well, don't stop saying that. They didn't agree to that. You're lying.

33:12And for the rest of Jews across the world, please rise up because they're making you look terrible. And I know I've got Jewish family and I lived in a Jewish town growing up. It's about 40, 50 % Jewish. So I know that Judaism has terrific parts. Question the rabbi, question authority. Jews were a huge part of the civil rights movement in this country. They did so much good. I know the goodness in their heart, and I've already seen it, and so many are on our side already. And thank you for raising your children, right, because they grew up with good morals. That's why they're supporting the Palestinians.

33:45A lot of the Jewish kids in America are and across the world. But we need more Jewish Americans to stand up to the radical Zionists because they're making you look horrific. And I know that's not who you are, but you've got to stand up. And, Piers, you remember after 9-11, every Muslim was made to apologize, even though they had nothing to do with it. So I'm now asking the Jewish community, not out of hatred, but out of love and out of respect. I'm telling you, for God's sake, you've got to rise up against these guys who are smearing you. I know that's not how you are. I know that's not what's in your heart.

34:15But you've now got to show that to the rest of the world. because the radical Zionists are insisting that you all think the same thing that they think, which I know isn't true.

34:25Piers Morgan:Chang Uga, always good to catch up with you, particularly in person here in New York. Thank you very much. Thank you, Piers. Appreciate it. Last week, the UK sparked international controversy by sanctioning Israel over what it called ethnic cleansing and terrorism by settlers in the Occupy West Bank. One of the most ferocious critics of that decision was Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, who twice accused the Jewish foreign circuitry Ed Miliband of Jew hate. The ambassador, however, had used the word terrorist himself to describe some of the settlers only a few days earlier. And he joins me now.

34:57Piers Morgan:Mike Huckabee, welcome back to Uncensored. Always a pleasure, Pierce. Thanks for having me back. So, look, I want to play a clip. This is where you first used the word terrorist terrorism to describe the actions of some of the settlers on the West Bank. Let's remind ourselves of what you said. We heard about the challenges that they face living in their own homes, on their own property. Some of the intimidation that is being carried out by people that I have characterized as being terrorist. I know that's an uncomfortable word for some people. There are limitations in what a U.S. embassy can do in another country.

35:40We cannot investigate. We don't have that power or authority. We cannot adjudicate. We don't have that power, our authority, but we can influence and we can call attention.

35:51Piers Morgan:I thought this was a very significant moment in this whole debate because ever since October the 7th, I've categorized what Hamas did that day as absolute terrorism, one of the worst terror attacks of modern times. And the refrain that's come back repeatedly from people on the pro-Palestinian side has been, well, what about the actions of the Israelis? You know, they've been terrorists too, and I have rejected that characterisation for a long time. But here, somebody like you, Ambassador Harkaby, who is a known friend of Israel, huge supporter of Israel, always has been, for you to use that phrase and to double down on that phrase about the behaviour of some of these settlers on the West Bank, I thought was highly significant.

36:37Piers Morgan:How big a moment was it for you to use that word and what kind of blowback have you had from people on the Israeli side? Well, Pierce, it really wasn't a big moment of conscience. It was a simple matter of observation. I want to be very clear. I don't think the people who are doing most of this are even settlers. Most of these people don't even live in Judea and Samaria. Many of them live outside. And they certainly don't represent the half million Israelis who do live in Judea and Samaria. It's one of the reasons it is so very, very frustrating to see the term extremist settler violence. I call them not the settlers, but the unsettlers.

37:16Now, are there some who live in Judea and Samaria who do these acts? Yes. But the total number that may be involved in these actions probably are in the low hundreds out of half a million who actually live there. Very responsible people who have no intention of doing things like stealing someone's livestock or burning a car or squatting in someone's home who may be Palestinian. The reason I use the term terrorist is because, by definition, terror is when you try to change the behavior of someone by inflicting fear on how they live and what they do. Well, when you go to someone's home and you make it clear that they don't feel comfortable living there, when you burn their car or you do something that causes the children who live there to be afraid, Pierce, I don't know what else to call it.

