McCaul Discusses Iran Conflict at Hearing with Ambassador Waltz

WASHINGTON - At today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) - chairman emeritus of the committee - discussed the need to unleash the full power of the U.S. military in Iran and asked U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz about the role the UN is playing in the conflict.

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Full Exchange:

McCaul: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ambassador Waltz. It's great to see you again. It's great to see a friend and a former colleague in this position. And let me just say, I think you're doing an outstanding job.

Reforming the United Nations is quite a daunting task. Ambassador Bartos, you mentioned your wife questioning your sanity in taking on the job, but I commend you for it.

I want to follow up with Iran. You know, since 1979, a dark veil of terror has reigned over the Middle East. This, in my judgment, was a reckoning that was eventually going to happen. It was unavoidable with this regime, as long as the regime is in power. I commend this president for being the first president to take on this regime and Iran on its path to a nuclear bomb.

Negotiating in the past hasn't worked.

I have to be honest with you, ambassador. I'm not sanguine about the current negotiations. I understand we have to give that a chance and give peace a chance. We have to try to negotiate, but I do think that as Reagan said, peace through strength [is crucial, and] as the Powell Doctrine [states:] either you go all in to win, or you get the hell out of there.

Right now, they're reconstituting their centrifuges in underground storage facilities. Then their launch pads are still striking.

It is my sincere hope, and it's not your responsibility, but that the president unleashes our Department of War on Iran. I know that's what is happening now to take out the launchpads, to take out the IRGC, to let Mossad and Israel do its job because I think as long as this regime's in power, we're going to continue to have this problem.

And Russia providing targeting information is absolutely unacceptable from my point of view, and I think from the United States' point of view.

I'm really pleased to see the White House join with Lindsey Graham. As I went to Ukraine, his last wishes were [for] his Russian sanctions bill to pass.

I will be introducing that in the [House of Representatives] here today. I want to thank the White House for its work there because nothing will end that war sooner than passing that sanctions bill. It's a path to peace, not a path to war.

My question to you [is regarding] the Straits of Hormuz. We're a net gain [energy] producer. We don't really even have to rely on this. We are doing this to the benefit of our European allies.

... I applaud the president as well for getting the Gulf States involved to help finance this operation because it's in their best interest to open up these straits. I think it's a very doable thing if we unleash our military and allow them to do what they do best.

Sir, and you know the military better than I do; they're fully capable of accomplishing this mission. I know that's not the hat you wear today, but I'd like for you to comment on the overall status of the straits. ... I think the Gulf States are stepping up. What role, if any, is the United Nations and Security Council playing in this?

Waltz: Well, thank you. And just to set the table for the answer, I want to answer that very specifically, you're absolutely right. Iran has been at war with the United States since 1979. [Iran has] killed thousands of my fellow servicemen in Iraq, in Lebanon, in the Gulf, literally all over the world, in addition to its plots here in the United States to kill the president of the United States and members of his cabinet.

Yet, Iran is in the worst place, is in the weakest place it has been through a combination of both military and diplomacy in its war against the United States. In Lebanon, you have the Lebanese government - you had the president here yesterday and today - you have Lebanon negotiating with Israel for the first time. You have the Assad regime gone and probably the most hope in Syria that we've seen in a generation. You just had the Iraqi president here in Texas, signing deals with American oil and gas companies.

And the Iranian regime is literally cratering economically, militarily, and at war, frankly, with its own people in addition to the region.

To your point on the Straits of Hormuz, Secretary Bessent just said yesterday, China, the main buyer of Iranian illegal oil, has cut its purchases by half and nobody else wants to buy it. The blockade is absolutely working. And then on the UN, look, we've had Iran absolutely diplomatically isolated.

We may not pay a lot of attention to what happens in the UN Security Council here in our media, but I can tell you around the rest of the world, they are glued to every word. It's the only forum Iran really has on the global stage. And 140 countries have sided with us and condemned their attacks on civilian shipping, the mines that they're putting in international waterways, and their violations of international law across the board. Keeping them diplomatically isolated is my job.

And as the ranking member mentioned, we also have sanctions authority. The snapback sanctions that were lifted under the JCPOA are now back in place, and the rest of the world has joined us in that economic isolation.

McCaul: Thank you, sir.