'Iran Will Give Up NOTHING' Israel Bombs Iran As Lebanon War Smashes Trump Ceasefire

0:00Of course, in the West, no one cares about the people of Beirut, so the Iranians had to step in. They thought Iran was bluffing, and Iran wasn't. And not only did Iran hit back, it hit back very hard.

0:11Piers Morgan:The Israeli war on Hezbollah in Lebanon is becoming a major barrier to peace between the U.S. and Iran. One week on from the president's expletive-laden rant at Benjamin Netanyahu, both Israel and Iran have traded airstrikes in a major violation of the ceasefire. The flashpoint is Lebanon. Despite a Trump-brokered ceasefire name only, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have intensified. Well, this weekend, the IDF struck two housing blocks in Beirut, which it called a terrorist headquarters for Iran's Hezbollah allies. Iran then fired on Israel, sparking an exchange of airstrikes, which threatened to unravel the entire peace process.

0:44Piers Morgan:President Trump initially told Israel not to respond because, in his words, the US is closing in on something good in terms of a deal. Netanyahu has been crystal clear he doesn't think the Iran war or the Lebanon war are done, and while Trump says that it's he who calls the shots, Israeli officials have repeatedly failed to answer the simple question whether they will stop bombing if Trump tells them to. So far, they've done, well, the exact opposite. Looks a lot like Iran, sensing Trump's desperation to get out of the war, has found another way to get what it wants. Iran may well lose its own rich uranium, but gain formal control of the Hormuz Strait, an end to all sanctions, and the US commitment to preventing Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, the art of the deal, indeed.

1:24Piers Morgan:In a moment, I'll debate all this and more with my panel. The first we're turning to Uncensored is Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sharon Haskell. Welcome back to Uncensored. Hello, Piers. A lot of us are trying to scratch our heads and work out what is going on here, but I guess the fundamental question I would have for you tonight is when Donald Trump says, as he has done in the last 24 hours, that Israel will do what he tells it to do, Is that true? Look, I think that the collaboration and the, you know, the cooperation between the United States and between Israel are very close.

2:04Obviously, the Prime Minister and the President are speaking on a daily basis, sometimes numerous times a day. You know, sometimes they disagree, but most of the time they do that in, you know, we'll call it a closed door, not over the media. It was very clear also from the beginning that the ceasefire with Lebanon depends on Hezbollah's ability not to fire towards Israel. A ceasefire is not just a one-sided ceasefire. And while Israel's been attacked on a daily basis, you know, our people have been killed, our cities in the north being destroyed, home. There's no routine life. Children are living literally almost every single night in bomb shelters.

2:57This is not a reality of a ceasefire. This is a reality of everyday attack by Hezbollah. And so we said very clearly, we are not attacking Lebanese governmental buildings or symbols. This is the Dakhia. These are strategic assets of Hezbollah. Right, but you have been killing. But in the process...

3:17Piers Morgan:OK, but as with Gaza, in your efforts to go after Hezbollah, as you were going after Hamas in Gaza, a lot of civilians have been killed. Many, many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have been displaced from their homes. So you talk about the effect on Israeli civilians, and I understand your concern for them, but is there the same concern for Lebanese civilians who have also been living under all this? And at what point... But at what point, though... But my question would be this. You know, this all comes down to what is proportionate to the attacks on you as a country. You want to defend yourself.

3:58Piers Morgan:You have a right and duty to defend yourselves. but at what point does that become disproportionate? And we're having the same debate now about that in what you've been doing in southern Lebanon as we were having with what Israel was doing in Gaza and many people feel it's been completely disproportionate. What do you say to that? Well, I completely disagree. I mean, our targets in Lebanon, especially during the last few months, have been specifically targeting Hezbollah's assets, Hezbollah's terrorists. We're publishing the numbers, We're publishing the areas. We evacuate civilians to make sure that they are not harmed in the process.

4:36We give prior warnings as well. And the fact is, Pierce, that since the first ceasefire, the agreement with the Lebanese government, the sovereign Lebanese government, was that they will dismantle and disarm Hezbollah so that they don't pose an existential threat on our people and our civilians. And unfortunately, during this time, they didn't put enough pressure or actions in order to dismantle them. And Hezbollah kept on operating, which left us no other choice but to go in and defend our people. We cannot have civilians as a buffer zone. And that's why we said, as agreed in the ceasefire agreement, in Order 1701 by the UN, to enforce that no Hezbollah operatives are staff of the Litani, no Hezbollah armed people or rockets are being appointed towards Israel.

5:36And, you know, the fact is that during the last few days, there's been immense advancement between the peace talks of Israel and Lebanon. I mean, it's not a surprise that this is when the puppet master in Tehran sent their army, Hezbollah, operating against Israel to try and sabotage those peace talks.

