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Good morning everyone, A special edition of Bloomberg Surveillance is Sunday for you across America around the world. The Bloomberg News headline out right now. Iran reserves all options after US hits nuclear sites. Welcome to our coverage for the next four hours here. We've been working on it all night to bring you the best and conversation here. Terry Hayes will join us on the Pulse of Washington. Other good guests as well. Importantly, Nathan Hager in moments will
come to us with an update. We'll do that often here as the news moves. We have voices from London and Moments to Ethan Brodner in Tel Aviv, and of course all of our usual Bloomberg news and Bloomberg surveillance sources with me on a Sunday is Paul Sweeney. Paul, the shock of those headlines last night. It was a calm before the storm.
It was.
And you know, President Trump had been out with some statements or later last week saying, you know, basically up to two weeks he may consider some strikes against Iran, and then of course came out last night with some serious strikes against the nuclear facilities here with some of the biggest ordinance that the US has, and we'll see what kind of response.
We get from Moran in the days coming forward.
The Tea Live go on the Bloomberg terminal is my major source for newsflow and aggregation of all that's going on out there. Good morning to Roslyn Matheson in London driving that coverage with Golnar Mountevali as well. We will go to conversations, but the new slow right now is so thick, so dense, that we will often go to Washington to Nathan Hagar for an update here with nine nine one FM in Washington.
Nathan Hager, Tom Paul Good morning. It is potentially the most consequential foreign policy decision of President Trump's time in office. As we've been reporting, the President has authorized American bombers to strike Iran's three main nuclear sites. The President announced the attack first on social media and then in an address to the nation from the White House. Here are the President's remarks in full, as heard across Bloomberg last night.
A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime for Doeau, Natanz, and s Fahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular
military success. Iran's key nuclear and Richmond facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier. For forty years, Iran has been saying death to America. Death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty.
We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate. In particular, so many were killed by their General Cassem Solomoni. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue. I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister bb Net Yahoo. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.
I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight, and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades. Hopefully we will no longer need their services
and this capacity. I hope that's so. I also want to congratulate the Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, General Dan Raisin Kane, spectacular General and all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack. With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy. For I ran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember,
there are many targets left. The nights was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even closed. There has never been a military that could do what took place just.
A little while ago.
Tomorrow, General Kine, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will have a press conference at eight am at the Pentagon. And I want to just thank every and in particular God. I want to just say, we love you God, and we'll love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America.
Thank you very much.
And that was President Trump speaking from the White House last night alongside Vice President JD. Van, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. As we get more of a sense of what was carried out in the overnight hours, the New York Times is reporting that six B two bombers dropped a dozen bunker buster bombs on Iran's underground at nuclear site in Fourdah, the same weapons the Times as reporting were dropped on Natan's cruise.
Missiles were fired at Natan's and the third site at Isfahan as well. The Associated Press says this morning that satellite images do show damage to the entries at Fordoh
and the surrounding mountain side. And now, the US intelligence community had recently assessed that Iran was not committed to developing a nuclear weapon, and of course President Trump just days ago had said he would give Iran within two weeks before he made a decision to carry out that strike, But the President had said he did not believe the intelligence community's advice. This morning, Iran is vowing to respond.
There have been sirens and explosions heard across Israel this morning, as the Israeli military says Iran has fired more missiles at Israel overnight. Meantime, the Times is reporting that Iran's medium range missile stockpile is depleted. Iran's Foreign minister Abos Arakchi says the door to diplomacy is no longer open. He plans to travel to Moscow today to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. I'm Nathan Hager in Washington, Tom and Paul back time.
Nathan, thank you so much. We'll be hearing from mister Hagar often here across our four hours this morning. Again, we're fifty minutes or so away from an important briefing by the Secretary of Defense and I believe the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is two ten pm in Tel Aviv. Changed Israel. We are advantaged by Ethan Browner with us leading all of our coverage out of the Middle East from Tel Aviv. Ethan, thank you so much for joining us here on an exceptional Sunday.
How is Israel changed this morning?
Well, morning, Tom, morning, Paul.
Look, Israel feels the sense in the air on television, radio and people on the street as an enormous gratitude, incredible sense of excitement, the belief that this.
Very very powerful.
