Iran has HUNDREDS of drones in Cuba able to reach US mainland: Report

And we begin this Sunday morning with breaking news from Capitol Hill.Longtime South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has died at the age of 71.Graham's office releasing a brief statement saying, in part, the senator passed away from a brief and sudden illness last night.Graham's passing occurred just hours after he returned from Ukraine, where he met with President Zelensky on Friday.We will have reaction from his colleagues in the Senate when we speak with Utah Senator Mike Lee, coming up in a moment.But first, the United States launching a third round of military strikes this past week on Iran, yesterday again after Tehran attacked another commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz and declared the vital waterway closed to maritime traffic.

looking unlikely.Meanwhile, Iranians loyal to the brutal regime, or perhaps those who were ordered to do so, chanted and carried banners during the six -day state funeral for former leader Ali Khamenei, calling for revenge against President Trump and the U .S., a banner reading, we will kill Trump, amidst new intelligence from Israel indicating Iranian leaders have been plotting to assassinate President Trump.Here's the president at the NATO summit on Wednesday in Turkey.

Everything's gone.The leaders are gone.They had leaders, they're gone.And they had another set of leaders, they're gone.Now they have another set of leaders, they may be gone.Who knows?

And you know what?I may be gone too.Because I'm their number one target.It's out all over the place.I'm their number one because they're scum.That's the way they act and that's the way they behave.

it for 47 years.

Meanwhile, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush this week praised President Trump, despite years of public disagreements between the two.Jeb Bush said that the president rightly decimated Iran's military and drone production.Bush also warning of the dangers Iran poses to the U .S.homeland, citing reports that roughly 300 Iranian -made Shaheed drones are now stationed in Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of Florida.Joining me now with the very latest breaking developments is U .

S.Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz.Ambassador, thanks very much.for being here this morning.And I know that you spoke with Senator Lindsey Graham just a few days ago before he left for Ukraine.

Is that right?It is, Maria.Our hearts break for his family, for his sister, for his for his nieces.He was a fighter, Maria.He always, always fought for the troops, fought for South Carolina, and most of all, believed that our freedoms were best defended by showing strength at home and abroad.I know he talked to President Trump regularly, played golf with him regularly, and he has just got such a strong voice in the Senate that's going to be missed, and that peak moment where he buckled everybody's spine to stand up for Justice Kavanaugh, I think was one of the most memorable moments in Senate history.

Absolutely.Probably one of the senator's finest moments when he defended and pursued truth for Justice Kavanaugh.But as you say, he was one of the strongest advocates of peace through strength and a robust military, unwavering support for Israel, Certainly supportive of confronting Iran as well and served himself.

I just remind everyone 33 years in the Air Force.first met him.He would do his reserve duty as a senator.He would put on the uniform and go down range, train Afghan JAG officers.But really what he wanted was to bring ground truth back to his legislating.And that was just one of the things that made him so effective.

A true patriot, 33 years in the armed forces, as well as all of that time in Congress, first in the House and then in the Senate.How do things change with regard to the agenda on foreign policy with Lindsey Graham's voice gone?

Well, if you remember the old representative, Charlie Wilson, way back in the 80s, who was an appropriator and where Lindsay was so effective was it wasn't just a bunch of rhetoric or white papers.He actually put funding behind some of these initiatives.But first and foremost, he put funding behind our troops.If we're going to ask them to go down range and to stand on that wall, then they need to have the best training, the best equipment, and to dominate our adversaries.He just had such moral clarity on right and wrong, who was against us, who was with us, stand with our allies, and make our enemies fear us.And that was a constant message to the American people and certainly to the president and those around him.

Yeah, and he would use this program and other media opportunities to speak with friends and rivals.He would say, to my friends in the Democrat Party, to the mullahs in Iran, and he would make his messages and use the media effectively for that.So let me pivot to the latest on Iran, because I know that there was another night of fighting overnight.What can you tell us in terms of where we are in this war?