5:58Piers Morgan:But we also know... We also know that President Trump, in the heated conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, said he was effing crazy that he was making Israel hated around the world, and if it wasn't for Trump, he'd be in prison. What do you say to that? Look, I'll say that obviously there's a very close connection and friendship and communication between President Trump and between Prime Minister Netanyahu. And the fact is that they can speak not in the proper or the regular diplomatic manner where, you know, they put you messaging and policy messages like other leaders, but they speak quite bluntly to one another.

6:42And I can tell you, they don't agree on everything, but we understand what's at stake and we cooperate together. And, you know, the goal is a goal to defend freedom, to defend stability, and sometimes these conversations... How do you...? OK... Are a bit heated. OK, but... And, you know...

7:01Piers Morgan:It's getting heated. They keep that in between them and they don't send out messages in the media. Sure, it's getting heated, but there's also telling people they're effing crazy, you're keeping them out of prison and they're making their country hated. That's not heated. That is quite an extraordinary statement from the President of the United States about the leader of your country. President Trump is known to speak quite bluntly towards, and so when I think or I believe that when he speaks to an ally and a good friend that he speaks to sometimes numerous times a day, like no other leader, he feels he can speak completely directly.

7:32Well, he certainly spoke directly then. We know Trump is not holding his tongue.

7:37Piers Morgan:He's definitely not holding his tongue. Final question. Are you comfortable sharing a government with the likes of Ben Gavir and Smodrich, who many people consider from their actions and what comes out of their mouths about their intentions for the region are psychopaths? Look, I think that there's some kind or a little bit of a misunderstanding on how Israeli policy or Israeli government actually work. It's not like the British government, where there's one policy that is being agreed in the room, and then the entire government is speaking in the same voice and acting in the same manners and going out in the public and doing interviews with the exact same voice of what was decided.

8:25In Israel, there's a lot of heated debate, and there's freedom of speech, and many people are politically addressing their own constituency and crowd. and the decisions that are being determined inside the government is within a small cabinet led by the prime minister. Those statements that you hear by the prime minister are the actions of what is being taken by our security forces or anything else. Other ministers feel quite freely to speak even and criticize and contradict a lot of the decision that was taken. And this is part of how I think sometimes people don't understand that not every minister that speaks about something means that this is the policy and the actions that the Israeli government is actually taking.

9:18Piers Morgan:Yeah, I mean, the actual question was whether you felt comfortable sharing a government with those psychopaths. Obviously, that's my view, not yours. First of all, you know, you should speak also in some respect to that. At the end of the day, they were democratically elected and a democratic representative. Yeah, it doesn't change my view, I'm afraid. I don't agree. It doesn't change... Look, look, Ben-Gavir's wife gave him a cake... It's OK, but I don't agree with everything that they do. Look, Ben-Gavir's wife gave him a cake with a noose on it. Ben-Gavir posted a video of him laughing as a woman detainee from a flotilla is being abused for the world to see.

9:53Piers Morgan:The guy, for me, qualifies as a psychopath. You obviously don't agree, but we'll leave it there. What I would say about you, Sharon Haskell, is... I disagree with you, and I'll say that I disagree with Ben Gvir in certain of his policies as well. Good. But I can also, in some cases, in the ones that I disagree, I think that there's much more to look into and to have a discussion about it as well. OK, I've got to leave it there. And freedom of speech here in Israel is quite allowed, and so we can have a conversation, even if it feels uncomfortable. And it is here, which is why I can keep calling him a psychopath.

10:26Piers Morgan:But Sharon Haskell, I do appreciate you coming on Uncensored. You do come and take the tough questions, and I appreciate that. The same cannot be said for most of your colleagues. But I look forward to talking again. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Well, to debate this, I'm joined by Rania Kallik. She's the Lebanese-American journalist and commentator. Colonel Richard Kemp, a former British Army commander. Glenn Greenwald, host of System Update, and Hogan Gidley, former Deputy Press Secretary to President Trump. And he'll join us in just a few moments. Glenn Greenwald, there's so much going on with this all the time.

10:59Piers Morgan:it's hard to know what the reality on the ground is. What is your sense about where we are with this war? I think clearly President Trump wants to get out of the war. It's certainly been very bad for him in every respect, including politically. The midterms are rapidly approaching. This is a huge albatross around his neck as are the secondary economic damage that has been done to the American economy, the global economy, the American people. The problem is that the pro-Israel lobby in the United States is extremely powerful. and they don't want an end to this war. They have two very different interests, the United States and Israel does with respect to Iran.

