Israeli ambassador on ongoing war with Iran

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Michael Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the ongoing war with Iran.

Last week, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire to talk about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

While Vice President JD Vance, according to Brennan, sort of left the door open to diplomacy, President Donald Trump posted to social media Sunday saying the U.S. is "locked and loaded" for an appropriate moment.

This prompted Brennan to ask Ambassador Leiter if it was his understanding that Israel and the U.S. will hold fire until the end of the two-week ceasefire, to which Leiter said:

"We have to remember that the President has been relentless in pursuing an end to this crisis through talks. That's the talks preceded the June war, talks preceded Epic Fury, the talks are going on now, and I think that if we can conclude this crisis with Iran, with this regime, this tyrannical regime, that's pursuing nuclear weapons without going back into kinetic activity, it would probably be best for everyone. The president continues to pursue that. But right now they saw face to face, the vice president sat opposite this fellow, Qalibaf, who is directly responsible for the murder of his own people just in January, this past January, and just saw how obdurate and obstinate they are in pursuit of nuclear weapons."

Brennan brought up President Trump saying the war has won, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the work is not yet complete, leading her to ask Leiter what part of Iran still poses a military threat to Israel, and if he still considers it an existential threat, and Leiter said:

"There are three things that we have to be concerned with from the beginning. Number one, the pursuit of a nuclear weapon, if they go back to that pursuit that concerns us...Number two, ballistic missiles. Okay, these ballistic missiles, they promised, by the way, that they don't have a ballistic missile that could reach Europe. They lied. We saw that they do...They said it was limited to 2000 kilometers. We see now they've got 4000 kilometers. It's just a sprint to 8000 kilometers and to hit Chicago or 10 to fly to New Jersey...And our Intel has been accurate on this from the very beginning. Okay? Now it was clear we said that they're in a sprint to achieve nuclear weapons. And [Special Envoy Steve] Witkoff came back from the talks beforehand and said they came in, they walked into negotiations, said, we've got 60% ready for 11 bombs. 11 bombs at 60% means that you got a week or two until you got 90% and weapon grade. And the last thing are the proxies. Okay, this isn't over until there is a complete de-linkage between Iran and its proxies which have spread death, mayhem and destruction around the Middle East."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Leiter, click here.