Iran is not Backing Down & Will Destroy Israel! W/Larry Johnson

All right. Hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends, where truth matters. Excited to be with you, but I'm even more excited because my dear friend Larry Johnson once again just responded to the call. I emailed him yesterday, right on the spot, guys. He's willing to come and share his knowledge with you guys. Thank you, Larry, for coming on. Truly appreciate it.

Hi, David. Anytime. I'm always honored by the invitation. Appreciate you thinking that I have something to say.

You do. That's why the community gets always excited. So I'm going to get on right away, Larry, because we got a lot to cover here.

Sure.

I'd like to have your overall assessment of really how this US-Israel-Iran conflict turned out to be.

The US had to intervene at the end to keep Iran from destroying Israel.

Israel. Exactly.

Israel. Most people don't realize that Israel was probably a week, two weeks from actually being completely defeated. And people going, oh, you're just, you know, spouting Iranian propaganda. Okay, hear me out. Israel has two seaports where containers come into the country and where exports leave the country. Iran shut those down. So there was no more sea time, maritime traffic coming in and out of the port. Iran also destroyed the two oil refineries or interrupted their ability to process and produce fuel, the oil refineries at Haifa and Ashdod, which is also the places where the ports are located. Iran shut down the only, uh, international airport in Israel, so nobody was getting in and out of the country unless they went to a military airfield and got out on a military aircraft. But all of the military airfields in Israel were also hit, but we've not seen the pictures of it and been able to assess the nature of the damage because Israeli sensors have blocked that.. But we also know that Iran hit and damaged, and in some cases destroyed, Israel's version of the Pentagon, Israel's version of the CIA, Israel's version of the FBI, Israel's version of the National Security Agency, as well as their major research laboratory, the Weizmann Institute, that was used for nuclear research, and Dimona, The nuclear facility at Dimona was hit and damaged, but the reactor was not breached. So, you know, all this nonsense that, oh boy, Iran just got wasted by Israel— nonsense. You know, Iran, people forget and just step back and compare the kind of firepower that Russia has unleashed on Ukraine over the last 3.5 years about. Compare that to what Israel launched on Iran. Let's put them in comparison. Iran is 3 times the size geographically and numerically in terms of population as Ukraine, 3 times bigger. Iran has 29 international airports. So yeah, Israel closed down 2 of them. Big deal. They had 28 others or 27 others they could fly out of. Israel only had the one that was shut down. So what Israel launched at the beginning, you know, on June 13th was a devastating attack. There's no doubt about that. They fully expected, and Donald Trump had been briefed and promised that this Israeli operation would bring an end to Iran, it would cause the collapse of the regime. Instead, it unified the people of Iran, number one. With Russian assistance, the cyber attack that was supposed to have taken out Iranian systems for a week was back up and running within 10 hours. And then within 12 hours of the attack, Iran was launching ballistic missiles on Israel. Those ballistic missiles exhausted and defeated Israel's much ballyhooed, you know, their Iron Dome failed. David's Sling failed. The US-supplied theater high-altitude air defense system, the THAAD, failed. Patriot missiles failed. And yet the West continues to spend all of this nonsense that this was some, you know, somehow great victory for the West and Israel. Just the opposite.

Well, you're absolutely correct, Larry. I did read some analysis coming from out of some military and security think tanks outside the US, and some of them converge on one conclusion, and that conclusion is that the Iranian attack overwhelmed the Iron Dome and expose its vulnerability. So this is why I believe the Israeli Prime Minister yesterday or the day before gave a speech which I believe it was a hidden message in it asking or begging Iran please to stop. So that was my own assessment. Would I be wrong in that, Larry?