38:05So I want to be fair, I want to be objective, and I want to be equal in my description. If a Palestinian stabs an Israeli, that's terrorism. But if there is an Israeli who torches a mosque, I call that terrorism. I don't know what else to call it.

38:24Piers Morgan:Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with you and I applaud you for saying it. But I've seen a big reaction online to this. A lot of people on the Israeli side, angry that you use that word. they don't ever want to describe any of their actions as terrorism. But I think there's an intellectual honesty to doing that in the context in which you've just expressed yourself on this. But you also indicated a certain powerlessness as a US ambassador to Israel. You can say it's terrorism, but you don't really have any power to enforce any lawful response to this. So what is the next move here? Are you getting any indication from the Netanyahu government that they're actually going to take action against the people you branded terrorists?

39:11Absolutely. They already have. They have, first of all, made it very clear that they plan to arrest and adjudicate people who are caught doing these things. They've donated about 130 million shekels to change the way that they deal with the issues of violence that go on in Judea and Samaria. Again, I think a lot of this is being done by what we would call settlers. Again, I call them unsettlers. These are people who are thugs, who are doing evil things, criminal things. And I don't want them to besmirch the reputation of the overwhelmingly 99 plus 9 % of the people who live in Judea and Samaria, who are absolutely law-abiding people, and who live by the Torah.

39:56You know, if you live by the Torah, it appears you don't steal, you don't kill. and you don't covet. So you can't say I'm keeping God's law, but I'm doing things that are totally against it. So I just say, look, if you're going to do these things, don't pretend that you're doing it to help the cause of Israel, because it isn't. There have been so many Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Many of them don't get reported very much, but that's where a lot of it is. I call that out. But I'm going to do the same if an Israeli attacks a Palestinian, especially in their own homes, in their own neighborhoods.

40:33And I feel like that to do anything less than that would be not only to be dishonest, but it would also be unfair to the whole situation. We need to expect law and order for everybody. You mentioned what can we do. There has been universal condemnation for some of these criminal acts. It's come from the prime minister. It's come from the president. It's come from the foreign minister. It's come from people who are the leaders in the IDF and in the Israeli National Police. So I don't know too many people who are officials who have applauded this and said, oh, this is fine. We're not going to really be concerned about it.

41:10What I have said is that this is not something that Israel needs right now because it besmirches the reputation of the whole country. And that's really unfair.

41:22Piers Morgan:Now, what was happening simultaneously to this was that my government in Britain announced that they were going to apply sanctions targeting trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. And they were joined by a number of other countries. You reacted very angrily to this. You described it as being Jew hatred, despite the fact the British Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, who made the announcement, is himself Jewish. You know, with hindsight, calling a Jewish Foreign Secretary of Britain a Jew hater because he's applying sanctions to a group of people who, by your own admission, include people committing acts of terrorism, seems a little perverse.

42:07Well, I don't think so at all. And I'll tell you why. It's not what a person says he or she is. It's what a person does. Here's the problem with the sanctions that are being applied. You know who it's going to really hurt? It's going to hurt Palestinian workers more than it's going to hurt Israelis. I don't think it was thought out. So you have all these countries who are going to impose sanctions on people who are living in Judea, Samaria. Again, most of whom are absolutely law abiding people. They've done nothing wrong. They live their lives very responsibly and admirably. But if you go and sanction anyone who does business there, I'll tell you who gets the jobs lost first.

42:49It'll be Palestinians. Back in 2015, there was a company you may be familiar with it called SodaStream. It's where you can make your own soft drinks at home. They had a plant. I toured it back in 2015. And they employed 1 ,100 people, 700 of whom were Palestinian, 400 who were Israeli. They worked side by side. They got the same pay. For the Palestinians, it was four times the paycheck that they had ever received in their lives, plus full health care benefits, full education benefits for their children, a month of paid vacation, and on and on. But the BDS movement, basically what's going on now, came in and began to yell and scream and say, this is terrible, there shouldn't be this business operating in Judea and Samaria.