Threat that had been hanging over this country's head for a long time. If it hasn't been eliminated, it has been very badly damaged. And in fact we're waiting both the Israeli officials and everyone, when do you see what we can learn about what happened at Foordah from those B two's And I think, but you know, even more importantly than the specifics of what happened and around us, this notion that the United States has embraced this country's outlook.
The speech that President Trump just gave that you just played, it could not have been. It could would not have been written by almost by the coued spokesman.
It was.
It was a total embrace of the Israeli view of Iran and of its own.
Future.
And so it's now all that said, everyone is a little on edge and afraid, and flights have been were canceled all morning, and school is canceled and so forth.
But we shall see.
I think that there's a sense of an important corner having been turned Ethan.
What are the expectations about retaliations, either it within Israel or the region?
I mean, I think that there is enormous speculation about what Iran could and might still. Do we know that they still have some long distance ballistic missiles. We imagine that those four hundred kilograms of highly enriched uranium that they have, if they were holding at a place like Florida, was they say, was moved in advance.
Of the bombing.
So in theory, you could take sixty percent, which is what it was enriched to, you could take those containers, those canisters, and you can theory make a nuclear weapon fairly quickly. Would Iran do that? No one really thinks that. But nobody really knows. Could Iran attack American bases and so forth, Israeli embassies, All these things are being discussed.
Nobody knows.
Iran is very defiant in its public posture. But it must be said also that Iran hasn't been this week in a very very long time. I mean, all of its militias around the region have been taken out by Israel, and now it is very much on its back foot and led by a man in the late eighties who's probably in a bunker Ethan.
What are the next steps?
Is a beliad for the Israeli military who's had such amazing success in Iran.
Or amazing success. Indeed, look they're continuing to attack in western southwestern around today. Let's not forget that Iran did shoot off about forty missiles at Israel early this morning Israeli time did. Nobody was killed as far as we know, but to seventy or eighty people were hurt, buildings were taken down, so they you know, there is still a sense that this ballistic missile threat is of enormous significance
for Israel. The idea that every day, every night this country has to run to bomb shelters to avoid it is a huge threat. And you know, this is a country that is a big part of the digital economy of the world. It can't continue in this fashion. So they are continuing to try to take out those launchers and missile sites. But you know, we'll have to see what's going forward. It's still a little unclear what's next, and also it's unclear what the US will do next.
We continue with Ethan Brown, are driving all of Bloomberg News out of Tel Aviv. We welcome all of you on Bloomberg Television around the world across the nation on YouTube. Good Morning as well, and a serious exam across Canada and the United States on Channel one twenty one, Joe Matthew coming up with a balance of power shifting in Washington. The first we continue with mister Briner.
Well, Ethan, you mentioned the US military. Obviously a very dramatic and lethal strike by the US military overnight. Is there what is the expectation within Israel about the role the US may play in the hours and days to come.
I think Israel has been extremely careful about expressing too much expectation. The idea being that, you know, we make it easy and then they want to join the winners. That's been the approach. They think that's been an effective
approach with President Trump. Obviously, the President himself said we will go back if we do not get what we want, and he didn't specify in this speech, but has repeatedly specified that what Israel in the United States together want is for Iran to commit not to enriching uranium on in soil and to give up as highly enriched uranium.
Iranda said it won't do that.
I would say that the Israel is going to continue to do carried out and hope that the.
US will join them when necessary.
Yes, Ethan, one final question. I'm sure we'll be speaking to you in the coming days as well. Shean Bremer of Eurasia Group had a terse tweet or LinkedIn out last night where he said, this is the best week in the political career of mister Nta who do you agree with? That is? This is essentially mister Trump supporting Netanya, who is he could only dream of?
That's correct. I don't think that.
I think this is an incredibly powerful personal triumph for Benjamin Taniah, who this is a guy who was in pretty deep political trouble recently, and you know, it seemed
like it was over for him. And the story I wrote for Bloomberg early this morning, I said that that Trump, sorry that Natanya had was seen as kind of golden a year, the guy who'd be forced out by a terrible tragedy failure on his part, but in fact views himself as Franklin Roosevelt, the guy who withstood the attack on Pearl Harbor and turned it into a massive victory for himself in the United States. So that's how I'm Natanio sees himself. And look, I think Ian Bremer had a point there.