No, no, not at all. It is, you know, we've entered an era, at least on the US side, US and Israeli side, where the defensive missiles, the air defense systems are more expensive than the offensive systems. So as an example, the Israelis relied upon Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 missiles. Each one of those costs between $2.5-3.5 million apiece. Wow. And they only manufacture 25 to 50 a year. Okay, they know. And it was— why does that matter? Well, for every incoming missile that Iran fired, and the estimated cost on the Iranian missiles is $500,000 to $1 million to produce. So think about that. Here comes a million-dollar missile in, and the Israelis to take that out have to fire a minimum of 2 with the Arrows. Sometimes they were firing upwards of 10 to take out one target. So just do the math. That's $6 million worth of missiles to take out a million-dollar missile. You're going to run out of money after a point. And that's exactly what happened to Israel. Hey, the THAAD that the US supplied, those go for $13 million a missile. Wow. So you can see how quickly the United States can be financially depleted by having to counter a barrage of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.

Yeah. So what's next? What's next, Larry, that now the US and Israel found out that they couldn't intimidate Iran? The outcome wasn't what they expected. They were thinking that just we're going to fly a bomber, dropped some bombs somewhere, didn't even damage the nuclear facilities anyway. And now what's next?

Well, I think Iran has learned its lesson. It had previously turned down Russia's offer of a full-on defense pact like what Russia signed with North Korea. I think Iran is now revisiting that. Foreign Minister Arachi was in Moscow on Monday meeting with Putin and with Lavrov, and he carried a personal letter from the Ayatollah Khamenei to Vladimir Putin. And I don't know for a fact, but I do believe that the motivation of that letter was to ask the Russians, hey, remember that offer for a defense pact? We want that. I think you're going to see both Russia and China step up and increase their support now for Iran. Because this really, this is not about Iran's nuclear program. That's, that's a red herring. It is. It's just like the Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. That was a fraud. It was about getting rid of Saddam. This, this is about getting rid of the Islamic Republic and replacing it with a government that's going to be obedient, slavish, if you will, treating the United States like, you're our daddy, you know, and all of this in order to go after Russia and China. Iran is merely a chess piece on a big global chessboard. They're not a pawn, they're a more important piece. But destroying Iran is seen as the first step for further trying to weaken Russia.

And that have now exposed both the partnership of the US and Israel in the region that is going down because Iran is not Iraq, Iran is not Libya, Iraq is not Syria. And I think they were just surprised. While we're talking— yeah, go ahead, Larry.

Well, I was just going to say, this is— you've seen the movie Godfather, right?

Oh yeah, of course.

And so you see that one scene after Don Corleone goes to make peace with, I forget the other mafia guy, so his son Michael can come back from Italy. And at the head of the table is this guy Barzini. And so, you know, the character Tom Hagen, the lawyer, is talking to Don Corleone and he says, oh, you know, how are we going to handle this other mafia chief? And Don Corleone says, He's not running it. He's not in charge. It's Barzini. Now, so what does this have to do with, you know, Israel and Iran and Russia? Russia realized with the June 13th attack that the one country that was implicated in the attacks in Russia, the attempt to kill Putin with drones, the attack on the airfields on June 1st with drones, that it was Israel. Israel was involved. That was like, that was their Barzini moment where Putin and his team realized, you know, son of a gun. Yeah, it's been Israel all along. Israel has been an active but trying to keep itself out of the limelight partner in this war against Russia and by extension against Iran.

Very, very interesting take on this, Larry. While we're on Russia, I want to have your take, please, because I need the community to sort of get an idea exactly what is going on. And I couldn't think of anyone that I trust personally for you to provide our community the— your objective assessments.

Sure.

There are reports coming out of the New York Times, and I read one yesterday, uh, the suggestion that Russia sort of gave up on its allies when it matters. So sort of Russia didn't want to do anything with it. But how accurate is something like this? Knowing— and here is the thing, Larry— knowing that it was a meeting that took place when the Iranian president went over to Russia and Russians asked him, what do you need? His response, meaning Brzezinski, at that time said, we don't need anything at this moment.

Yeah, yeah.

And so what, what Why the New York Times is sort of disclosing lies that they don't exist?