Well, the president was always clear that this MOU was performance -based, that he wasn't just going to be absolutely wedded to a deal no matter what, that Iran had to live up to its end of the bargain.It continues to violate.basic tenets of international law that we deal with here at the United Nations.You can't throw sea mines in international waterways.You can't just indiscriminately attack civilian shipping if you don't get your way.You can't hold the world's economy hostage.

The president's not going to stand for it.He made that very clear.There will be consequences if Iran continues to not only violate the deal, but as I said, international law.Meanwhile, Maria, it's worth noting that technical negotiations around the nuclear program President Trump has always been most focused on that, are continuing in terms of inspections, in terms of what to do with the highly enriched uranium, the enrichment program.Those pieces are continuing, but we are not going to stand for these attacks on civilian ships.President Trump has hit back.

He's hit back proportionally.But at the end of the day, Iran is going to pay the price.

Yeah, and the president is threatening consequences should the Strait of Hormuz not be open.There seems to be a struggle over the Strait of Hormuz becoming the number one flashpoint here.Is it open or not?

It's open, as Central Command has said.the table, too, for the first time perhaps ever.The Israeli government, the Lebanese government are working together to eliminate and disarm Israel.Oil prices are the same as they were pre -war.Our energy department and Secretary Scott Besant, by the way, is doing a phenomenal job.Just sanctioned the Ayatollah's money man who's running a global luxury real estate empire around the world.

We're turning the screws on the economy and President Trump will ensure Iran never has a nuke.

What can you do from your role at the UN as we also now take a look at Cuba with regard to these missiles and equipment that are Iranian made in Cuba?

Cuba, for years, has used the U .N.and all of these countries and the U .N.bureaucracy, just buy into it, as a propaganda platform to paint itself as the victim.And the reason its people are in the dark and suffering and starving is because of the United States, what they call a blockade.

And no more.Secretary Rubio is not going to stand for it.I'm not going to stand for it, and certainly not President Trump.We called out their lies and hypocrisy and pointed out their corruption, Castro's private island, Maria.You know, their people don't have any fuel, but yet the Castro private jet has enough gas to fly the regime elites around the world, living high on the hog, going to their private island.Once again, you have communist elites living in luxury while their people are starving.

The Cuban foreign minister got so mad at hearing this, he banged his translation device on the table to the point where it broke.I reminded him, you're not in Havana, this isn't communism, this is the United States of America, and I'm sorry if you get upset at hearing the ground truths, or hearing hard truths, I should say.

Good for you.Ambassador, what about what's coming out of New York?I mean, you're in New York right now, a senior official in the New York City mayor's office plan to meet with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations before the State Department shut it down.Can you tell us what happened?

It's absolutely outrageous.This international affairs commissioner that Mamdani hired, very close to him, was reaching out to what she called like -mindeds.Iran, Cuba, who knows who else?The department stepped in and said, absolutely not.They canceled the meeting at the last minute.It would have been a huge propaganda victory for the Ayatollah in the middle of a conflict, as they're not only shooting at Americans, but they're shooting at global shipping.

And we're doing everything we can to keep them internationally isolated.143 countries have condemned Iran, yet Mayor Mamdani and his staff are trying to meet with Iran right here in New York on American soil.It's outrageous, and we shut it down.

And what is the role here of China?I mean, I think that China is questionable in terms of friend or foe in this whole Iran conflict.What do you know there?

Well, just staying on Cuba and Western Hemisphere for a moment, I'm convinced—I just got back from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, our Southern Command.The story of the second Trump administration, amongst many successes, is going to be reasserting America and the United States in the Western Hemisphere, what's happening with thethe administration and previous administrations.We have to credit Secretary Rubio, the president, Bessent, and the entire team for reasserting the United States right in our own hemisphere.

Absolutely, and we will talk more about China, but you're saying there are still multiple Chinese sites collecting information around our military bases in Cuba.

Both Chinese and Russian, the Cuban regime is not only a threat to its own people, it's a national security threat.And this administration is not going to stand for it any longer.

Ambassador, thank you.Good to see you this morning.U .S.Ambassador to the United Nations, Michael Waltz.Thank you.