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00:00Let's head out to Tel Aviv, where Trey Yanks is standing by after speaking with the president hours ago, multiple
00:04times, including when the president was in the Situation Room.
00:08So, Trey, is it your understanding that there's a three-day plan, a four-day plan, or is it we're
00:15going to hit you until we get you back to the table plan?
00:20Yeah, Brian, good morning.
00:21My understanding is that there's a new equation for the Iranians because they were unwilling to make a good-faith
00:26deal at the negotiating table.
00:28And I asked the president, if they don't sign the deal, what's going to happen?
00:31And he said, we'll bomb the S out of them tomorrow night.
00:35And so, clearly, President Trump is keeping the military option on the table if the Iranians are unwilling to make
00:41those concessions.
00:42But, again, this is a change in thinking.
00:44Rather than trying to force the Iranians into a deal that they've been unwilling to make so far, the president
00:50is now targeting these critical assets belonging to the Iranian regime.
00:53What we saw last night, broadly a shaping operation.
00:56You see the radar systems and the air defense systems taken out by not only Tomahawk missiles, but the fighter
01:02jets that were in the skies of Iran.
01:05The message that President Trump sent overnight to the Iranian regime, Iran does not control the skies of its own
01:10country.
01:11And when the president was speaking in the Situation Room with Fox News exclusively, he was joined by Vice President
01:17J.D. Vance and Special Envoys Kushner and Witkoff.
01:20And Vance told Fox News about the negotiation process.
01:24He said, we're certainly dealing with both.
01:27At the very highest levels of the political leadership in Iran, but also the IRGC.
01:32The Trump administration right now has presented the Iranians with a deal that would ultimately open the Strait of Hormuz
01:39and curb their nuclear program.
01:41And what's interesting is this morning, following these powerful U.S. strikes against Iran, the Iranians came out with a
01:47statement saying they have closed the Strait of Hormuz.
01:50Well, they said that before, but the United States was taking millions of barrels of oil secretly out of the
01:56Persian Gulf.
01:56And so it gives you a sense of the Iranian propaganda that is coming out of Tehran as it relates
02:01to this war and the reality on the ground.
02:04And the reality overnight was that President Trump ordered these heavy strikes, not just against the southwestern part of the
02:10country,
02:10but President Trump tells me that some of the missiles actually hit just about 40 miles outside of the Iranian
02:16capital of Tehran.
02:18So we've seen multiple operations now from our military intelligence.
02:23They start with cyber first, and then they go after the defense systems, and then they hit their actual targets,
02:31whether it is a foreign leader or it is weapons facilities or a launcher.
02:39Do you get the impression, since they have only been targeting really the defense system, that the next phase, if
02:46they don't sign the deal, are the targets, the real targets?
02:52Yes, I spoke with President Trump earlier in the day before these strikes began,
02:56and he told me he was getting closer to striking Iran's power plants and bridges because, again, Iran has been
03:01unwilling to sign this agreement.
03:03There was something interesting that happened overnight as the President gathered in the Situation Room.
03:08You can imagine how tense this is.
03:10He was joined by the Vice President and his special envoys, along with top generals, and they have a lot
03:14of information coming in.
03:16But at one point, when I first spoke with the President, he had to go briefly because he was getting
03:21an incoming phone call from Iranian officials in Tehran.
03:24And when the President called back, he described what that call was like.
03:27He said they asked him to stop the bombing.
03:30Because at that point, there were fighter jets over the skies of their country, and they lacked the ability to
03:36actually defend their own territory.
03:38And ultimately, the President was very clear.
03:41He'll stop bombing if they sign the agreement.
03:43It's a very clear equation.
03:45The Iranians overnight did, however, respond against Gulf countries and U.S. forces in Bahrain and Kuwait, as well as
03:51Jordan.
03:52According to the Jordanian Army, 20 incoming Iranian ballistic missiles were shot down.
03:57But there was no damage caused to U.S. forces.
03:59And again, this speaks to the equation.
04:01Now, the backdrop here in all of this is quite important.
04:03And I spoke with President Trump about this as well.
04:06As these strikes are taking place and the Iranians are unable to control the skies of their own country, the
04:11U.S. naval blockade remains in effect.
04:13And it's crippling the Iranian economy.
04:15The exports for the Iranian regime are down about 90%.
04:18They're extracting crude oil at a 50% rate.
04:21And so not only was the President bombing them from the air overnight, keeping the naval blockade in place, and
04:27ultimately telling them you have one choice here at the negotiating table, sign the deal, or the war resumes, but
04:33he was also communicating with regional allies about what was going on.
04:36He told me he spoke quickly with the Israelis.
04:39However, the Israelis were not involved in the strikes overnight.
04:42Guys?
04:43So, Trey, I'm reading about, because you've said we were striking their air defense systems.
04:47Will you explain to the public?
04:49This is what the definition is.
04:51Will you just explain to the public what that means?
04:53These are the machines that will detect if there's a drone or if there's a missile, right?
05:03Yeah.
05:04So the Iranians have some domestic production of air defense systems, but broadly they're looking at Russian and Chinese systems.
05:10And the S-400s that they had from the Russians previously were taken out by the Israelis and the Americans
05:15during the 12-day war last summer that ultimately ended with Operation Midnight Hammer.
05:20And that's why they were unable to defend their own nuclear facilities when the president brought those B-2 bombers
05:25overhead.
