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Transcript: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” July 26, 2026

2026-07-26T12:33:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of an interview with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on July 26, 2026.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz. Good to have you here in person. Thanks, Margaret. You just heard our polling. The American people support the goals. The stated goals: opening the Strait, ending a nuclear program, stopping Iran’s ability to threaten other countries. But they don’t think that the U.S. is achieving those goals, and 67% want to end the conflict now. What happens if the U.S. decides to cut its losses?

AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ: Well, I don’t think it should surprise anyone that we want the conflict to end. We wanted this conflict to end since 1979. I think that’s incredibly–

[CROSSTALK]

AMB. WALTZ: But I can tell you, as a veteran, you know, Afghanistan, Iraq, these wars– these endless wars, where the policy goals, what were we doing there, drifted so badly. The president has been consistently clear on what our goals are. I think your poll showed that the American people support those goals. Yes, it’s been difficult, but I, for one, am quite thankful that he is taking the difficult right to do the thing that I think historians will look back on and say was the absolute right thing to do to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon. And sometimes that’s going to be harder than you know, harder than initially planned for. But the president’s laser focused on getting this done and achieving those goals that 78– 70, what 80% of Americans support. And by the way, also important in there, I don’t think anyone else sees a better plan. That–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that’s what I wanted to–

AMB. WALTZ: –Yeah, that Democrats you know complain–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

AMB. WALTZ: –criticize, but no one’s coming with a better plan, and the plans in the past administrations have failed.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so talk to me about what’s happening because after 13 straight days of bombing, there was no bombing Friday, there was no bombing Saturday. Is that to help the diplomacy that was underway in Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

AMB. WALTZ: It’s giving diplomacy some space. It’s giving diplomacy a little bit of time. Of course, the president tried diplomacy last year. He’s tried it this year. He is a president of peace. He is giving diplomacy a chance. We’ll see over the next coming days. But make no mistake, assets– additional military assets are moving into the region. They should believe the president. The regime should believe the president when he says they’re locked and loaded, and where all options are on the table.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, but just to be– put a fine point on it, this is a round of discussions just to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with a 30 day pause in the fighting?

AMB. WALTZ: No, all conversations are– are continuing–

MARGARET BRENNAN: With the goal of getting back to–

AMB. WALTZ: –this is at the highest levels, all the way down to the technical levels, to do with the nuclear program, to do with the Straits of Hormuz. The diplomacy has not stopped.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the bombing did. So how long will the bombing stop for to allow for this–

AMB. WALTZ: Well, to give that– well, I’m not going to take that option off the table for the president. That’s up to him. Let’s see how these conversations go.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the president said to–

AMB. WALTZ: By the way I have to give Aman some- some credit there. They have been engaging in a helpful way.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Oman.

AMB. WALTZ: Oman. Yes, I’m sorry.

MARGARET BRENNAN: About– so, President Trump told Axios that he was close to making a decision and considering a massive attack bigger than ever before. That was Thursday. Did he make a decision yet?

AMB. WALTZ: I wouldn’t advertise that, Margaret but–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it’s widely reported there was a big meeting Friday.

AMB. WALTZ: There– there was a meeting Friday, but there’s ongoing meetings. There was a senior–

MARGARET BRENNAN: There was no final decision.

AMB. WALTZ: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –other than–

AMB. WALTZ: He’ll– he’ll make that decision in– in good time. But I also want to address this nonsense that somehow we don’t have the assets that we need. Not only do we have what we need in theater, there’s more moving into theater.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, specifically, CBS has reported we cannot sustain the rate at which the United States has expended precision munitions, as we did early in the campaign with Iran. That there is a shortage of interceptors.

AMB. WALTZ: Yeah, I wish they would also talk about the massive degradation of Iranian munitions–

MARGARET BRENNAN: No, but–

[CROSSTALK]

AMB. WALTZ: –that has far less– that has far less than what they started with not only in their industrial base but what they have on hand. Number one, but number two–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

AMB. WALTZ: –what if the president had done nothing and they had built that massive conventional shield–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

AMB. WALTZ: –for which they could then hide their breakout behind?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.

AMB. WALTZ: –then we would have been in trouble.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me take a break because we need to finish this on the other side of it. Stay with us, Ambassador, if you would. We’ll be right back.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return to our conversation with UN Ambassador Mike Waltz. So, Ambassador, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy is headed to Washington this week for Senator Graham’s memorial ceremony. Zelensky said yesterday that since the beginning of July, Ukraine has recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and the U.S. military installations that are located there, and he says those images then appear in Iran. How deep is the level of Russian involvement in helping Iran target and kill Americans?