Well, they're listening to Western propaganda sources, and there's a strong Iranian expatriate community here in the United States. So they're doing everything they can to try to spin it and downplay it. I had a good conversation earlier today with my friend Pepe Escobar. And we specifically discussed sort of the political situation in Iran. There was the, you know, President Pashinyan has been, was viewed up until this attack on June 13th as being somewhat weak. Now there's no doubt he is viewed as extremely weak. He's surrounded by a bunch of people who've been very eager to try to re-establish ties to the West. They're very sort of Western-influenced. But that all changed on June 13th. The nature of that attack was so shocking, so unexpected, so devious. See, because, you know, Trump was playing the, you know, he talks about Putin tapping him along, man. He was tapping the Iranians along, hey, yeah, we're going to meet and have negotiations on Sunday. And then he greenlights, he approves this attack, which took place. And if you remember, in the first 6 hours, he was like, yeah, I knew all about it. I knew the date. I knew everything.

Yeah.

But once it became clear that the attack actually had failed to achieve what he was promised it would achieve, which was the collapse of the Iranian government, Instead, Iran got up off the floor. Look, it did get its ass kicked. Yeah, it did get knocked down, but it got back up off the floor, began firing back at Israel. And that's when, you know, within 36 hours of the start of the attack by Israel, here's Donald Trump going, I know nothing. I see no, I hear nothing. You know, he was, he was playing Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes. Yeah, so this whole thing has really touched off a new dimension of relationship between Iran and Russia. And that's why when the Foreign Minister Arachi went to Moscow on Monday and he had direct— I had a long meeting with Putin, and it was afterwards that Peskov came out and said, you know, Hey, whatever the Russians, whatever the Iranians asked for, we'll definitely consider it. Well, you know, which means they're absolutely— because one of the lessons of these 12 days is there was, there was only two. There was an S-300 and an S-400 air defense, Russian air defense system. Both were placed around the Bashir nuclear power plant. Where 200 Russians are busy working. Guess which plant did not get bombed or attacked during the 12 days?

It was the Bushehr.

Indeed. Right.

Indeed.

So the Iranians went, you know, they're not stupid. Yeah, they're going, hey, if we got Iranians around, if we got Russians around our plants helping us, we're going to be okay because neither Israel nor the United States is going to risk a nuclear war with Russia. And then, in fact, that's where I think this is headed. I think you're going to see announcements in this week, next week about closer ties than ever between Russia and Iran and China and Iran.

And we're going to be talking about China soon. So I just want you guys to hear it from Larry directly right here. And as I said, someone I trust. So what you are— be aware what you are watching on YouTube as to the statements that Russia has dumped Iran and all that. None of it has to do anything with—

you got one of your community, they're a moron, this Amanda Joya, saying that my paycheck from Putin's in the mail. I don't get a damn penny from the Russians.

Let me say this one here.

Yeah, not a damn penny. You know, people like that are disgusting.

Instead of listening to the facts— Amanda Jane, right? Yeah, okay, let me put her out.

Yeah, she can go to hell.

Yeah, those are not part— and community, please, if you see something like this, just give me a heads up so we'll remove this kind of nonsense from this conversation because they have no place here. So you are here because you want to learn something, and that's what Larry gave us his time to come over here. He has other stuff to do, but he was willing to come over here so to share this with us. Liking this video so far? Don't just be a watcher. Go ahead and hit the like, share, and subscribe button, and don't forget to tap the bell so you will not miss any of my videos or live streams. This way, you will be supporting a channel that stands for the truth and objective reporting. The choice is yours.

Thanks for your support.

Let's go into China, Larry, because I read once again this morning prior to our conversation here, I had to just check out some updates. And one of the things that Iran now is considering is the purchase of the J-10, the Chinese fighter jet. Yeah. Now, is this going to like sort of a conflict of interest between China and Russia? Or is Iran gonna go on two trajectories, one with Russia and one with China?