Literally, Ethan, as you were speaking of Pearl Harbor in December eighth, I was typing it into the computer. Ethan Bronner, thank you so much from Tel Aviv this morning. And we are on the same page and on the same page with Joe Matthew, of course, wired into the politics of Washington, his effort with balance of Power. Ethan, I go to December eighth, nineteen forty one, not for the drama of it or the equivalency of it, but it is seared in our childhood. How FDR drove forward a
dialogue of war. I don't sense a dialogue here. Brief as on how Republicans and Democrats will address to say on the Sunday talk shows like Faceinination.
Well, it's a great question here, and obviously you're going to hear a different angle from Democrats and Republicans. I think Democrats, you can understand, they're going to be asking for the right to declare an authorization for the use of force. They're going to say that the president is
acting irresponsibly in some cases. I'm more concerned or more interested to hear from Republicans who don't agree, because the split that we've seen in Maga that some call a civil war, and that might be pushing it a little bit far has been fascinating, and this is something that weighed heavily on President Trump as he made this decision, knowing that Steve Bannon had lunch with him just a couple of days ago to urge restraint here. That is
what preceded the two week announcement. Remember this interview with Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz that really brought this to life. Charlie Kirk and the others have been really challenging Donald Trump to stay true to his claim on the campaign trail to start no new wars. That was the hallmark of the first term. That was what's supposed to make
him different than Joe Biden. And here we are now with MAGA trying to on a Sunday morning reconcile itself whether it should in fact back the President of the United States on something that they're very worried about.
Joe to the extent we want to get a view on how President Trump's backing coalition and MAGA support.
Who should we look to.
There are there some figures that will really give us a sense of is there a break in his support?
I think it's some of the names that I just mentioned. It's Steve Bannon. Who's really been driving this. It's going to be Tucker Carlson, who the President called cuckoo, remembering that Tucker Carlson stumped for Donald Trump. All of these guys were on the trail with him to try to get him elected, and they still call themselves tried and true supporters. Whether that breaks now is going to be interesting.
They may back him on an isolated strike, but guys, we're all waiting to see what Iran does next and if it does strike US interests in the region, this is going to feel real different.
Joe, get to the hegxith press conference, frame out the relationship of the Pentagon to the White House. Last night we had President Trump with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, all in civilian dress, the civilian superiority over our military. Tell us how General Cain and the others of the military fit into this discussion.
These are great questions because there are a lot of new faces here at the Pentagon, and a lot of them other than Pete Hegseth, have really not been public figures so far. Our reporting, my reporting would suggest that it's in fact not Pete Hegseth. We should be watching.
But Steve Feinberg, the Deputy Defense Secretary, who has been knee deep in this, working directly with the White House, crossing the Potomac to make that connection, while Pete Hegseth deals with a lot of hearings and a lot of other issues that have put him somewhat on the outs. With President Trump, they did stand side by side. We should note hegseeth Trump in the cross hallway at the White House last night, and Hegseth is going to hold forth in this news conference. He'll be the face of
this publicly. Behind the scenes, it's Finberg working with the White House to a great degree, which is really something that feels unusual at a time of war.
But with your expertise on this, Joe Matthew, I mean, the fact is Steve and Andrew Feinberg is a major Republican donor. We in the Bloomberg world, folks know him all with his work at Cerberus, a clay tennis player at Princeton, etc. Etc. What is his competency here within the Pentagon?
Listen, That's not a question that I can probably answer, and we have a great team covering the Pentagon on that front. He hasn't been on the job for that long. Whether he has real military chops is another matter. And the same goes for a chairman of a Joint Chiefs who's got a great experience on the battlefield but is actually pretty new to this job. Remembering that Donald Trump wanted to clean house and Pete Hegseth did as well, all of this remains to be seen on really, frankly,
what's the next move. We can't underscore the importance of what just happened, but this is not the end of something. It's the start of something when we start considering the needs of force protection in places throughout the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia, like even in Iraq and Syria, where we have thousands of US troops the UAE, for instance, could all be within the reach of Iran right now.
And politically speaking, you know, how far does Congress let this go without, in fact and authorization for the use of force. That's going to be a big question in the weeks ahead, because this is not likely to be something that stops tomorrow.
