Brian Hook, the former U.S. Special Representative for Iran under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on FOX News Channel’s “The Story” with host Martha MacCallum, explained how President Donald Trump outmaneuvered Iran. “This whole conflict is in an entirely new phase,” Hook said on Friday. “We went from Epic Fury, the military piece, and now we are in the economic fury piece. And the president, I think, is going to continue to use his economic leverage over the regime to drive the deal that I think will be incredible both for the United States and for our partners in the region.”

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS: So my next guest says that President Trump managed to outmaneuver Iran. Brian Hook is former US Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called Hook his point person on Iran and the maximum pressure strategy. They both faced what the feds called credible threats of assassination from the Iranian regime. Brian, it’s always great to hear from you as we make our way through this situation. So your broad take so far on this news that the Strait is open on Iran’s side. It seems that the hot war part of this is subsiding. So where do we go next from here in this negotiation? BRIAN HOOK, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR IRAN TO SECRETARY OF STATE POMPEO: I think the president, like you said, Martha, he has outmaneuvered the Iranians. He ended up taking full advantage of this ceasefire. And during the ceasefire, he started sending American naval ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and then he turned the Iranian blockade from an asset into a liability for the regime. And so now we’ve been interdicting all sorts of ships, and we have essentially shut down all cash that’s flowing to the Iranian regime at a time when they are facing an economic crisis. And this is the leverage that I think the president has very smartly aggregated to his negotiators. So you now have J.D. Vance and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who are all together now in a much stronger position to get the deal that the United States needs on no enrichment, and the strait needs to be open, the highly enriched uranium needs to leave the country, and then also around Iran’s missile program that’s a threat to the United States, plus the proxies who have killed so many Americans over so many decades. And so this whole conflict is in an entirely new phase. We went from Epic Fury, the military piece, and now we are in the economic fury piece. And the president, I think, is going to continue to use his economic leverage over the regime to drive the deal that I think will be incredible both for the United States and for our partners in the region.

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