Well, so Iran's role for both Russia and China, it's, it's a critical linchpin in the BRICS system. BRICS has been this ambition of China and Russia, but it was accelerated by when Russia initiated the special military operation in Ukraine in 2022. And over that, it has brought Russia and China closer together as cooperating partners. From China's perspective, with its alliance with Russia and China, it has a pretty secure source of oil going forward. So it doesn't have to— it's not going to be held hostage by other countries, number one. Number two, China is— they've set up this thing called the The Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, CIPS. It is a competitor, an alternative to SWIFT. The difference is it's digital, it works in seconds, and it's using blockchain technology out of the whole realm of Bitcoin. Whereas SWIFT is locked, you know, in the 19th century, you know, they're using email, but it takes sometimes days.

Yeah, 3 days, Larry.

3 days?

Yeah, to my knowledge, 3 days.

Okay. Yeah. So already China is making a move in that way. Well, Iran plays a critical role both for Russia in terms of a North-South Economic Corridor and a critical role for China in terms of its Belt and Road Initiative. So that's why both you've seen Russia and China conducting joint naval military exercises with Iran since 2019, and they do it every March. So this was the 7th time they did it. So the cooperation between Russia and China on this is significant. In fact, you had, when the start of this war between Israel and Iran, you know, when it went hot on June 13th, within 2 days you had Xi and Putin on the phone coordinating and talking. Then, uh, 2 days ago you had the, uh, the meeting of the defense ministers under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. What was interesting there is, you know, you had the Iranian defense minister there meeting with the Chinese and basically came with the shopping list. But more interesting, you had the defense ministers of India and Pakistan sitting side by side. So this, this attack by Israel with U.S. backing against Iran on June 13th, this wasn't about the nukes, about enriching uranium. This is about trying to destroy, disrupt, derail BRICS, because BRICS represents an existential threat to the Western, to the U.S.-dominated international financial system.

You're absolutely correct, Larry. I just found out yesterday, uh, I had, uh, reached out to some of trust sources that I, I, I check stuff with and found out that President Xi, it's not going to attend the BRICS summit, right? And the reason being because Brazil, which I don't know, it lost its mind, that is throwing some sort of, uh, uh, it is throwing the, uh, uh, state dinner for India. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. So, but anyway, what you stated, Larry, is exactly had to do with, uh, what the US and Israel did because of what they are seeing regarding BRICS.

Now, yeah, I, I'm just going to say, I think, uh, With respect to India versus Iran.

Yeah.

While India is far larger in terms of population, Iran is actually going to be more important than India economically because of its oil supply.

Yeah, you're absolutely correct. I want to get your take on one aspect regarding this Iran aspect before we move into something else. What do you make out of the attack on Al Udeid base in Qatar? You and I know that is an extension of the Central Command, and the US went ahead and moved— I was aware of the movement of the 40 fighter jets that we have over there. So what do you make out of that from some sort of just the big picture?

This is a repeat of what happened in 2017 and 2018 when the United States launched missile attacks, Tomahawk missile attacks in Syria. And back then it was claimed that, oh, the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against its of people, so therefore we're going to punish them. But what really happened back then is what happened this time, is the attack was pre-coordinated back in 2017, 2018. That was pre-coordinated with the Russians and the Syrians. So they knew where we were going to attack, they knew when we were going to attack, they knew what we were going to attack with, and we gave them advanced warning about 8 hours. Because we wanted to put on a show. Yeah, but it wasn't real. And that's exactly what happened at Al Udeid. The Iranians, the United States was asking for an off-ramp. And to get that off-ramp, they said, we're going to bomb, we're going to bomb your nuclear facilities, Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan. And, uh, and, and if you attack our planes, then we'll, you know, we'll escalate this to war. So Iran, you know, Iran had already removed the highly enriched uranium and recognized that the United States would not be able to do any significant permanent damage to Fordow. It's just buried too deep, no matter how many, you know, bunker buster bombs they dropped. Uh, so, uh, you know, you know, United States launched 14 GBU-57s, 12 at Fordo, 2 at, uh, Natanz, I believe. Uh, and what did Iran do? It launched 14 missiles at Al Udeid. Now, I, I've been to Al Udeid back in 2006, and you know, once you remove the planes, uh, there's only— there's an air operations center that is part of CENTCOM's command that was evacuated and closed down. So there was nothing there to hit. This was so Iran could say, see, we struck back. And then Trump gets to say, okay, ceasefire, everybody, because Trump was acting to save Israel. Israel was in trouble. It wasn't Iran seeking a ceasefire. It was Israel. Israel.