43:37Well, finally, SodaStream couldn't continue to operate there, so they shut the plant down, moved it down into Israel, into the Negev, and 700 Palestinians lost their jobs with all the benefits and all the incredible salaries they were getting. So who really got punished in that? It wasn't the Israelis. It was the Palestinians. This is the law of unintended consequences. And even many of the governments who are saying they're going to impose these sanctions, they can't tell you exactly what is going to happen, how they're going to be administered. But already we've seen Israel saying, OK, if you're going to do this, then you have to remove your diplomats and the consulate is going to be closed.

44:19That's going to make it far more difficult for Palestinian people living in areas A or B under the Palestinian authority to get visas, to get passports. So you wonder who is going to win and who's going to lose by these actions.

44:35Piers Morgan:But if your point of principle is that by taking sanctions against Israeli settlements, the British government were collectively punishing a lot of innocent Palestinians, what is the difference between that and what the Israeli government has done in Gaza? Well, they flattened 70 % of Gaza, displaced well over a million Palestinians, probably a lot more, where of the 80 ,000 people who've died in Gaza since October 7th, at least 50 ,000 or so are believed to be civilians and not Hamas terrorists, and they include 20 ,000 children. I mean, you know, you talk about unintended consequence is the punishment to Palestinians Palestinians because of a trade sanction.

45:25Piers Morgan:But what about the unintended consequences to 50 ,000 innocent Palestinians, including 20 ,000 children, by the way that the Israeli government has prosecuted the war in Gaza? Isn't it the same principle? Not at all. And I'll tell you, first of all, the numbers are coming from Hamas. Many of those numbers are wildly out of control. Not only are they misreporting the total numbers, but what they often consider to be civilians are actually Hamas fighters. Many of the people who were posing as press people were known members of Hamas. The numbers themselves were reported by the Gaza Health Ministry, which is Hamas.

46:04So if you really believe that Hamas is giving you honest numbers, you might come to that conclusion. But here's the other thing to keep in mind. Well, Israel, hang on, hang on.

46:13Piers Morgan:Sorry, Ambassador, Ambassador, hang on. Ambassador, one second. On that, Israel has accepted the health ministry's numbers. And, in fact, historically, that same health ministry's numbers have been accepted as broadly accurate by Israel. So it's not just a question of Hamas and their health ministry putting out any numbers they feel like. These have been broadly accepted by Israel. And my question to people that question those numbers was, well, if you don't think they're accurate, what are the accurate numbers? In other words, how many of the people who've been killed in Gaza are Hamas? How many are civilian?

46:51Piers Morgan:And how many have been children? And if you can't give me those numbers, and nobody, by the way, who's questioned the Hamas or the Gaza Health Ministry numbers can, then how do we know? I think what we are having to look at is, I'm not saying the total numbers aren't there, but how many of those people were combatants? How many of them were Hamas sympathisers and people who were working with Hamas? Here's what I also can tell you. These charges about genocide, totally off base. Here's why. The population of Gaza has actually grown by 4 % every year since October the 7th. In addition to that, Israel has poured six to 700 trucks per day of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

47:35If you're trying to kill everybody, you don't put food and medical supplies in. and they also have given a million vaccinations against polio. So if the goal is genocide, and yet you're actually trying to help the quality of life for the civilians, then that's, by anybody's definition, not genocide. Also... OK, but if you don't mind me saying... If you don't mind me saying, I think... This would never have happened.

48:05Piers Morgan:I understand. Yeah. I understand. But I would say that you're... If you don't mind me suggesting this, I think you are deflecting from what my question was. I'm not saying it's a genocide. I've never said it's a genocide. I think there's a form of ethnic cleansing going on there, and that is based around the on-the-record comments of people like the defence minister, Israel Katz, who announced the creation of a dedicated directorate within the Ministry of Defence, tasked with managing the voluntary departure of Gaza residents. He said there is no solution for Gaza in the end without this migration.