Joe, what do we expect from the Democrats here? There's some reporting that they were not even briefed on this operation here.
Yeah, what's the actually interesting. It's not going to help the conversation. Like Tom said, coming up after we're done here, when we turn to the Sunday morning shows here on Bloomberg, they were already concerned about this. They were already calling out Donald Trump for preparing a strike like this. Now that he's done it, and they weren't in the loop. That goes for a lot of things around here. We've got a reconciliation process that they're not involved in as well.
It's a familiar feeling for Democrats, but when it comes to national security, it has a bit of a different tinge.
Joe Matthew, thank you so much for Balance of Power. Who will be with us through the show this morning, Joe Matthew in Washington, we say good morning to you on Bloomberg Television, on Bloomberg Radio worldwide, a special Good Morning in ninety nine one FM in Washington. There will be a briefing here in forty minutes scheduled by the Secretary of Defense of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Well see who else shows up for that briefing.
We welcome all of you around the world, particularly on YouTube, where you may subscribe to Bloomberg podcasts growing each in every day with a newsflow this morning, and thank you Roslin Matheson and Top Live. Go tliv go on the Bloomberg terminal worldwide. We need a briefing every twenty minutes in Washington, Nathan.
Hager, Tom Paul. It is a wider war in the Middle East this morning. Last night, President Donald Trump said American bombers had completely and totally obliterated Iran's three main underground nuclear sites at Ford OH and Ton's and Ishfahan. In an address to the nation from the White House, the President said there would be far greater attacks if Iran does not make peace. This morning, the Associated Press as satellite images showed damage to the entries and surrounding
mountain side at Ford Oh. The UN's nuclear watchdog had worn against an attack like this because of the risk of radiation leaks, but right now the International Atomic Energy Agency says there is no sign of increase in off site radiation levels, and Iran's Red Crescent says there were no deaths from last night's attacks. This morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the strike was done in full coordination with his country. Now Iran is vowing to respond.
There have been sirens and explosions heard in Israel this morning. Iran's Foreign minister of bas Arakchi says the US crossed a very big line last night that had also bombed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and the International rule of Law. European Commissioned President Earth Levanderline says, now is the moment for Iran to engage incredible diplomacy while warning the country
cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. China just released a statement strongly condemning the US strikes and calling for a ceasefire, particularly from Israel. Iran's foreign minister says he will head to Moscow today to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That is Iran's strongest ally in the region. I'm Nathan Hager in Washington, Tom and Paul.
Nathan, thank you so much, greatly appreciated for the markets today. Let's remember it is Sunday. Little trading on the Bloomberg launch bed. There is one thing trading in Paul. I'm frankly surprised Bitcoin is down so little. As a thermometer, a global thermometer of the moment Yep, it really hasn't declined all that much. Off the shock note of this.
Geop and Tom, you know, Dan Curtis are from Bloomberg Television out of London.
Some really good helpful news here.
Just to keep us up the date, Oil, We'll begin trading six pm Eastern time tonight. US treasuries open eight pm Eastern time tonight.
US equity futures will open around.
Six pm Eastern time tonight, and the currencies around five pm Eastern time on Sunday, So it's later today.
We'll starting to get a sense of the market's reader.
I pick it up at seven pm as a traditional thing. Maybe it'll be a little bit earlier this time around. But look to Bloomberg this evening for the Asia morning. His book of thirteen years ago is definitive. It is indispensable when leaders really matter. It is a set of chapters of leadership in times of crisis for America. Gotamacunda joins us, of course, with Yale University, in this case
a book from the Harvard Business Review of years ago. Professor, thank you so much for beginning our conversation this morning. We are alluding to December eighth, nineteen forty one in our memories is a protocol process of going to war. Did the president breach that protocol last night?
Oh?
Completely, We're not even in the universe of protocol. But that is not a set of laws and rules that we've been forced in my lifetime. So we're not going to start now.
When you look at Indispensable, and I look at the chapter leading up to World War Two, which is on Chamberlain and then over to Churchill, is well from where you sit and the synthesis of your books and the presidency is this a nation behind its president, not at all.
And so there's always a rally around the flag effect during a crisis. And I think the first opinion polls will probably be pretty supportive, but because they usually are, but most pulling for this beforehand was not supportive of a strike. And I heard the discussion about whether the MAGA movement will fracture over this. I doubt that it will. You're already seeing major people there who had yesterday opposed to strike today saying the president. The president has acted wisely.
