Secretary of Energy Chris Wright appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss the current status of the conflict with Iran.  As supplemented by additional confirmation from President Trump, Secretary Wright notes the Iranian military apparatus has been defeated but the goal to end the Iranian nuclear ambition remains.  VIDEO and TRANSCRIPT Below:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re now joined by U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, good to have you here.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Great to be here. Happy Mother’s Day.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Oh, thank you for that. President Trump said that he expected a response from Iran. He said this yesterday. Has one been received and what is the U.S. going to do with it?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Not that I’m aware of, but I suspect we will get a response very soon. Things are tough for the leaders of Iran right now, and I think they’re- they get growing motivation to make it- make a deal, but we know where this is going to end. We don’t know the route to there, but at the end of the day, we’ll have free flow of traffic through the Straits of Hormuz, and we will have an end to the Iranian nuclear program. The end point we know. The route, we don’t.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The goal is there, but Prime Minister Netanyahu told my colleague Major Garrett, the war is not over. He said there’s still work to be done, ballistic missiles, nuclear program. President Trump told Congress that hostilities had been terminated. So is the U.S. view that the war itself is over?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Well, the military objectives that we set out to achieve, and we guided the world to four to six weeks, and it took about five weeks to achieve. Those are achieved. The ending of the Iranian nuclear program is a different matter, and that’s what still needs to be achieved, and again, most likely achieved by negotiation, but doesn’t necessarily have to be achieved by negotiation.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the goal of a conflict has not been achieved yet, is what you’re saying?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Well, one of the major goals was to degrade their ability to produce missiles, to produce drones, their sort of industrial complex that supports their military, that has been wiped out. Their Navy has been ended. Their Air Force has been ended. Their air defense forces across their country have been ended. Those were critical because that was the porcupine that protected their nuclear program in the middle of all that. Those have been largely wiped out.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You run America’s nuclear program, and- and Prime Minister Netanyahu told- said on- on CBS that Trump wants to go in and get the enriched uranium in Iran. But he did say it’s best if you first have an agreement to go in and take it out. So what does that plan look like? Is that UN nuclear inspectors going in and grabbing the enriched uranium? Are those your employees and the Department of Energy going in? Is that the U.S. military?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: We don’t know. That’s what- that’s what’s still yet to be determined. It could be any of those, but yeah, it definitely would involve people from the Department of Energy. The nuclear expertise in the United States is within my department. They are ready, they’ve been monitoring what’s happening in Iran, and they’ve been involved in the dialogues about, how would we handle this material? Where would we take it? What would we do with it? But that is a critical thing. Iran has nearly 1000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, so close to weapons grade, way higher than any potential commercial use of it. They’ve lied all along that it’s for a civil nuclear program. It’s for their own energy. It was never about that. It was always about weapons, and the world just can’t live with a nuclear armed Iran.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you know, Iran says they’re not pursuing and never have, but the IAEA says that’s all questionable, of course. But what you just said there, are you saying the goal for President Trump is getting Americans on the ground in Iran to get that enriched uranium, perhaps the inspectors who work for the Department of Energy?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: No, it’s to end their nuclear program. If it’s pulled out by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that’s fine too. We need to remove the nuclear material from Iran and end their enrichment activities to produce more of it. There’s many ways that that can be achieved, but that must be achieved.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s open for discussion now. Let’s talk about what’s happening with the energy markets. It was just three days ago that three American destroyers were harassed by Iranian small boats in the strait. Overnight, we did see a Qatari vessel with liquefied natural gas cross through the Strait successfully. Another one was buzzed by a drone. So exactly what is the status of this transit point?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: So the United States is blocking all traffic to and from Iranian ports, and Iran continues to harass all other ship traffic through the Gulf. So there’s two ways the Hormuz thing can end. One is, just like with the nuclear thing, one is an agreement with Iran to reopen the traffic and for them to stop their harassment activities.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This is their main card that they’re playing.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: That’s their- that’s their only card, essentially. So the U.S. destroyers there and ships starting to come out, is a great message to Iran, that one way or another, we will re-establish free flow of commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So they’re not going to give up that card, though, right? If that’s their one thing to play, that is their point of leverage. So I want to come to this because it has been. Unclear how the Strait of Hormuz is going to be. The stalemate there is going to be resolved. Last Sunday, President Trump announced Project Freedom. He said that U.S. ships would guide other vessels out of the waterway, starting the following day. May 5, Project Freedom, less than 48 hours later, was called off at Pakistan’s request, according to the President. And then we saw that a day later he said, if Iran didn’t open the strait, the bombing would restart at a higher level and intensity. Then we saw this harassment that we just talked about. And then on May 8, the President was asked if project freedom would resume. He said, I don’t think so. We may go back to Project Freedom, but it would be Project Freedom Plus others. So as of this morning, is the United States military going to begin clearing the strait?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: We are actively clearing the strait today, but we did stop Project Freedom at Iran’s request. As you said, it’s their only card if we militarily reopen the strait, which is a challenge. It’s not a one or two day endeavor that’s- that’s an effort to do that. They said, wait a minute, wait a minute, let’s make a deal. Let’s make a deal, we’ll agree to reopen it. Let’s engage in the talks about the nuclear program, and let’s make a deal. So this pausing of that military effort to open the straits is to get a negotiated settlement with Iran. And if we can get a successful negotiated settlement with Iran, that’s great. That’s a good end to the conflict, if we can.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But that takes time. A negotiated settlement takes time. We’re just talking about letters going back and forth with a memorandum of understanding. So is the U.S. military going to clear that strait? Is Project Freedom going to resume anytime soon,