48:41Piers Morgan:The security minister, Ben Givir, unveiled a structured seven-year initiative called Disengagement 710. The plan explicitly aims to relocate nearly the entire population of Gaza, nearly 2 million Palestinians abroad, targeting 250 ,000 in the first year. The finance minister, Smodrich, has similarly championed the reoccupation of Gaza and suggested policies aimed at thinning the population by half within two years. So, you know, people can quibble about whether this is an actual genocide, and I have not said that it is. But I do believe there is a form of ethnic cleansing there and that the goal of this Israeli government, driven by very far-right ministers, including Ben Gavir and Smodrich, is to get rid of the Palestinians from Gaza and from the West Bank.

49:27Piers Morgan:That is their big overarching worldview of the region. And so, you know, to the charge of ethnic cleansing, how can you dispute that when we know what they're saying from their own mouths? Well, I would say it's not accurate because ethnic cleansing would mean that you are specifically trying to dislocate and displace the people. I've heard from the Prime Minister's own lips. I've also heard from President Trump. Both of them have said it is not the goal to involuntarily displace anyone. What they have said, both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu is that if people want to leave Gaza because they don't see a good future, at least in the immediate foreseeable moment, if they don't see a future and they would like to leave, they shouldn't be imprisoned in Gaza and forced to stay and be under the fear of Hamas.

50:20They ought to be able to leave. But it ought to be their decision, not the decision of the Israeli government, not the decision of the United States, not the decision of the Board of Peace. I know of no one in a position of authority who is suggesting privately or publicly that there should be forced displacement of the population of Gaza.

50:40Piers Morgan:So if you start to see evidence that that is indeed what's happening, would America intervene and stop it? I think America would be strongly in objection to that. But we don't have to be because there's no plan by Israel to force people out of Gaza. You know who did get forced out of Gaza? The Israelis did. The Jewish people did. Back in 2005, when Israel gave Gaza completely to the Palestinians, and they forcibly moved, and they forcibly moved them by the IDF, all of the Jews who were living in Gaza, there were over 10 ,000 of them, they were taken at gunpoint by their own army out of Gaza in order to fulfill this deal to say, okay, you can have all of Gaza.

51:24They got it all. And then they turned around and a year and a half later elected Hamas to run the place and the rest is history and it's not a very good history.

51:32Piers Morgan:There was a bombshell report in Haaretz in the last few days that said that Benjamin Netanyahu was explicitly warned by the Prime Minister of the UAE that there was going to be a massive attack by Hamas against Israel. And that was 10 days before October 7th. And the report said that Netanyahu did nothing about that warning. He's denied it and said he's going to sue Haaretz. We'll see if that happens. He often uses the threat of suing as a tactic to deflect attention. So we'll see. But this has now been confirmed by people, former prime ministers of Israel, like Ehud Omet and others, who say from their own sources they've heard that this conversation did happen.

52:17Piers Morgan:And we've heard from sources close to the UAE prime minister's office that the conversation happened. And in the context of that, if this is true, it would be an unbelievable abrogation of a prime ministerial duty, wouldn't it, to have received a warning of a catastrophic attack of that nature and to do nothing about it? Well, it's interesting that that report from the newspaper in Israel, which is, by the way, very left of centre, they cannot stand the current government, they reported this, but with anonymous sources, which I always find to be very problematic when someone says some high-level government official.

52:54Here's what I know. The UAE has officially said this did not happen. They have said it on the record. Ron Dermer, who is as close to the prime minister during this period of time as anyone closer than anyone, has said it absolutely did not happen. You have a number of named people who were in the know who said this did not take place. And so when both the Israelis and the UAE say it's not true, it's fiction, I'm going to go with the people who put their name on the report rather than some anonymous figure right before an election to somehow try to shift the election. I just find that so disgusting.

53:34Look, I don't care for people who go off the record and on deep background because to me, they're cowards. I think people ought to be on the record. I never do off the record interviews. I don't do deep background for the simple reason. If I say it, I own it. And if it's wrong, then I own it. It's my fault. I don't want to be hiding some, you know, keyboard coward sitting there typing out something and sending it off anonymously and having somebody believe it, but they have no idea who the source is. I just find that revolting.