But for the country as a whole, I think a lot depends on what happens next. It is at this point the Iranians move not ours, that will determine how things play out.
Gotham.
What do you think pushed President Trump to make this move? Again, a pretty a very substantial move in terms of really aggressively deploying US military in a very sensitive.
Part of the world. What do you think was his motivation?
It really is and it's worth sort of emphasizing that there was no urgency here, right He had said, I'm giving you two weeks. The Arians had signaled they were open to negotiations, These facilities were not going anywhere. The Iranians were not about We're not within weeks of a bomb or anything like that. So it seems kind of like and getting inside the head of the president is
always difficult. He saw the Israelis having an extraordinary tactical and operational success, and you can't overstate just how effectively it Israeli attacks event and he kind of wanted to get in on it. And also, you know, observed that there were a handful of targets that they could not strike that we could. And again we don't have bomb damage assessment from any reliable source, yet we don't know how well these strikes worked.
What do you expect over the next coming days and weeks, got them from the US Congress, both sides of the aisle.
In terms of response to this news.
So many Democrats will be outraged that they weren't even briefed in, and that again is.
A violation of the law.
The law requires that you brief in senior Democrats as well as senior Republicans when you're doing this kind of operation, and the Trump administration just ignored that. But at the same time, I think Democrats probably don't want to be seen as being completely opposed to a successful operation if it is successful. So there's going to be some There's going to be some cross currents there, as there are on the Republican side, where Ran Paul I think has
already come out and saying he opposed these actions. So we're going to see a lot of waiting and seeing. The domestic politics are going to depend a lot on how the r onind respond and how we respond to
that response. But I will note so Robert Kagan had a really powerful article in the Atlantic yesterday pointing out that administrations that were a lot more sort of careful about civil rights and domestic rights than the Trump andministration have used wartime to crack down domestically, and there has to be some concern that the Trump administration is going to do that here too.
I look at you. I think Kagan piece American democracy might not survive a war with a run. That's very strong language. Here got a Macunda. The basic idea and my heritage is on a presidential effort of military force the nation in some way rallies around him. At this press conference in thirty minutes. Is there going to be a nation rallying around the Secretary of Defense.
I'm sure there will be some, but this administration has done everything possible to counter that. I mean, you even have them releasing photographs of him in the situation room wearing a campaign hat, you know, during a military strike. It's just impossible to imagine any previous president doing that, both out of you know you shouldn't, but also just because if you do want the country to rally to, you should give some signs that you respect and value half the country.
I got him Accunnan with us and we will continue his book, Indispensable and Picking Presidents, looks at the history of the administration, the executive branch across America. We welcome all of you. A special edition of Bloomberg Surveillance. Good Morning on Bloomberg Television worldwide, on YouTube worldwide. Subscribe to Bloomberg Podcast a special Good Morning to ninety two nine FM in Boston. Down here in New York City, Bloomberg eleven three to oh and Nathan Agers ninety nine to
one FM in Washington. We will continue many good guests coming up here besides Professor Peter Shear's schedule to deg with this and plus Sweeney to the professor got him.
How do you expect President Trump to play this in the days ahead? I mean, this is it appears at this early stage a wonderful military success.
Do you expect him to play this up or to try to.
Just move forward and not you know, expose any tentral riffs in his support?
I think he will continue to play as success. But Paul, I'm just going to emphasize, we don't know if this was a success. R Let's just you know, go down the.
List, right.
We don't know where the uranium hexafluoride is, so we we just don't know, right, like is it buried under four doah? Is it in the tons is fahan The IAEA has said that they've just lost track of it, and at sixty percent that uranium is quite close to
being ready to be weaponized. So if, just hypothetically speaking, if we damaged but did knock out but did not knock out four DOH, they likely will have enough centrifuges there that if they choose to make a sprint to a bomb, they might be able to do it relatively quickly. If we completely destroyed FOURDAU, then it's a different situation, but we don't know yet, so it's very sort of very early to be announcing that we have complete success here.
So Galtam, I mean again, this was a significant escalation by the US. What do you think the US is willing to deal with in terms of retaliation here? If there is retaliation, is this going to be something that could drag the US into maybe a little bit more involved situation.