Very, very interesting, guys. If you want to read up more on Larry's articles on Substack. So I'm gonna show you, uh, post it on the screen here for you, but I'm gonna put the link for you in the chat box. You can go ahead and subscribe to that. I read them on a regular basis when they come out. And thank you, Larry, for doing that, man. Truly appreciate you, uh, sort of sharing the knowledge with the masses. A lot of people are just clueless as to what's— what— what— as to what's going on. So now Excuse me, I want to turn our conversation to the NATO summit. Yeah, okay, I know, that's my reaction, Larry. I laughed.

Let me— that's all I get. Trivia question. So who— which musical group originated the phrase "Who's Your Daddy"?

Oh my God, guys, does anybody know? Put the answer in the chat box.

Let's see if they know. Does anybody know?

Come on. Oh my gosh, that— I know I should have known this, Larry.

What's your name? Who's your daddy? The Zombies.

Oh, oh man, that's correct. So very, very interesting. Well, on a serious note, go ahead. You heard what NATO just said as far as the increase of the 5% in defense spending for one objective and one objective only. Is to increase weapon production to support Ukraine. How ludicrous is statements like that when you consider country like Greece can afford 5% increase in its defense budget?

Yeah, maybe they'll send some tzatziki sauce or something, you know, do a good gyro. Um, you know, Ukraine, by the time they start allocating some of this money, Ukraine probably will not exist. We saw a decided shift in Russia's tone yesterday, and it was, I think, made in response to the NATO meeting. Previously, Russia had said that while it opposed and that Ukraine could never enter NATO, it didn't, you know, it said, hey, if Ukraine wants to become a member of the European Union, that's Okay, fine, knock yourselves out. Yesterday they said nope, the European Union is an extension of NATO, therefore Ukraine, Ukraine will never be a part of the European Union because Russia said we're not going to let it happen. Now you're— I think the movement, the advances that Russia is making right now, they've already now fully captured Lugansk, That happened last week. Uh, they will probably finish capturing, um, the Donetsk by maybe the end of August. Could be that quick. Uh, and then at that point, they'll be able to take Dnipro, Petrovsk, a large portion of that. They're, they're advancing in Sumy, they're advancing in Kharkiv, and they're advancing in Zaporizhzhia. So, uh, Ukraine Ukraine's gonna— there will come a point where it's going to crumble fast, and, and we're edging towards that. Wow.

Uh, I was recently in Poland, Larry, uh, just about 2 weeks ago, and some of the conversations that I heard, uh, about has to do with Poland considering sending troops to Belarus. Why do you think will Poland embark on such ventures that they know it's going to be risky for them?

Uh, they may have a death wish. You know, we're, we're seeing right now Poland is sending troops to, I believe, Odessa.

Odessa, yeah.

The Brits have sent troops, the French have sent troops, the Australians are sending. So there's now a NATO military presence without being dressed up as NATO in Odessa. And you're going to see in the coming days Russia will be hitting those targets, will be destroying— yeah, you know, killing those soldiers.

Well, it's a legitimate target.

Yeah.

So you kind of coming all the way, uh, to Russia's border and do what— so just, I want you guys to, to once again hear it from Larry directly how tanks are. So again, pay close attention and be careful as to what you are reading or hearing on YouTube stuff. So if you have trusted sources, that is exactly what you stick with. So I want to move, Larry, if I may. I know you are on a tight schedule here.

No, we're good. We got— I got—

great, I appreciate it. Um, I want to move to the domestic front, and the domestic front has to do with two things. One of them has to do with the allocation of 2,000 FBI agents, suggesting that there are some counterterrorism operations that's going to take place and so forth, and Iran might end up causing problems here. Iran in itself has warned the Americans that the Israelis could conduct a false flag operation.

