00:00President Trump has announced a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after peace
00:03talks with Iran fell apart over the weekend. Now, I'll get to that mess of a meeting in a moment.
00:09But first, in a series of lengthy Truth Social posts, the president said Iran admitted there
00:13may still be a mine or mines in the Strait, and what's worse, that they've lost track of them.
00:19Trump called the move, quote, world extortion. In one post, the president also mentioned the
00:24purported tolls Iran is said to be levying for safe passage through the critical waterway.
00:29U.S. officials suggested the Islamic Republic was charging $1 per barrel of oil being transported
00:34through. Common oil tankers can hold about 2 million barrels. The president wrote, quote,
00:40no one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin
00:45destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us or at peaceful
00:51vessels will be blown to hell. Iran, as you might imagine, did not like that and issued a warning of
00:57its own, saying the blockade is a violation of the ceasefire and would face a, quote,
01:01strong and forceful response. I asked the Post's Ryan King about this and if it might result in a
01:06full breakdown of that ceasefire.
01:08Sending a blockade over there or setting up a blockade creates the potential for this situation
01:15to really heat up again. Iran could strike U.S. military ships and has effectively threatened
01:22U.S. military ships if we set up the blockade as President Trump has talked about. The U.S. has
01:29already sent some military vessels through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, supposedly. But this
01:36definitely creates the potential for a much hotter situation.
01:39I also asked Ryan about the negotiations led by Vice President Vance over the weekend.
01:43So the peace talks went on for quite a while. They went on for about 21 hours or so. That's
01:48what
01:48we've been told. And a source close to the Vice President is familiar with what happened,
01:55was basically describing him as pragmatist going in, knowing that there are probably going to be
02:01trust issues between both the U.S. and Iranians. The U.S. and Iran has not really had a lot
02:07of
02:08direct diplomatic interactions over the last couple decades since the revolution. And ultimately,
02:15what happened was during these talks, the Trump administration feels that they got a lot of
02:20what they wanted from Iran. But the big thing was concessions on Iran's nuclear program. And that
02:27was basically a deal breaker for the Iranians. And because they weren't making enough concessions
02:33on that, ultimately, the Trump administration, J.D. Vance, decided to walk from those talks. And
02:39we've been told that there were six red lines in particular. They wanted Iran to end its uranium
02:47enrichment. They wanted Iran to surrender the enriched uranium that the U.S. had attacked with
02:54missile strikes that's believed to be buried deep underground. They wanted Iran to stop funding
03:00terrorist groups to accept a broader peace deal. They also wanted the Strait of Kermuz opened and
03:06Iran to agree not to pursue a nuclear weapon. And basically, the Trump administration was saying
03:14Iran would not agree to those six red lines.
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