05:26Now, ultimately, President Trump told me early yesterday that during the ceasefire, the Iranians tried to rebuild some of this
05:32infrastructure, and they have some of these smaller systems, actually shoulder-fire missiles,
05:37one of the missiles that is believed to have taken down that U.S. fighter jet earlier in the year
05:42during Operation Epic Fury.
05:43But these are smaller units that are operating inside of Iran.
05:46Now, when you compare the Iranian air defense with what the Israelis have, it's quite different.
05:51Because in Israel, they have a tiered system that begins with the Iron Dome, it goes to David's sling in
05:56the middle, and then they have the Arrow 2 and 3 system.
05:58Ultimately, President Trump, in preparation for the possibility of war with Iran, provided Israel with Patriot and THAAD missile defense
06:04systems that we understand in the region,
06:07also including in Jordan, have worked to shoot down incoming Iranian ballistic missile fire this year.
06:12And it speaks to the coordination that is taking place.
06:14And that's why it was so interesting to speak with the president last night as he was sitting in the
06:19Situation Room,
06:20because he, along with his team, are juggling a variety of offensive and defensive actions all at the same time.
06:26And this is coordinated, again, with the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and with the head of U.S. Central
06:31Command, Admiral Brad Cooper,
06:33and, of course, the Joint Chiefs Chairman.
06:35This is a team effort to ensure that as the Americans are going on offense,
06:39they're also prepared to protect allies in the Gulf and even further to the West, including Israel and Jordan.
06:45Guys?
06:45It's really genius.
06:46In terms of it, it's almost like a boa constrictor, just slowly, slowly tightening the grip until they choke to
06:53death.
06:54The other intangible, the wild card, is the Iranian people.
06:58We don't talk a lot about it because we're not into regime change.
07:00But 89 or 89 million of them hate their government.
07:05And guess what?
07:06The government is scared of their people.
07:07That's why they're killing them in cold blood.
07:09But they're able to communicate now.
07:12The Internet is up.
07:13Do you think if the next step could be we'll provide air cover if the people want to rise up
07:19and put additional pressure?
07:21Can you think that might be part of the calculus?
07:26It's an interesting question.
07:28And what's also quite interesting is because the Internet is partially back on in Iran,
07:32we're getting more images whenever the United States actually strikes Iranian territory.
07:36And we're also getting more images from Operation Epic Fury that show the massive amount of destruction to Iranian energy
07:43infrastructure
07:43and a variety of different besiege and IRGC targets that were hit during the 40-day war.
07:49Now, as all of this is taking place, there is this question of the Iranian people who earlier this year
07:54and also late last year in December
07:56tried to rise up against their government because of the difficult economic situation inside of Iran.
08:02And they were met in the streets of their country with live ammunition.
08:06President Trump says 42,000 Iranian civilians were slaughtered by the regime.
08:10And this gives you a sense of how dangerous and scary it is for these civilians as they were expressing
08:15their concern about the state of the Iranian economy.
08:18Remember, that's why those protests began.
08:21And so when you think about the domestic political pressure that President Trump is currently, as we speak, putting on
08:26the Iranian regime,
08:27it is immense because you have the U.S. naval blockade that's in place and it is crippling all these
08:32parts of the Iranian economy
08:33that are not just used to support the military programs in Iran, but also the civilian population.
08:39And before all of this began, late last year, the Iranians were considering moving their capital from Tehran
08:44because they couldn't get fresh water to their people.
08:47And now this situation in the aftermath of these military defeats during Operation Epic Fury,
08:51their top leadership around Supreme Leader and other officials, around 40 of them taken out in that initial wave of
08:58strikes during Operation Epic Fury,
09:00the second tier taken out, and now you have this third tier that is partially operating and trying to negotiate
09:06with what they can.
09:07But it's a situation for the Iranian regime that they've never seen in 47 years.
09:12Their economy is crumbling and the people are angry.
09:16They don't want war.
09:17However, ultimately, they want a situation where they're not living under an oppressive regime
09:22that meets them in the streets of their country with live ammunition.
09:25And President Trump promised them earlier this year that he would help them.
09:28And he has taken out many of the leaders, including besiege commanders and IRGC officials,
09:33who are actually leading those crackdowns on civilians.
09:36But again, the focus here for the region today, guys, those U.S. strikes that took place overnight,
09:41President Trump exclusively telling Fox News on the phone in the Situation Room
09:45alongside the vice president and his special envoys that if the Iranians do not sign the good faith deal
09:51that was presented by American negotiators, he will, quote, bomb the S out of them tonight.
09:56And so the region is waiting to see what comes next.
09:59The U.S. military remains on high alert.
10:01And the battle damage assessment following those strikes overnight is ongoing.
10:05When did he say that to you this morning?
10:07Because that means he would bomb tonight.
10:11Yes, exactly.
10:12He said that overnight as these strikes were taking place.
10:14He was in the Situation Room actually watching this unfold in real time.
10:18And so he was talking about tonight.
10:20And again, that is why the region remains on high alert following those Iranian counterattacks
10:25that took place against U.S. forces in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
10:28But again, when you think about what the Iranians are facing right now,
10:32during Operation Epic Fury, there was a systematic campaign that was launched by CENTCOM
10:37to not only go after the launching positions of these ballistic missiles and these drones,
10:41but also to go after the production lines.
10:43And that was critical during all of this because the Iranians no longer have the ability to resupply.
10:48And so every time that they launch a ballistic missile at U.S. forces in the Gulf or even further
10:52to the West
10:53and it gets shot down by a THAAD or Patriot missile defense system,
10:56that's one less missile in their arsenal and one less piece of leverage they have on the battlefield.
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