Yeah.

And I would not be surprised, Larry. We've seen this before. 1967, we saw again what James Angleton, the former CIA director, did when he shared the information, nuclear technology, with the Israelis.

So, yeah.

How, how, how do you see it playing out?

Iran is not going to launch terrorist attacks against the United States. You remember last, right after Trump was elected, maybe a day before, the FBI claimed that they had disrupted a plot, an assassination plot by Iran. But when you went through it, you realized that the primary source for all this information were DEA informants. Of two guys, two guys who'd been busted on a, on a big drug deal in Singapore, of all places. I mean, hell, they, they put you in prison for chewing gum, and these knuckleheads were running a drug deal in Singapore, and yet they mysteriously didn't spend any time in jail. Well, that's because, uh, you know, when, uh, when DEA showed up, they had to give up their whole network, and they became cooperators. So it was just a fabrication. Just simply look at the history. Iran has not been carrying out terrorist attacks against— terrorist attacks means attack on civilians for political purpose. They don't attack American civilians. They say, well, what about the embassy bombings in Beirut and the Marine Barracks? Yeah, the Marine Barracks is a military target. And why was Iran doing that? Because we, the United States, were firing battleship loads into the Bekaa Valley. We were killing Shia men, women, and children. So, you know, the Americans only always get half the story. They get the story about where we're the victim, never talking about what it is that we did, what it is that we did to provoke. So when you go back and look at the history of terrorism over the last 25 years, The only terrorists that have been attacking American civilians are the Sunni-backed ones, the ones backed by Saudi Arabia, by Qatar, by the United Arab Emirates, not by Iran. So this is, you know, I think they're generating up a false flag to justify us to go back in to attack Iran to try to get regime change. That's all this is about.

You're absolutely correct, Larry. And I know you talked about some of this on your channel. By the way, guys, to those who do not know, you need to subscribe to Larry's channel. It's called The Counter Current. Very, very informative one if you now want to learn the truth and hear an objective assessment. So, so I'm going to put the link for you in the description, in the chat box there, so you can check it out and make sure to subscribe to Larry. So now, uh, Larry, yesterday there were some chatters inside Washington, and once again I still have my contacts in DC. You know how it is.

You know how it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And one of the chatters was about the US is proposing of providing Iran with $30 billion to help them build a civilian nuclear facility. So is this like a bribe, or should Iran be careful because you can't trust the Americans?

Well, the Iranians are already getting help from the Russians and the Chinese on building, uh, nuclear facilities. And Russia and China have far more experience at it than the United States. Yeah, I mean, for— why would they— why do you go with the second-rate power? That's what the United States is in this case, second-rate. And there is no foundation for trust for the Iranians to trust anything that Donald Trump, Steve Whitkopf, Marco Rubio say. I mean, if I was advising the Iranian government, I'd tell the United States, you know, stay at arm's length. Let's have cordial relations, but you know, I'm not dating you. You know, we can go out for a meal together, but that's it. You know, I'm not going home with you for the night. That's not going to happen.

Absolutely correct. So, uh, I want to address one last question, Larry, before I let you go, my friend, and this one has to do with the lack of the Arab world. What I mean by this, no Arab country condemned what the US did, uh, a nuclear power sort of dropping a bomb on a non-nuclear country, violating all the international norms international law, the Geneva Convention, the IAEA conventions, and no Arab country whatsoever condemned that. Yeah, are they part of the problem?

Oh, absolutely. You know, they are enablers and facilitators. Of course, um, you know, it's expected. You know, Turkey, I wasn't surprised by Erdoğan. You know, in fact, he came out and condemned condemned Iran for retaliating. Yeah, you know, so, but, uh, you know, I think these kinds of situations are always good. It helps you find out who your real friends are. You find out who's got your back and who just talks a good game. And so, you know, Iran— there was a lot of concern about Iran shutting down the Gulf Straits of Hormuz. Yeah. I argued that wasn't going to happen, or at least a full complete ban. What they would have done is done a selective enforcement like the Houthis have done in the Red Sea. Any ship going to the United States or Europe, yeah, that would be embargoed, attacked, taken under control. Any ship going to China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, they would have been fine because 80% of the oil coming out of the Persian Gulf goes to Asia, not to Europe and the United States.