11:35What Israel wants with Iran is the obliteration of any countervailing force to their dominance of the region. Iran is the only formidable party or country in that region that can provide any kind of deterrence or limitation to Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, and they want that country destroyed and they want the United States to do it. I think Trump thought he was going to facilitate a quick regime change of that country. That obviously didn't work. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. They're not getting that enriched uranium out. There's none of the war aims that have been fulfilled that were stated at the beginning, and he thought it was going to be done a lot more quickly.

12:10We're now four or five months into the war, four months into the war, and the Israelis are determined to keep the war going, whereas President Trump wants it to end. And I think the fact that it's not ending is proof of who actually has the greater power in the relationship, and it's not President Trump or the United States.

12:25Piers Morgan:All right, Hogan Giddy, welcome back to Uncensored. Good to see you. Look, I, like you, have known Donald Trump a long time. I just get a sense of somebody right now who, if he could get out of this tomorrow, would get out of this tomorrow. It's becoming increasingly economically and politically damaging to him, to the Republicans. You've got the midterms coming. It's becoming to drag... It's starting to drag on in exactly the way he's always said he hated these conflicts in the Middle East involving America to drag on. always said he wouldn't do that. What's the off-ramp looking like for President Trump?

13:02Well, a few nuances here, Pierce. First of all, I'm with you. I don't think Donald Trump would have wanted to get involved in this in the first place had previous presidents who pounded their chests and said they would never allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon had actually done that. He had to come in and say, all right, how do I actually prevent them from doing so? It's getting increasingly dangerous, not just for America, but for our interests abroad as well. The off-ramp, though, is very difficult. As you know, foreign policy is so, so detailed, so problematic, because it's been going on for generations in different parts of the world, different arguments, different warring factions.

13:39Donald Trump comes in and says, how can we try and broker some type of peace deal here? Easier said than done. And we know the military prowess of the United States. We know the operation was extremely successful there. We know the economic pressure is also working to cripple Iran as well. But you asked about the off ramp. I'm concerned at this point because I think there could need to be more military pressure applied because that's what Iran understands. And if right now they're refusing to come back to the table, they're going to keep firing rockets at Israel. Then what are you going to do but for going after them and targeting them again before you can bring them back?

14:17It seems to me...

14:18Piers Morgan:I mean, Hogan, in that eventuality, it seems the president has two options. He either re-engages in ferocious military action, potentially even putting troops on the ground to get the enriched uranium, which is the way most military people say is the only way you can end up taking it if it's not voluntarily surrendered. And that could carry with it catastrophic downsides, right? Both in terms of human life lost and things spiralling out of control. Or he just has to suck up what most people will view as a best, a very pyrrhic draw and what many people would categorise as a defeat if it turns out that the slain Ayatollah has been replaced by his own son, who's even more radical, that the IRGC remain in a tight grip of control in the country, that the people don't rise up at all, as was reportedly promised by Benjamin Netanyahu, and if Iran retains any form of control over the Strait of Hormuz.

15:20Piers Morgan:You know, I just think if those four things are still in place when a deal is done, then I don't understand what victory can possibly look like. But it may be the best of two terrible options. Well, we talked about this months ago when I said all the hand-wringing before and during, it's what matters after. Right. But if it ended like that, how would you categorize that? Well, the perception is, did we win or did we lose? And if we won by preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon, they've been greatly crippled. They can't fund their proxies all over the world. But if they keep their enriched uranium, then surely...

15:57I don't think Donald Trump wants them to keep that enriched uranium. Right. So that's the key thing. Oh, very much so. And if they do, it's got to be under some type of scrutiny where we can actually get in there and view it, which, as you know, Obama wasn't allowed to do. They enriched at a much faster rate than they said they were going to. Lied, of course. Iran is notorious for doing this.

16:19Piers Morgan:Yeah, but it's also true that they have massively accelerated the enrichment program since Donald Trump tore up the deal with Obama. So that is also true. Let me bring Rania Kallick in. Welcome back to Uncensored. You know, if I was advising President Trump, I would honestly be now saying, just get out of this. Right? It doesn't matter, actually. If people want to mock you, taunt you, say it's a loss, whatever, I just don't see any upside going forward that is going to work as a genuine victory here. It's proven to be massively harder, I think, than he was led to believe it would be. Oh, absolutely.

16:55And, I mean, I think one of the biggest blocks is that everybody kind of needs a victory narrative. And there's a long way away to get to everybody having a narrative they can come away with without feeling like a loser. But we also have to talk about the elephant in the room, which is the Israelis. because the Israelis and the Americans actually have different goals here. Trump wants out of this. He's kind of done. The Iranians want this over. But like Glenn was saying earlier, the Israelis want basically permanent war because they want to keep everybody in the region weak and unable to ever pose a challenge to them, either militarily or economically.