I think that's the fear on everybody's part, including I'm sure the administration, which does not want that the Iranians all. There are at least some reports that the Iridiance have already started GPS janning ships in the Straits of Hormones if they really wanted to escalate, blocking the Straits would be a way they could do that, and that's probably still within their military capability since they can use mines instead of other things to do that, but that would
have consequences right on the world price of oil. The Chinese would probably be very unhappy if they did that, so they may not choose to take that step. That means that more like attack on US forces and the Gulf attack sort of in the Gulf area, sort of attack on American embassies, things like that, and then I just sort of events have a momentum all of their
own in which they could do that. And if Americans die in Iranian retaliation, then there's gonna be pressure on the Trump, on the President to do bond once again.
Professor one final question, and I guess I go from Clash of Civilizations a thought from the Charles River up in Boston years ago. The clash of civilizations over Ian Bremer Eurasia groups every nation for themselves. Wow, if we set up a change of our foreign policy, Secretary of Rubio symbolizes that for the nation, what is the foreign policy coming out of state?
It's not clear that foreign policy is coming out of state because I mean, apart from all the hats that that Secretary of Rubio is wearing. We keep seeing that Trump make statements to conflict with his If I were in state, what I would be really worried about is the signal we just sent is the way you make sure that the United States does not attack you is to already have nuclear weapons.
Right.
The North Koreans demonstrated that, and the Iranians and the
Iranians who didn't have them more vulnerable. There have to be quite a few countries the world that are looking at this and saying, well, the non proliferation regime is over, because the air audience were signaling that they would negotiate and we and we struck anyways, and so they've got to be thinking that given this, given what's happened, the right thing for them to do is make a sprint to acquire nuclear weapons as fast as possible.
Gunna, thank you so much, really appreciate it. This morning professor Yale University got a mcunder with his really incredible books and the presidency of the nation. Paul, I think the questions here into this press conference is actually where is policy coming from? And I remember Bush the younger. There was a surprise while they're making decisions at the White House. I'm unsure of this statement, Paul Sweeney. Can we say all decisions are coming from the White House? Maybe that is so?
Yeah, It certainly seems like it, not just in military situations, but on pretty much all policies seems to emanate from the White House. And that's the way the President is comfortable managing his administration.
Of extraordinary ability. With his tours of duty at Reuters in Jerusalem posts, Dan Williams has provided really granular coverage for Israel in the levant for all of Bloomberg News, and he joins us now from Jerusalem. Dan Williams, thank you for taking time in your afternoon on our Sunday morning here in New York. Dan, I look at the change in Iran and it projects to their support of Hezbola to the north in Lebanon, of maybe Gaza and
certain forms as well, and other things. As the President said, Iran, the bully is the bully diminished.
This morning, I think the Middle East power structure has been reordered dramatically, possibly more than seen in a single instant in decades. If ever, this is something that many
in the Middle East were anticipating. Some dreading, some hoping for going back decades, the conclusive potentially invention of the US superpower, with US firepower putting paid to sites in Iran that would design specifically to withstand conventional attacks, including by Israel, which is arguably the Middle East's mightiest military power.
So what we've seen now is Trump upending.
Effectively a status quo that was in place, that was shaken admidly by eight or nine days of Israeli strikes.
But nonetheless this changes the equation utterly.
Dan, it is so important you bring us up and this goes back to October of nineteen eighty one. Paul Squeeny brought this up earlier. Dan Williams, is framed around the sea change of the War of nineteen sixty seven, seared in a memory of a certain vintage as the assassination of anwar sadat is all of Israeli leadership and maybe even Western leadership. Are they at risk this morning because of this bombing last night.
That's an extraordinarily good question. It's very acute. It would seem that you're referring mainly to the prospects of upheaval within Iran against the Iranian leadership.
Is that what you're referring.
I'll go there as well. I think you can go both ways. It can be threats to the Iranian leadership, including the ayatola, or the other way, as we saw with Rabin in with Sadat decades ago. Which is that where we are this morning, where everyone I wouldn't.