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: If it’s- if it’s clear in the next few days that there’s not a good path to a negotiated settlement, we’ll go back to the military method to open the strait. The economic pressure on Iran right now is increasing dramatically. Not only is their government in the country losing their main export revenues because of our blockade, but also Economic Fury operation that we launched, starting just a few weeks ago, is collecting the monies of the corrupt IRGC leaders that they’ve squirreled away abroad. We are turning the economic pressure up on the leaders of Iran to drive their motivation to come to the table.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But then we’re also cutting a deal with those same IRGC leaders that would allow them to stay in power, which is sort of at odds with this argument that they are corrupt and horrible and have been for 50 years. But the all-time record high in gas prices was five bucks back during the Biden administration in 2022. It lasted, that real spike, for about eight weeks time. With this conflict, you had said last month that prices had already peaked. You advised the president. What are you advising him now?

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: The main advice we’re giving right now is 47 year long conflict, the world simply cannot live with a nuclear armed Iran. Everyone in this government knows it. In fact, everyone in the opposition party in our country knows that as well. That is the- that is the overall objective, not just for peace and freedom, but for energy markets. A nuclear armed Iran could threaten a major oil and gas producing region forever.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re not- you’re not saying you’re- you’ve got to come to a nuclear agreement before the Strait of Hormuz is opened, because that could take a lot of time. As you know, nuclear deals are really complex.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Well- Obama made a complex deal because it didn’t end their program. Well, you get to keep the program. You keep enriching but do it a little bit slower and we’ll send you a bunch of money. That was clearly a failed thing. President Trump is a much clearer, black and white, stronger leader, which means we’re going to end your nuclear program. It’s not a crazy long negotiation. It may take a week, it may take a few weeks, but that’s not a many months long negotiation. We’re going to end the nuclear program.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But gas prices have not peaked at this point.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: I don’t know the future of gas prices.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they climbed over the past week. We’re also hearing from the airline lobby. Ticket prices aren’t going to go down in the summer or the fall. Saudi Aramco CEO said reopening routes is not the same as normalizing a market deprived of a billion barrels of oil. None of these problems are going to end quickly.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Ending the Iran nuclear program is a tough challenge, as you’re rightfully pointing out. Is there short term dislocation from that? Absolutely, but we need to make that trade off, or we have a long term threat to peace in the region, long term threat to energy supplies, long term threat to Americans.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Energy Secretary Wright, thank you for your time this morning.

SEC. CHRIS WRIGHT: Thank you, Margaret

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