17:28And that's why Israel attacked Beirut yesterday, because Iran has repeatedly said this is a red line. And so Israel was testing Iran and Iran eventually responded. And then Trump posted, stop shooting, right, on Truth Social. But the thing is, if he's actually serious about restraining Netanyahu, which is what he needs to do to get to the end of this war, he needs to restrain the Israelis, Truth Social posts aren't going to be enough. There has to actually be leverage. And that means withholding some support and weapons for the Israelis. And until he's willing to do that, to demonstrate that he can restrain the Israelis, we're going to keep being stuck in this time loop where the Israelis keep trying to torpedo a broader Iranian-American settlement by really mostly using Lebanon, but even demonstrating a willingness to hit Iran themselves.

18:16Piers Morgan:Right. Colonel Kemp, welcome back to you. You know, it seems to me the problem Donald Trump has is he doesn't have famously a lot of patience. And I think he's running out of patience with this. But the problem he's got is that both the Israelis and the Iranians historically have a lot of patience and would be quite happy to be still going at each other for several years. That clearly cannot work for Trump politically. So he's got to try and bring this to an end. But this statement he made overnight, one of many statements on Truth Social, which often get contradicted within hours, but this statement that Israel won't do anything if he tells them not to, I just find that very hard to believe.

18:58Piers Morgan:I think Israel's working to a completely different narrative here to Donald Trump? I think it's easy to misunderstand the relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. And what is said publicly, particularly by President Trump, is often very different from what's discussed privately. And I think the two of them are pretty much on the same page over this conflict. I think perhaps, if anything, one of the major points of difference as it is linking Lebanon, what's happening with Hezbollah, to Iran. And I think that's one thing that the prime minister in Israel does not want to happen.

19:36He sees it as being necessary to continue prosecuting the war against Hezbollah, particularly as Hezbollah has been on the offensive against Israel. His attacks into Beirut in the last couple of days were in response to Hezbollah attacks against Israel's civilian population in northern Israel. And quite clearly, he has to have the freedom to operate in order to defend his own population. But I think as far as the future of the conflict in Iran is concerned, both of those two leaders are on the same page in terms of a negotiated solution. And the key thing is to, first of all, is to negotiate the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which I think is President Trump's number one priority.

20:24And then the second priority that Trump has is to remove what remains of Iran's nuclear capability. I think Netanyahu agrees with both of those things. I believe that both leaders would probably also like to see regime change. But clearly that's not going to happen in the immediate future. It might well happen sometime as a result of this conflict. But I think, meanwhile, negotiating those two issues is the priority. I think the negotiation for opening the Strait of Hormuz is probably going to come about at some point in the coming weeks or days. And the negotiation, which may follow on with the nuclear capabilities, is probably going to be much more problematic.

21:07But the key thing, I believe, in this whole conflict is for President Trump to retain military dominance in the region. And it's not just Israel that want to achieve these things and the US, it's also the Arab countries, who themselves have come under pretty significant attack from Iran. And so the Israel, US and the Arab countries, certainly the Gulf countries, in my view, are on the same page on this.

21:34Piers Morgan:Well, they might be, Glenn Greenwald, but the problem is the Iranians have proved to be remarkably resilient against the greatest military firepower firepower that's ever been unleashed. You know, the American military and Israeli military combined have obviously thrown the kitchen sink at this in the first few weeks, and we were assured it would be over in two to three weeks. Then it was six weeks. Then it was eight weeks. And now here we are, week 15. There's no sign of it being over any time soon. It took two years for Obama to negotiate his deal with Iran. Iran knows that Trump is under a ticking clock of pressure with the midterm elections, and why would they be in any hurry?

22:13Piers Morgan:They've been facing an existential threat to their entire regime, which they've so far managed to withstand. I don't think the threat of more military action of a conventional variety is going to work. And we've seen an attempt at a blockade. That hasn't worked. Every time they try anything with Iran, Iran now knows its most powerful weapons are shutting the Strait of Hormuz or firing off a few missiles at its neighbouring Gulf states with all the damage that causes, mainly to the economies of those countries. I just don't see where there's any real motivation for the Iranians to do a deal any time soon.

22:50Piers Morgan:The longer they string it out, the better for them, I would argue. Yeah, I mean, this was all so predictable. They're defending their country. They're defending their thousands-year-old Persian civilization. Of course they're not going to let Israel and the United States just waltz in and order changes that they want. They're going to use every means available. How many times do we have to see that? We were told we would run roughshod over the Taliban. When we left 20 years later, they waltzed back into power as if the whole thing had never happened. How long did we stay in Iraq? For exactly the same reason.