Just to piggyback on that last point, Larry, hypothetically, this is hypothetical, if Iran were to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, will it coordinate with the Houthis to shut down the Red Sea?

Well, no, I mean, the Red Sea is already shut down. Yeah, Houthis have not lifted their ban. In fact, they've said now they'll attack any U.S. ship that now comes in. Wow. And as we've already seen, the United States could not defeat the Houthis.

And for sure, for sure.

And so, but now we're claiming, oh yeah, we wiped the floor with those Iranians. It's just, uh, it's not, you know, we're just getting fed a load of propaganda. It's spin. And, uh, you know, Trump, Trump really has painted himself in a corner now because he said the intelligence community has said Iran moved so that their highly enriched uranium to a secret facility. And Trump had, you know, Carolyn Levin out here saying, no, they didn't, we destroyed it all, it's been obliterated. Okay, now they're going to have to come out eventually and admit, okay, Trump was wrong. Yeah, they did move it. And now in the negotiations, because, uh, Steve Whitcoff came out here, says, well, we're going to demand that, uh, Iran return it. And if I'm the Iranians, I'm just going to ask Whitcoff, how can we return what you destroyed? That's right, you obliterated it. Congratulations, we can't return it because you destroyed it. Next question. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, I don't know if they're as much of a smartass as I am, but that's what I do.

Well, that's correct. I mean, is Steve Whitakoff qualified to begin with to carry out this kind of negotiations?

No, no.

I didn't think so.

Nice guy.

Well, nice guy doesn't cut it in geopolitics. You have to have an in-depth understanding of what's going on.

Well, you got to at least be something of a chess player. Yeah. You know, you just have to be able to think strategically and think 2 or 3, 4 moves ahead. Yeah, you know, Donald Trump and Steve Whitkopf are golf players. They're not chess players. They play golf. Yeah, a little white ball, keep it in the fairway.

That explains it. That explains it. So, uh, I want to say thank you to I Am Valentina. Thank you very much for your super sticker. You wrote, love and respect to you both. Go team resistance, the axis of hero. Thank you so much for your super sticker. Chili Pepper, appreciate your kind support for the channel. And you wrote, thanks for having Larry. It is always a treat and pleasure to have Larry on. I always learn something new from Larry. And I'll take last question here from Matt Backe. And this is for you, Larry. Do you see a US-Russia summit in the next 2 months?

I think it's unlikely. I think Trump has done a lot of damage to himself for sure. Because Russia now realizes, you know, the Barzini moment. It was Barzini that, uh, Russia, United States, and Israel were involved with this effort to kill Putin.

Wow.

Just like they tried to kill the Ayatollah Khamenei.

Yeah, and they're not going to succeed with that. So, uh, Kevin Baptist, thank you so much for your super sticker. Truly appreciate you. Well, Larry, on behalf of the entire community, I want to say thank you so much, my friend, for really carving out time for us here. Your knowledge is needed by many around the world, and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us all.

Well, I always appreciate your kind words and the invitation. It's always an honor, David. Thank you.

You're most welcome, Larry. You take care, my friend.

All right, dude. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. All right, guys, hope you all enjoyed listening to Larry. He's a wealth of information, as I always say. Remember to join me tomorrow for my conversation, uh, with Khalza. We will be addressing different aspects of— I have some very, very interesting information for you tomorrow. I had to dig, uh, uh, uh, about this information, and guess where I found it? I found it in London. So I'm not gonna spoil it for you. I leave it for tomorrow, and I look forward to our conversation. I hope I feel better I still have the cold, uh, it's just part of it. Hopefully I'll feel better by tomorrow. So as always, I appreciate your kind support, guys, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. As always, remember, geopolitics impact your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, guys. Bye-bye.