Amb. Mike Waltz says military has ‘everything that it needs’ amid supply concerns: Full interview

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: And joining me now is U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz. Ambassador Waltz, welcome back to Meet the Press. [00:00:06] Mike Waltz: Thank you. Good to be with you. [00:00:08] Speaker 1: It's great to have you here in person. I do, of course, want to start off by talking about Iran. The U.S. has been conducting nightly raids against Iran for the past two weeks, really. In recent days, the president said the U.S. was, quote, locked and loaded, and he was considering a massive strike, he said. Then on Friday and Saturday, no strikes were reported in Iran. Has the president decided against escalation for now, Ambassador? [00:00:35] Mike Waltz: I wouldn't go that far at all. The president is keeping all options on the table. I've spoken with the negotiators. I've spoken with Secretary Hegseth. What the president is doing right now, as we've seen all along, is giving some talks, some space. Talks are ongoing. They're happening at every level, from the more technical aspect of it, all the way to the highest levels, of course, within both the Iranian government and the U.S. government. What we are constantly seeing, though, is on the Iranian regime side, they are divided. There is internal fighting. Some are seeking the guidance of the Supreme Leader. Others want to move into a different direction. And that makes it hugely challenging from a diplomatic standpoint, but to get to some reasonable resolution here. [00:01:27] Speaker 1: So are strikes effectively halted for the next several days, or can we expect to see some strikes tonight, tomorrow, in the coming days? [00:01:36] Mike Waltz: Well, I would take the president very seriously if I was the Iranian regime. The U.S. military is locked and loaded. In fact, more assets have gone into the region. And as we've seen, we have focused on those assets that have illegally struck civilian shipping. I mean, look, we have to take a step back here. I mean, this is like the Somali pirates with cruise missiles. I mean, they are desperate in the sense that now we're attacking ships from Panama, from Cyprus, from Singapore. A number of civilian mariners have been killed. And at the end of the day, the president has decided, and he is going to see this through, that the Iranian regime cannot and will not have a nuclear weapon, but also they cannot illegally, in this kind of terrorist fashion, hold the rest of the world's economies hostage. [00:02:29] Speaker 1: You raise assets. I want to ask you about the assets. NBC News is reporting the Pentagon is actually rationing some defense weaponry amid diminishing supplies. Is America backing away from a larger military attack because its military stockpile has been depleted? [00:02:46] Mike Waltz: Well, look, we have to take a step back here in that a lot of stockpiles were depleted, not only from what we gave Ukraine over the last however many years, four or five years, and the administration inherited the secretary, Secretary Hegseth inherited a depleted situation from not only Ukraine, but also the ongoing fight with the Houthis under the Biden administration and a depleted military under the Biden administration. So they have decided, one, they're going to new types of munitions, cheaper munitions, new technologies, but also with these new defense budgets, rebuilding our great military. But you acknowledge they're depleted? [00:03:26] Speaker 1: Do you acknowledge they're depleted, though, at this moment? [00:03:30] Mike Waltz: I want to be crystal clear. The U.S. military, and I've verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be. And I have to tell you, the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail. [00:03:46] Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you, because you're saying they deserve to be in jail. Is that something the administration's going to pursue, putting people in jail? [00:03:56] Mike Waltz: Well, we have a number of leak investigations going on. I'll defer that to the Department of Justice. But here's the point. The point is, the U.S. military has conducted a phenomenally successful campaign. We have never, as you know, I'm a veteran by background. We have never maintained this kind of air superiority, sea superiority, with unfettered access over Iran right now. [00:04:27] Speaker 1: Mr. Ambassador, a lot of people are very interested in the timeline of this, because President Trump had initially said that this conflict would last for a matter of weeks, five to six weeks. He said, we are now at the five-month mark. Will this war be over by the new year? [00:04:45] Mike Waltz: Well, first, this war has been going on for 47 years. These attacks on Americans... [00:04:53] Speaker 1: Not in this capacity. [00:04:54] Mike Waltz: Of course, not necessarily this intensity, but at some level, Iran has been at war with the United States. I was just looking at old video of under the Obama and then the Biden administration when they had... Under the Obama administration, when they had sailors on their knees when they seized one of our boats and captured them. So, look, we have to take, again, take a step back from a diplomatic standpoint. Of course, I'm here as the U.N. ambassador. The talks with Lebanon are progressing in a way that's historic. Syria is moving in the right direction. We just had the Iraqi foreign minister, not only here in the Oval Office, but then he goes to Houston and signs new oil deals. Our Gulf Arabs have never been more aligned with us. Iran is diplomatically isolated, economically isolated, and militarily devastated. They've never been so weak, and we're negotiating from a position of strength. [00:05:49] Speaker 1: But very quickly, do you anticipate this conflict