00:00We've talked at length about the confusion over how the Strait of Hormuz gets reopened,
00:04but there is increasing pressure, even within his own party, in terms of where are the red lines, right?
00:09It's not just about the financial assets, it's also the red lines when it comes to nuclear.
00:15Yeah, I mean, he's got quite a lot on his hands, Heidi.
00:19The president, I mean, he seems to be trying to reframe this now,
00:22and I think there's a strong argument for that, that, you know, to keep this going,
00:27to keep the blockade going, and, you know, Iran having its thumb on the Strait of Hormuz,
00:33the damage it would do to the global economy, and, you know, he was talking about threats of depression,
00:38that sort of thing, which is perhaps over-egging it, and, you know, critics would say,
00:42well, why did you go in there in the first place?
00:43Because, you know, none of these issues were a problem before that.
00:47But nonetheless, it is, you know, he is sort of a master of sort of changing tack there,
00:51and so stressing that economic side, there is a lot of argument for that.
00:55But, you know, the rubble will have to hit the road at some time on this nuclear agreement.
00:59He had some very strong comments, very critical comments of the Obama agreement with Iran,
01:04and if he can't produce something that's better than that, then there will be a lot of blowback, no question.
01:09Yeah, this suggestion that they should have a right to enrich uranium, develop ballistic missiles,
01:14like a lot of this is making Iran hawks quite uncomfortable.
01:18But at the same time, we're seeing Israel continuing to push back on southern Lebanon.
01:23They're not pulling out troops, despite a U.S. request.
01:26Yeah, well, I mean, they've pushed back on it, in a sense, and the deal doesn't sort of say that,
01:32you know,
01:33it's about stopping fighting.
01:34It doesn't necessarily say they have to withdraw at this stage.
01:36It's not particularly specific, I guess.
01:37Like much of it, yes, exactly right.
01:40But Israel also, obviously, Prime Minister Netanyahu is very, very conscious of not crossing President Trump there too.
01:47So as long as Hezbollah is not firing on Israel, it seems that they will probably keep things quiet.
01:51There's also a parallel talks going on between Lebanon and Israel that would see that, you know,
01:57once zones are quiet and clear, that would see sort of some pilot areas where the Lebanese army might come
02:03in and take control there.
02:04Now, Israel is very, very sceptical about whether they can keep Hezbollah out, but that's one option for how this
02:10might work.
02:10But Israel needs that buffer zone, or it says it needs that buffer zone, because of the range of Hezbollah's
02:15missiles and that sort of thing.
02:17It wants to get its people back into, you know, that part of the country as well.
02:20So, gosh, there's a lot of balls up in the air, and Israel really doesn't have a stake, you know,
02:24a say in this.
02:25But they're also using that fact that they haven't been party to the deal to sort of give themselves a
02:31little bit of, you know,
02:32wriggle room there to be able to keep things going in Lebanon, perhaps just not very high profile, I think.
02:38So, yeah, there's a lot of areas to watch definitely, and there will be a lot of rhetoric, a lot
02:44of heat and light about this, I'm sure.
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