00:00We're a little more than halfway through the two-week ceasefire with Iran and White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt
00:05says the administration feels good about the prospect of reaching a peace deal soon.
00:10Nothing is official until you hear it from us here at the White House, but we feel good about the
00:14prospects of a deal.
00:15As we've been saying all week, the U.S. Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has been a big
00:19part of the strategy to get Iran back to the negotiating table.
00:22And it seems it is working, despite some small bumps in the road.
00:25The Post's deputy managing editor, Michael Zenni, explains how the U.S. blockade is impacting traffic through the still-contested
00:31waterway.
00:32The Strait itself is still-contested territory, right?
00:36Iran says that they are going to attack any vessels that enter it without authorization.
00:44They also said that there are mines in the Strait.
00:47This is a relatively narrow stretch of water through which 20 percent of the world's oil passes.
00:54The U.S. military, the U.S. Navy has set up its blockade in the Gulf of Oman, Oman, which
01:01is in the east, sort of the eastern exit from the Strait of Hormuz.
01:09And what's happened is what we've seen from ship tracking data is that the ships that had been passing out
01:18of the strait were mostly in some way connected with the Iranian government.
01:24Either they were carrying oil or other products from Iran to purchasers, or they had paid a toll or a
01:34ransom to the Iranians.
01:35So what the blockade has done is it has deprived Iran of this vital ship traffic.
01:43Basically, Iran were the only ones who were using the strait when, before the war, there were 130-plus ships
01:51that used to pass through it every day.
01:53Now it's just a handful, most of them carrying cargo that goes to fund Iran and the regime.
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