@WakeUpCall -ABC's Karen Travers at the White House

ABC's Karen Travers joins Amy from the White House to talk about the latest from the President regarding the Israel - Iran war.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning now to ABC's Karen Travers at
the White House. Karen said, the President says he's going
to make a decision whether the US gets involved in
the Israel Iran conflict. Did he say what might factor
into that decision.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
He didn't say anything about this. Yesterday it was the
White House the Press Secretary reading a statement from the
President saying that he will give a two week window
now to decide whether the US should strike Iran. Caroline
Levitt said this is based on the fact that there
is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may
not take place with Iran in the near future. The

(00:37):
White House was emphasizing yesterday as the President very much
wants to see a diplomatic resolution to this, but if
there is a diplomatic option, that would be his first choice.
European officials are meeting today in Geneva with Iranian officials
to try and jumpstart talks, and the White House is
hoping that this gives the breathing room to the negotiations

(00:58):
at this point, but are familiar also says that they're
hoping that the Iranians come to their senses as part
of these conversations and they're waiting eagerly to see what
the Iranians bring to the table today.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
For that meeting with the Europeans, there's no US presence there,
that's just Iran and European.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Correct. Yeah. The White House was asked yesterday at the
President's Middle it's Envoy Steve Whitkoff would be traveling to
Geneva for this, and Caroline said she didn't have the
travel plan for him. But there's no indication that the
United States is at the table for this. It's truly
a European effort. The French are involved in this heavily
meeting with Iranian officials. But you know, this will be

(01:37):
notable to see what Iran says that they're willing to
do or not to do, what their red lines might be,
and whether that potentially sets up the next round of
talks between the US and Iran. Remember that one was
canceled last Sunday in Oman because the Iranians canceled it
after the Israeli strikes started. Yeah, and it.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Will be interesting because we've talked about there's been talk
of ceasefire, but Trump is like, I don't want to
cease fire, I want full on unconditional surrender, and of
course Iran is saying no, we're not going to, so
you know, I mean, like, where's the give and will
they give? Is regime changed the goal of all this

(02:15):
in the long run or do we know?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
The White House was asked about that yesterday and Caroline,
you know, kind of brush it off pretty quickly, saying
that the President's priority, that the administration's priority is reaching
a solution where Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.
That's their main priority right now, and also stability in
the Middle East.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, And the other thing that was I thought interesting
out of the press briefing yesterday is that Caroline Lovett
said that Iran has everything it needs to build a
nuclear weapon.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
She did say that. She said that they have all
they need to achieve it and they could complete production
within a few weeks once the Supreme Lead gives the
go ahead, you know, the order to make it happen.
And that was just notable because you know, there has
been some question about how close they are, what does
the White House see as their timeline here, but she said,

(03:12):
you know, they have it all ready to go. It
just would be a few weeks. The White House of
course wants to negotiate that in some sort of diplomatic
conversation to say don't move forward on that production.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, so we know that we've got July. Third is
when Trump says he's going to make a decision. There's
talks going on between Iran and European negotiators today, and
then you said that there's no new talks scheduled with
the US at this point, not yet. Okay, all right,
I think we're up to date. Karen Travers, thank you

(03:43):
so much for the information, as always, have a great day,
all right. You two firefighters have put out