00:00Iranian media says that Taiwan has struck these so-called hostile targets in the Strait of Hormuz.
00:04It comes amid these reports that there will also be the barring of U.S. and Israeli vessels from the
00:09waterway
00:09under this proposed agreement that we've been talking about between Tehran and Oman.
00:14President Trump had insisted that the U.S. is in control of the strait.
00:19I don't want to say it has been. It's sort of open right now.
00:23You know, we have a thing called the blockade headed up by the U.S. Navy, and we control it.
00:28And now we control it, but they can always shoot something.
00:32They always have something or drop a mine.
00:34I think we're doing very well. I just, you know, I'm involved in the negotiation.
00:38I think we're doing fine. It could be said.
00:43I'll be going to get it to Michael Heath-Jones.
00:44Now, we were just saying a little bit ago, you thought it sounded a little bit too easy that we
00:47were on the homestretch.
00:49Yeah, I mean, just the way they were discussing the, you know, this agreement between Iran and Oman,
00:55it did just sound, you know, quite reasonable about how it would work.
00:58Iran would obviously have some oversight, but ships coming in through the Iranian side,
01:03out through the Imani side, and European countries coming in to do some demining, etc.
01:07It all sounded fairly straightforward, and it seems that, you know, that's not the case,
01:13based at least on these Iranian reports.
01:15It looks like they wanted a lot more control.
01:17So, in addition to barring U.S. and Israeli ships, they also, they'd want compensation for what they describe as
01:24hostile countries.
01:25Now, that's a pretty wide, wide-ranging tag that they can sort of apply to anyone they want to.
01:30And also, they would want some sort of funding for environmental insurance costs and this sort of thing,
01:35which, again, sort of signals toll.
01:37So, it's very hard to see how this would be acceptable in Washington.
01:41The other point to this, though, is that there is, you know, what you hear publicly and in the local
01:47media
01:47and what's actually going on in the negotiations, too, which may well differ,
01:51but it certainly doesn't end the week on a particularly happy note.
01:54And I guess the sort of point is also this was supposed to be, I guess, the easiest part, right,
02:00the commercial part of a deal before you even get to issues like proxy fronts that have been opened up,
02:06issues like, obviously, the nuclear disagreements as well.
02:09Yeah, and look, when we saw this widening that's becoming really worrying with the Houthis attacking the Saudi-backed government,
02:17there's quite a lot of bloodshed and fighting that's been going on there.
02:19And, again, that raises the question of, you know, threats to the Red Sea and that sort of thing on
02:24the Saudi side.
02:26And, as you mentioned, the nuclear agreement, and we're so far from even getting to that point,
02:30which was supposed to be central to the initial attack.
02:33So, yeah, look, the whole thing seems to have blown off course.
02:37But, you know, even these sort of greatest fears about a widening conflict,
02:41they don't seem to be, you know, they seem to be a possibility at the moment as well.
02:45So, yeah, really a bit disheartening at the moment.
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