Mark Dubowitz

Sure.

First of all, thanks so much for having me on.

Great to be on with Scott.

I know he and I don't agree on a lot, but I certainly admire the passion and the dedication to stopping wars.

So that's something we want to talk about.

So let's talk about how we got to this war.

So President Trump comes into office and immediately lays out that his Iran strategy is maximum pressure on the regime, and he will not allow Iran have a nuclear weapon.

And he makes that clear

consistently, I think, made it very clear during his first term, made it clear throughout his career.

And thus begins this process with the Iranians, which has kind of multiple tracks.

But the one that Trump sees most interested in at the time is the diplomatic track.

And he makes it very clear from the beginning in a sort of Oval Office remark.

He says the Iranians can either blow up their nuclear program under U.S.

supervision or someone's going to blow it up for them.

And even though, you know, at the time we think Netanyahu is really trying to push the president into a military campaign.

Well, I'm sure we'll talk about that throughout the podcast.

The president authorizes his lead negotiator and close friend, Steve Witkoff, to begin outreach to the Iranians.

And that's begun the Oman round.

And it's Oman round because it's taking place in Oman with mediation efforts by the Omanis.

There are five rounds of negotiations with the Iranians.