Say risk, I wouldn't say the Israeli leadership is at any risk. Indeed, there was an assassination of Prime Minister Rabine exactly three decades ago that was over risk taking
and peacemaking with the Palestinians. If anything, the current leadership, specifically the Prime minist in NATANIAO, despite his very significant dipping popularity over judicial reform efforts two years ago, over the disastrous October seventh attack of Hamas which begun this war, I think you're going to see his popularity increase with this, including critics, and we've seen this already, the opposition leader rallying to him regular critics in the Israeli media, admitting
that this war the way conducted it, and in fact, the way he conducted contacts with President Trump, such a President Trump decided to intervene that all works in Etenil's favor. I think he has as solid a position as he had had in recent memory in Israel.
As for Iran, there's been.
Much speculation that this situation could effectuate a regime change. I think we should be cautious about predicting that, if only because under threat of external action or under external attack, people tend to rally to their flag, even if in quieter times they were less likely to do so, even if in quiet times they were unhappy with their government,
with a regime that rules over them. However, it's quite possible that in the long run, with this Iranian regime having seen its prestige dented, having been humiliated like this, seen its military might which provided it with a degree of domestic cloud as well so blunted by the combined force of Israel Israel in the United States.
Right once that.
Dust settles, we could actually see some serious change in the internal dynamics of Iran.
Yes, Dan, what do you think the next steps are for Israel here? I mean it feels like maybe we're waiting to see what Iran does, but that's not Israel doesn't tend to wait and see what people do.
They tend to act. What do you believe the next days will hold for Israel.
Well.
Indeed, a couple things happened within short order of the world learning of these attacks ordered by Trump on these three sites in Iran, these three nuclear sites.
One was it Israel announced it it has.
Pursued its own nightly attacks, including one set of sorties against one of the sites attacked by the United States, It's Fahan, showing that the US must have struck some nuclear targets there. Israel is coming in perhaps on a mopping up operation, perhaps addressing targets that weren't addressed by the United States. As far as Israel's concerned, the work continues. There was also a missile in New Avs salvo Byron against Israel, quite a bit of damage six am pretty
much the entire country going down to shelters. That would seem par for the course. The big question is was that all was Iran basically ticking a box in terms of its retaliation keep in minded as yet to retaliate to my knowledge against the United States. Perhaps it sees Israel as a US proxy and that's a safer retaliation option,
especially if it's a one off. If indeed is a one off, I think what we're going to see now is very very very careful consideration with the part of the Uranian leadership, whether they should do an entire review of their position, whether they should capitulate on their nuclear program, submit to US and Israeli by extension demands regarding uranium enrichment, and in doing so preserve themselves, because it would appear to me the choice now faced by the Uranian leadership
is between self preservation i Regime preservation, and preserving a nuclear program that has been significantly debraded, possibly retarded by months or even years. It's basically like guarding a JEALOPI of a nuclear program, even in the knowledge that will actually extend the military strikes suffered by the regime, potentially
toppling it in an irrevicable manner. So I think it's quite a binary choice, and I think the Israelis and possibly the Americans, I think Trump actually made this quite clear and his statement are banking on the Iranians now doing an about face diplomatically, and this really bringing about dramatic change in the entire disposition, the entire direction of negotiations and the future of the nuclear program i e. And effective shutting down of what remains of the nuclear
program should Iran agree to do that, Dan, It's.
Been an extraordinary time in Israeli history since October seventh, so much change, most of it to the military benefit of Israel. Is there a view in Israel that things are really potentially different now?
Yes, so it feels like a revolutionary moment.
October seventh was a cataclysm Hamas. Basically it was a game changer in terms of an attack on Israel. What Israel suffered from that attack, completely surprised by a ostensibly fath inferior force. Hamas showed great original thinking, quite the military virtuosity if they like, they really pulled off a surprise, a shock attack on Israel. But it also changed the rules as far as Israel's concerned. If Hamas came along with a game changer, then Israel's actually going to change
the game. And the new game as far as Israel Is concerned, is going in the offensive, destroying all potential threats in all neighboring countries and also Iran, which is what considered this arch foe and so far would appear with all the costs involved, and the costs have been very significant to Palacinians and Ghazatisraeli's, especially on the home front, it would appear that the Israeli campaign is being pursued to its full and may even succeed.
Dan Williams in Jerusalem. We look forward to you're reporting here in the coming hours. Dan Williams with Ethan Bryner in Israel this morning