00:00For the first time since the United States moved military power into the area off of Iran's coast,
00:05the Islamic Republic has shut down portions of the Strait of Hormuz.
00:09That's a pivotal waterway through which 20 percent of the world's oil is transported.
00:15The provocative development came as the Islamic Republic carried out drills in the area,
00:19even firing test missiles off one of their warships. Now, as if it was orchestrated by plan,
00:25at just about the same time, American and Iranian negotiators agreed on, quote,
00:31guiding principles for a nuclear agreement. So a step, a baby one in the right direction.
00:37That said, Iran's foreign minister still cautioned, quote,
00:40this does not mean that we can quickly reach a final agreement, but at least the path has begun.
00:46What this path might be, well, your guess is as good as mine at this point.
00:50The White House had been requesting that the talks cover not just nuclear enrichment,
00:54but Iran's ballistic missile program and its treatment of anti-regime protesters.
00:59But the Islamic Republic had insisted those topics were off the table.
01:03The progress, as minor as it may be, seemed to be a good thing.
01:08But the talks certainly won't be helped by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
01:16who openly taunted President Trump and the U.S. military on Tuesday, saying, quote,
01:21the U.S. president says their army is the world's strongest, but the strongest army in the world can
01:26sometimes be slapped so hard it cannot get up. It's almost like he's going out of his way to
01:33torpedo these negotiations. And then the Ayatollah threatened to sink U.S. warships in the region
01:39all while those drills were going on nearby. I mean, talk about poking the bear.
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