00:00Mr. President, what will it take to end the blockade?
00:02When the agreement is signed, the blockade ends.
00:05As soon as the agreement gets signed, that's when the blockade ends.
00:09We're having a big day. We'll see how it all turns out.
00:12We should be doing.
00:13It's a little bit of a discussion.
00:16A subject that you'd like to talk about would be very good.
00:19And we've done a good job.
00:21But we'll see the talks are going on, and we'll go on over the weekend.
00:25And a lot of good things are happening.
00:27Mr. President, did you...
00:28That includes Lebanon, too.
00:31There's been reporting today that there's still...
00:33Iran says there's significant differences...
00:36Well, there could be. Let's see what happens.
00:37If there are, we'll have to straighten it out.
00:39But I don't think there's too many significant differences.
00:45When the agreement is signed, the blockade ends.
00:48As soon as the agreement gets signed, that's when the blockade ends.
00:50Did Antrompik have a meeting at the White House?
00:53Sir, Antrompik?
00:54I have no idea.
01:17The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow ribbon of water,
01:20through which nearly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil flows every single day,
01:25is once again at the center of a high-stakes standoff between Washington and Tehran.
01:31A senior Iranian military commander has issued one of the most direct threats in recent memory.
01:37Close the Strait, freeze Persian Gulf shipping, and lock down the Red Sea
01:41if the United States does not lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
01:46The warning, carried by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency and echoed across state media,
01:53came from Major General Ali Abdullahi.
01:56His message was unambiguous.
01:58If the American maritime blockade continues and generates what he called insecurity
02:04for Iranian commercial vessels and oil tankers,
02:07Tehran's armed forces would move to halt all exports and imports
02:11transiting the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea.
02:15The threat did not arrive in a vacuum.
02:18Earlier, Trump took to his social media platform
02:21to announce what he described as a major diplomatic win.
02:24Iran, he declared, had reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic.
02:29Markets briefly responded.
02:31Oil prices dipped on the news.
02:33Shipping firms exhaled.
02:35But the relief was short-lived.
02:37Within minutes, Trump complicated his own announcement
02:40by confirming that the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports
02:44would remain firmly in place.
02:46American warships would continue interdicting vessels in the region.
02:50Tehran saw it differently, entirely differently.
02:53Then came General Abdullahi's statement, and the tone shifted sharply.
02:59The General made clear that Iran does not view the continued blockade
03:03as a neutral enforcement action.
03:04It views it as a violation of the ceasefire itself.
03:08And if Washington insists on treating Iranian commercial shipping
03:12as a security threat, then Iran's armed forces will respond in kind
03:16by ensuring that no one's shipping moves freely
03:19through waters Iran considers within its sphere of influence.
03:23The broader context here is a ceasefire that was always going to be tested.
03:27But ceasefires between Washington and Tehran do not have a strong historical track record
03:33of holding cleanly, and the current arrangement is already showing its fault lines.
03:38The window is short, and the variables are many.
03:41If the blockade continues and Iran concludes that the ceasefire is effectively dead on arrival,
03:47the pathway to escalation is clear and well-worn.
03:50Iranian fastboats in the Gulf, Houthi drones in the Red Sea,
03:54spiking insurance premiums, tankers rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope
03:59at enormous cost and delay, these are not hypothetical scenarios.
04:03They are documented recent history, and the infrastructure for all of it remains intact.
04:08And in the Strait of Hormuz, 21 miles of water and two opposing navies,
04:14the margin for miscalculation is very, very thin.
04:40Transcription by ESO. Translation by —
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