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  • 19 hours ago
US President Donald Trump says the US and Iran could be back at the negotiating table in days, trying to end a war that's spilled over across much of the Middle East. And there's diplomacy on a second front in the war too, with neighbors Israel and Lebanon holding rare talks. But key oil supplies remain blocked off through the Strait of Hormuz, and neither the US or Iran are budging on their demands, presenting an urgent challenge.
Transcript
00:00U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance speaks to conservative group Turning Point USA.
00:05He's just back from a trip to Pakistan, the mediator in a war between a U.S.-Israeli alliance
00:10and Iran.
00:11Despite a ceasefire, talks there with Iran's envoys didn't get far.
00:15And one key point of conflict, the Strait of Hormuz, key to world oil supplies, is actually
00:21getting thornier, with the U.S. blockading Iran.
00:24Still, Vance says progress may just take some patience, as Iran and the U.S. haven't
00:29had ties in decades.
00:31U.S. President Trump has even hinted talks could start again in a few days.
00:36Look, honestly, after 49 years, there's a lot of, of course, mistrust between Iran and
00:42the United States of America.
00:43You're not going to solve that problem overnight.
00:46But yeah, I think the people we're sitting across from wanted to make a deal.
00:50Patience may be hard for many in the U.S., including for Trump supporters like farmers
00:55here in North Carolina.
00:57Supplies of diesel and fertilizer are blocked off behind the strait.
01:01This year might be salvageable for some, but the 2027 harvest is up in the air if fighting
01:07goes on.
01:07You can't predict everything that's going to happen, but I feel like these things were
01:11kind of overlooked as part of collateral damage that was going to occur to us.
01:17And not just, you know, people that do what we do, just the American people as a whole.
01:22I mean, everybody seems to be suffering.
01:24In parts of the Middle East, though, economic pain is just the beginning of the suffering.
01:29The U.S.-Iran truce was supposed to cover the whole region.
01:32But U.S. ally Israel has kept up strikes on neighboring Lebanon, home to Iranian proxy Hezbollah.
01:40But back in Washington, the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. meet, a rare event
01:46for these envoys.
01:47Israel's ambassador to the U.S. has a rosy picture of future neighborly ties, but only
01:52if Iran's proxies are gone.
01:55We talked about a number of things, and most importantly, the vision, the long-term vision,
02:01where there will be a clearly delineated border between our countries, and where the only reason
02:08we'll need to cross each other's territory will be in business suits to conduct business,
02:16or in bathing suits to go on vacation.
02:18Today, though, the Strait of Hormuz is still largely shut.
02:22Lebanon is under fire, and Israel is subject to counterattack.
02:26And the sharply opposed Iranian and U.S. positions on everything from Iran's uranium enrichment
02:32to control of the Strait of Hormuz haven't budged.
02:35The question now is whether this ceasefire window can bring lasting peace.
02:40Chris Ma and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
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