54:08Piers Morgan:So you would have not liked Watergate then, the scandal, because it came from an anonymous source called Deep Throat. You would have not wanted that scandal to break? I would rather for somebody to have the guts to say, I know something the world needs to know, And here's what I know. I'm the one saying it. And you can check me out as to the facts of it. Look, I know people sometimes are whistleblowers. I get that. This isn't whistleblowers. These are hornblowers. These are people who just want to get something stirred up, but they don't want to be accountable for what they say. Pierce, one thing.

54:44Look, I respect you for one thing. Out of interest. Okay, but I must say, out of interest. I respect that you say what you say and you put your name on it. I appreciate that.

54:54Piers Morgan:OK. I think some of the biggest stories in journalism history have come from anonymous sources, albeit a reporter or more may know who it is, but they remain anonymous for very good reasons. But notwithstanding that, I've seen no official denial of that call happening from UAE. Where have you seen that? I've seen it by the UAE's reports and by their releases. They said it simply didn't happen. There's been no official statement from the UAE Prime Minister's office. Well, the Israelis have, and they deny a lot of things, which later turn out to be true. But the UAE, just for the record, has not officially denied that story.

55:34Piers Morgan:There's been no statement of denial from the Prime Minister's office. There's been no official denial whatsoever. They simply said, we don't comment on stories like this. That's not a denial. No, the Prime Minister's office has absolutely said it did not happen, that that call never took place. And the UAE has said it. Not on the record. I can't give you the name of the person. Well, no, no. I believe they have. Not on the record. You can check me on that. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But nobody from the UAE, by name, has certainly affirmed it. And what I have heard is from the UAE is that it simply did not take place as it was reported.

56:11Piers Morgan:OK, well, we'll see what the UAE do end up saying on the record. They've said nothing yet. I think maybe they ought to. The fact that they haven't may be quite telling in itself. When you look at the overall situation, where we are in the Middle East right now, the Iran war seemed to me, from its conception, to be extremely ill-conceived. I feel that even more strongly now. It was never going to be over in two to three weeks. the game plan laid out by Benjamin Netanyahu to President Trump was never going to happen. This idea you just take out the Ayatollah and a few top people and then the whole regime collapses and the people rise up and take over, that was all just for the birds.

56:55Piers Morgan:I don't think President Trump takes decisions like that because someone bullies him into doing it, but I do think he believed the sequence of events which Netanyahu laid out for him with the head of Mossad and they simply have not materialised. And America now finds itself in a really difficult position. And Donald Trump finds himself in a very difficult position politically, as do the Republicans, because the midterm elections are coming up fast. Gas prices are obviously extremely high. And he's got engaged in one of these, apparently at the moment, never-ending wars in the Middle East of the very kind he specifically campaigned he wasn't going to do.

57:35How damaging potentially is all this for Donald Trump,

57:40Piers Morgan:for the Republican Party, and for what's going to happen in the midterms, do you think? I think it would be a lot more damaging if President Trump had not taken the action that he did. Finally, a president who, after 47 1⁄2 years of Iran threatening death to America and getting closer and closer with the ability to deliver it, President Trump stood up and said, no, you're not going to have a nuclear weapon. He's continued to say that. They're not going to enrich uranium. They're not going to be able to close the Strait of Hormuz. I think President Trump ought to be given an extraordinary sense of ovation, if not the Nobel Peace Prize, for actually saying we're not going to follow it.

58:19And as far as being talked into it, that's nonsense. And the reason I say it, I was in the room when the discussion happened. I heard the conversation. I heard the presentation. President Trump is not a person easily led into anything. He makes up his own mind. He made up his mind based on the genuine threat of the Iranians getting a nuclear weapon. He did not act because Israel talked him into it. He acted because he knew that America was at risk if we continued to do what America has done for 47 and a half years. And that's basically nothing other than a few economic sanctions here and there.