will be concluded by the new year? [00:05:54] Mike Waltz: Oh, I'm not going to put some kind of timeline on it. The president has all options on the table, and he is exercising both diplomatic, economic, and military to achieve a very clear strategic aim. And that's what's different. The wars of my generation, we had policy drift. Here, the president is very focused. [00:06:12] Speaker 1: This was an incredibly somber week, as you know, for the country. Four U.S. service members were killed in Iranian attacks. President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, others attended the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday. Should the country brace for more American lives to be lost in this conflict, Mr. Ambassador? [00:06:35] Mike Waltz: Every man and woman who signs up, as I have and so many others, to go serve knows of that eventual possibility. And my heart breaks for those families receiving the worst news of their lives, as does the president all the way down the chain of command. Where I am thankful as a veteran is that we finally have a president who has said enough is enough. The Iranian regime has killed thousands of American soldiers, has threatened our neighbors, has threatened the region, and threatened the United States, and no more. And if they are willing to do this, if they were willing to build a massive conventional shield, which is what they were trying to do, you mentioned the issue of munitions and interceptors. Imagine if the president had just let this go, like all of his predecessors had, and years from now they had tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of these rockets and drones, and then went to break out, which is what we know their plan was. But in terms of casualties or heartbreaks for them, but we're not going to take this low-level warfare, whether it's taking our people hostage, as they've done, or attacking civilian shipping, or attacking our neighbors, or attacking U.S. assets around the world, enough is enough. [00:07:53] Speaker 1: Just a moment ago, you mentioned Saudi Arabia. So I do want to ask you about this deal with Saudi Arabia. The U.S. signed this deal with Saudi Arabia this week. It would effectively support creating a civilian nuclear program for the Saudis, then less than 24 hours after the deal was announced. The president insisted the agreement would only go through if Saudi agreed to sign the Abraham Accord, something that Saudi Arabia has rejected. What is the status of the deal? Is it going forward? [00:08:23] Mike Waltz: Well, we've been in discussion with Saudi Arabia on normalization with Israel or entering the Abraham Accords way back into the first Trump administration. So that shouldn't, I don't think that should surprise anyone. But what's the status of this deal? In terms of the deal, I want to be very clear on a couple of things. One, we haven't sold our nuclear technology in terms of small modular reactors, micro reactors, large reactors in many, many decades. President Trump signed an executive order last year revitalizing the nuclear industry. Whether it's the Saudis or others, they could go, as many countries have, to the Russians for nuclear technology, to the Chinese for nuclear technology. Finally, we are reasserting our technology on the world stage. So they had options. They went with us. They're going with American companies, American workers. But there is no enrichment envisioned in this plan. [00:09:16] Speaker 1: Quickly, is the deal offer on right now as we have this conversation? [00:09:20] Mike Waltz: Well, the president was clear. I mean, the tenets of the deal are in place. Okay. But we are in discussions with the Saudis about coming into normalization with Israel. [00:09:29] Speaker 1: The U.S. did sign the deal, though, right? The U.S. signed the deal. [00:09:32] Mike Waltz: Well, Secretary Wright and the Saudi energy minister have signed that. But it has to be implemented. And the president's put an important condition on that. [00:09:42] Speaker 1: You know, the U.S. is fighting a war with Iran over its nuclear program. Why reward Saudi Arabia with a nuclear program now? [00:09:50] Mike Waltz: Huge difference. I mean, massive difference that it's important for people to understand. You have the largest sponsor of terrorism in the world, in Iran. You have them refusing to allow the inspections. Contrast that, by the way, there's a deal in place with the UAE. But could you set off an arms race? [00:10:07] Speaker 1: They allow the ins... Could you set off an arms race, a nuclear arms race in the world? [00:10:11] Mike Waltz: No, what would set off a nuclear arms race, Kirsten, is if Iran tests a nuclear weapon, Saudi has made it clear they will get a nuclear weapon. This is civilian nuclear power, which is perfectly acceptable. The UAE has a plant. In fact, even Iran has a Russian-provided plant. The difference is Iran is enriching to weapons level that it doesn't need to do. Iran is burying it, which no other country in the world does, hundreds of feet underground under hardened military infrastructure. Iran is trying to shield it with a conventional drone and missile shield. Iran has stated if and when they get a nuclear weapon, they will not only use it on Israel, that they will threaten the rest of the world to export their revolution. That is night and day different than an American company selling a nuclear, civilian nuclear plant to an ally. [00:10:59] Speaker 1: Just to put a button on this, bottom line, the deal will not be fully implemented until Saudi Arabia agrees to sign on to the Abraham Accords. [00:11:07] Mike Waltz: That's the president's position. [00:11:08] Speaker 1: Okay. All right. Ambassador Mike Waltz, thank you so very much for being here. [00:11:12] Mike Waltz: All right. Thank you. We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.