00:00U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reportedly reached a tentative agreement to extend the
00:04current ceasefire for 60 days, open the Strait of Hormuz, and begin talking about Iran's nuclear
00:09program. As of Thursday night, we were still waiting for the president to weigh in or sign
00:13off to make it official. Vice President Vance, however, did weigh in. Here's what he had to say.
00:17We're not there yet, but we're very close. We're going to keep on working at it.
00:20I spoke to The Post's Washington reporter Caitlin Dornbos Thursday evening about the
00:24agreement and what it actually says. The deal being considered by the U.S. and Iran
00:30does basically two things. One, it's reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And then secondly,
00:37it actually opens up the potential to start talking about the nuclear issue with Iran.
00:42And that's something that Iran has been fighting this entire time. Opening the Strait of Hormuz would
00:47obviously be a big step forward and would hopefully ease the pressure of the global oil shock. But it
00:53seems there are still some key details left to work out there. So as part of an agreement to
00:58reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. would have to drop its blockade of Iranian ports. And that's
01:05where hawks and critics of this deal are starting to get concerned, because that is the major point
01:11of leverage that the U.S. has over Iran right now. Yes, we have the military threat, but really,
01:18in all actuality, the day-to-day pressures come from the economic pressure that Iran is facing because
01:25no ships are being allowed in to trade with Iran. And that means Iran isn't making money or getting
01:31any imports. And finally, Iran also laid out again what it sees as red lines. I asked Caitlin what those
01:38are and what it means for any future negotiations. Iran gave a list of quote-unquote red lines today.
01:44It reiterated basically the same thing that it's always been saying, that it refuses to give up
01:50any of its nuclear program, does not want to get rid of its enriched uranium, does not want to give
01:57up the potential of enriching future uranium. However, I think that there are some gray lines there that
02:04can be discussed. And that's what people are saying right now when it comes to the terms of this
02:11negotiation. There may be some gray lines, some areas where perhaps Iran could degrade or destroy
02:18its uranium that's already in Iran now. Or perhaps the U.S. wouldn't have to go all the way towards
02:26extracting that enriched uranium from Iran. Maybe it could stay there. But all of these
02:32potentials have to add up to Iran not having the ability to spin up that enrichment,
02:38that enriched uranium to a level that could be used for a nuclear weapon. So the minute details,
02:46the granularity, we just don't have enough insight into those areas to be able to make a full
02:52decision on whether or not that is going to be a way forward.
02:56Q&A
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