00:00The U.S. is maintaining its Hormuz blockade and has seized an Iranian cargo ship.
00:05Tehran signals it may skip talks tomorrow as President Trump warns of strikes on infrastructure.
00:09He spoke Saturday.
00:11We have very good conversations going on. It's working out very well.
00:17They got a little cute, as they have been doing for 47 years, and nobody ever took them on.
00:21We took them on. They have no Navy. They have no Air Force. They have no leaders.
00:27We're talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again, you know, as they've been doing for years.
00:34And they can't blackmail us.
00:36Joining us now is Bloomberg Washington correspondent Tyler Kendall.
00:39Tyler, how's the feeling of three steps forward, two steps back at the moment?
00:44With a ceasefire set to expire at some point on Wednesday, where do things stand?
00:49Hey, Danny. Well, at this point, there is risk of escalation on multiple fronts,
00:54even as it feels like we are making progress as you're outlining.
00:57We then see these other things start to happen.
00:59But at this point, the White House is still maintaining that diplomacy is a viable option ahead of tomorrow's ceasefire
01:05deadline.
01:06In fact, the White House says that Vice President J.D. Vance, alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff,
01:10and the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to depart for Islamabad later tonight.
01:16But still, Iran is still wavering on whether or not they will send any diplomats to Pakistan for another round
01:22of talks.
01:23And at least publicly this weekend, denied that any sort of progress or concessions have been made related to its
01:30nuclear program.
01:31Then, of course, the escalation and tensions flaring when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz.
01:35As you outlined, we saw for the first time the U.S. sees an Iranian-linked tanker approaching the Strait,
01:41as CENTCOM said, that it did not obey military orders over a six-hour stretch.
01:45And then Iran also moving to reimpose those restrictions on traffic.
01:50We're going to have to see where it goes from here,
01:52because President Trump still, after all of this, posted on Truth Social that he thinks that there is a path
01:57forward here for talks,
01:58but then also reiterated, importantly, that threat that he could hit Iranian civilian infrastructure if we don't get a deal
02:06in time.
02:06Matt and Danny, we'll see if maybe there's an extension, if maybe there's a deal, or if we revert back
02:11to escalation.
02:12Because from Iran's side, we heard from Iran's foreign minister saying that they don't plan to attend these talks.
02:18But at the same time, Iranian state media also reported that the country's president has maintained
02:23that nobody has an appetite, in their words, to resume the fighting.
02:27He, you know, President Trump on Friday said that a deal is as good as done.
02:32He said that they're going to give up, I guess, their right to enrich uranium pretty much forever.
02:40He said they're going to open the Strait and they're never going to close it again.
02:44Then, obviously, they did close it again.
02:47And I also noticed in that soundbite, he said they've been closing the Strait of Hormuz for years, which isn't
02:52true.
02:52Obviously, they only did it for the first time after Israel and the U.S. attacked them.
02:57Is this a negotiating tactic for him to just make things up and, you know, go out with information that
03:06isn't at all true?
03:07Is that sort of the crazy Ivan thing?
03:11It could be, Matt, at this point.
03:13Though, of course, we don't know what's actually happening behind closed doors.
03:17But you're right, we heard President Trump on Friday set out that we have seen progress on those key sticking
03:23points that we know about,
03:25including Iran's nuclear enrichment levels, what is going to happen to the already enriched material,
03:29and then, of course, the Strait of Hormuz.
03:32Now, we know the White House wants to see other points put on the table, including, for example, Iran's support
03:36of proxy militia groups.
03:38But at this point, Iran is maintaining that they have not made any concessions when it comes to really any
03:44of these points.
03:45And perhaps most importantly, we saw the strongest statement when it comes to that already enriched material amid President Trump's
03:52comments
03:52and reporting that there could be some sort of deal underway, whether that included sending that material in exchange to
03:59the U.S.
03:59for some sort of unfreezing of Iranian assets.
04:02We're going to have to watch where it goes from here, because at this point, we're taking the President's statements
04:07and the White House's line.
04:08But it's a little bit harder to read on the Iranian side, because there are just so many factions at
04:14this point
04:14that are putting out statements through Iranian state media.
Comments