58:55The president recognized you've got to weaken this regime. He did that with the bombing. Now he's doing it by bankrupting them and making it very difficult for them. Other European nations, to their credit, are joining in on the economic pressure that Iran is facing. And the reality is Iran is now a very weak country, weakened dramatically by both the military and economic action. And that is a much better place for the world to be in. If we can deal with the mothership, then you start dealing with Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, which are all the proxy organizations. They killed Americans. They've made it difficult to have peace in the Middle East.

59:37If the president continues to do what he's doing and ultimately Iran can't fund Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, the world is going to be a better place in which to live.

59:48Piers Morgan:But you would accept, would you not, that as we sit here doing this interview, some six months, seven months after the start of this war, that as things stand, the Iranian regime remains in firm control of its country. There's been no uprising by the people. The Ayatollah's son has taken over and is even more hardline than his father, which is unsurprising given he lost half his family on day one of the war. The IRGC clearly still have a firm grip on the country. and the Strait of Hormuz remains in Iranian control and they keep firing off rockets when they feel like it against neighbouring Gulf states and they're rebuilding their ballistic missile capacity.

1:00:29Piers Morgan:And when it comes to groups like the Houthis, what they're now doing against the Saudis is obviously incredibly troubling. And if they take control, as it seems to be, of this other strait that the Saudis use for a lot of their oil to come through, then we're going to be facing a massive crisis for Saudi Arabia and its economic business model, and that will permeate through the global energy market and, indeed, the economy generally around the world. So, much as I would like to buy into your sort of overview that you've stopped them enriching uranium, well, they've still got all their enriched uranium.

1:01:04Piers Morgan:You say that we couldn't let them control the strait of foremost, but they do. The regime remains intact. The ayatollah is replaced by his son, and you've got the Houthis now, you know, gaining real ground against the Saudis with this second strait, I'm struggling to see the rosy picture that you're painting. Well, first of all, they don't have full control of the Strait of Hormuz. They make it difficult to get things through, but it makes it difficult for them to get their oil out of there. They're hurting financially because of that. So I disagree with this idea that they control it. They don't.

1:01:36Nothing goes through there that the U.S. doesn't allow. And I think it's very important to recognize that their weakened condition militarily and their incredibly devastated position economically is not going to give them the ability to do the kind of things that they have been doing that really do threaten not just Israel, but the entire world. Hezbollah is in 12 Western Hemisphere countries, largely financed by Iran. The more that pressure can be put on Iran, the weaker they are, then the weaker Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas are going to be, and the stronger the rest of the world is going to be.

1:02:15So I disagree, Piers, respectfully, that somehow the Iranians are in a good position. They are not in a good position. And thanks to President Trump and his strong will, his strong pushback, and his willingness to do something that other presidents haven't had the courage to do, I'm seeing it from the front row here. And I would tell you that Iran is in a much worse position, a weak position, and it is much to the benefit of the world. In one year, Iran moved their capacity to deliver a ballistic missile from 2 ,000 kilometers to over 4 ,100 kilometers, which means they could launch from Tehran and they could hit basically every major capital in Europe, including London, Paris, Barcelona, they could get to Brussels, throughout Berlin.

1:03:08Now, that's a significant threat that now faces not just the Middle East, but faces Europe as well. Not allowing them to continue their development of a nuclear weapon is one way that President Trump has helped to prevent what could be a very, very dangerous position for people all over the planet.

1:03:30Piers Morgan:Ambassador Alkabee, I always appreciate you coming on Uncensored. Thank you very much indeed for your time. It's always a pleasure, Piers. Thank you very much for having me. Piers Morgan Uncensored is proudly independent. The only boss around here is me. If you enjoy our show, we ask for only one simple thing. Hit subscribe on YouTube and follow Piers Morgan Uncensored on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And in return, we will continue our mission to inform, irritate and entertain. And we'll do it all for free. Independent, uncensored media has never been more critical and we couldn't do it without you.