AMB. WALTZ: Well, I think you’ve seen this symbiotic relationship with Russia-Iran, particularly with the Iranian drones. Now that manufacturing capability has been devastated in Iran itself. But Iran has been providing drones and drone technology to Russia–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

AMB. WALTZ: –that they are then using- using on Kyiv. In terms of the active help, look, I’ll just let the president’s statement this week stand on its own that he has spoken to both Putin and Xi about this and has put both on notice, frankly, that they should not be assisting, and that bad things will happen if they are.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This would suggest that they haven’t stopped assisting. Zelensky says that’s happening in July.

AMB. WALTZ: Okay. Well, we’ll let Zelensky’s statement, I think, just stand on its own. But the president’s statement is out there as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Let me ask you about Saudi Arabia. We know exporting America’s nuclear technology is a priority for the president. He had an executive order on it. He wants to help build these data centers in the Gulf. Those things rely on nuclear energy. There are partners of ours that have civilian nuclear energy program, but there was blowback against the administration this week when news broke of the commercial deal that was signed between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to build this civilian nuclear program on Saudi soil. Were you surprised at that level of blowback? And–

AMB. WALTZ: Margaret, I think that I think there’s a misunderstanding about what’s in the deal. This is civil nuclear power, just like we have with the United Arab Emirates, the 123 agreement that we’ve had for- for over a decade. There is no enrichment technology being provided to the Saudis. That will be done here in the United States. It’s some of our most sensitive technology, and people, I think, need to understand that countries around the world have been buying from Russia, have been buying from China. President Trump has initiated a nuclear renaissance here at home when it comes to nuclear power. We want our partners buying from us. They will be buying civil nuclear reactors from the United States with full inspections in place and no enrichment happening on Saudi soil.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So on the enrichment point, as I understand it, the deal, which was a version of what the Biden administration had also been working on, but not closed, that it would have a study to look into how much uranium Saudi has and if it’s commercially viable, that they would be able potentially to enrich on their own soil.

AMB. WALTZ: There’s a clause in the deal that says it can be discussed if mutually agreed by both sides sometime in the future.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, two-year study for this to possibly happen.

AMB. WALTZ: For- for some open-ended discussion. But as the deal stands now, there is no enrichment capability being provided to the Saudis for them to do on their own. But there is power, and that’s incredibly important. They want to diversify, and again, I want them buying from us, not the Chinese or Russians.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But- and I focus on the enrichment because that is that key difference from what, for example, the Emirates have. They buy their nuclear fuel elsewhere.

AMB. WALTZ: And that’s what this deal is to buy the nuclear fuel from us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s got that pathway to enrichment, and that panicked some people this week, it would seem. And there was some criticism as well that the president then posted the next day, Oh, well, now it’s going to be dependent on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords. Which was not in the deal.

AMB. WALTZ: I mean it shouldn’t surprise anyone. The president’s been talking about the Abraham Accords, having the Saudis–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well it wasn’t in the signed agreement.

AMB. WALTZ: –having the Saudis join, and you know, and the president has made that part of this agreement, which is- he’s absolutely right to do, number one- and number two, there was also these kind of odd comparisons to Iran. How can you have the Saudis having nuclear power when Iran’s trying to seek the same thing, which is just ridiculous. I mean, they’re burying it under hundreds of feet of granite–

MARGARET BRENNAN: In Iran.

AMB. WALTZ: They have kicked out- in Iran- they have kicked out the inspectors. This is the largest state sponsor of terrorism year after year, decade after decade in world history. Completely different issue. It’s actually all of the things that Iran is violating, which is why we are stopping and seeking to stop their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, but having civil nuclear power provided by the United States is perfectly fine and should be applauded.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Just before I let you go, on that, does the U.S. want to help other countries enrich? And then, secondly, doesn’t changing the terms of a deal after it was signed undermine America’s negotiating position with all countries? Like, who’s going to trust us if we say, ah, tomorrow add in a new term after we sign the deal?

AMB. WALTZ: Do we want to help other countries enrich? That is- we do that, and very select countries do that. And there is an entire- there’s a non proliferation treaty–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

AMB. WALTZ: There’s an entire international- the IAEA, the UN agency that sends these inspectors out to ensure that countries cannot do what Iran has been doing, which is enriching–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes, but that’s breaking–

AMB. WALTZ: –way past–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –yeah.

AMB. WALTZ: Yeah. Way past what you need for civil nuclear power that can only be used for weapons, and that’s why we are absolutely convinced, and we know Iran is seeking a nuclear weapons program.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. I mean, we could keep going on this, but I know that I have a Republican senator who- who has some thoughts on the matter as well up next. I’ve got to leave it there with you. Thank you, Ambassador Waltz. We’ll be right back.