00:00Our top story today, oil advancing for a sixth straight day on scepticism about prospects for a deal to restore
00:07energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
00:09Earlier, Pakistan's defence minister said the US and Iran were close to reaching a deal regarding the critical waterway.
00:16And that's despite both sides publicly toughening their stances.
00:20I don't trust Iran. Why? Are you saying I trust Iran? I'm the last person to trust Iran.
00:26And they've lied to me constantly. We have total control over the Hormuz Strait right now.
00:32They don't have control. We have total control. We own it.
00:35And at some point, maybe they'll do something and then they get blown away.
00:42Middle East correspondent Abiyah Abu Omar joins us now from Dubai.
00:46So, Abiyah, President Trump saying we have total control of the Strait of Hormuz.
00:50Why are we even having this conversation?
00:55Good morning, Paul. That is the good question that everyone is asking themselves, right?
01:00So, President Trump says that the US naval blockade that is currently in place means that the US is controlling
01:06the Strait of Hormuz.
01:07Meanwhile, the main negotiations that are taking place are, in fact, happening between Iran and Oman.
01:13We've obviously reported on this multiple times over the past 10 days or so.
01:17These are negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
01:20So, when you ask if the US is right to assume that it has full control of the Strait of
01:26Hormuz,
01:27Iran doesn't seem to think so.
01:29And those are the negotiations, again, that are taking place.
01:31Al Jazeera reporting recently that those talks are in advanced stages.
01:37We don't have clarity on what exactly that means.
01:39We've reported that those talks are in the final stages multiple times over the past week or so.
01:45The foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Al-Yakshi, had come out and said that those talks are in a good
01:51place.
01:52And then you also mentioned Pakistan's defense minister, Khawaj Asif,
01:55who told reporters in Islamabad yesterday that things are shaping up towards peace
02:02or towards something better than what we're currently seeing right now.
02:06So, in a nutshell, there's a lot of unclarity still around the situation
02:10and what exactly is going to be that mechanism that opens the Strait of Hormuz
02:14or how exactly it will take place.
02:17But one thing is for sure.
02:19We monitor the physicality of those vessels in the Strait.
02:24And for now, they're stuck.
02:25And not just stuck.
02:26We're actually seeing that they're prone to attacks.
02:29The latest from Central Command overnight,
02:31saying that it attacked a Panama-flagged ship that did not stick to the route.
02:36that the U.S. had laid out.
02:38So, you're not just seeing ships that are prone to Iranian attacks.
02:41Now, we're seeing ships prone to American attacks as well.
02:45So, you have that situation in the Strait of Hormuz.
02:47And, of course, a perilous situation in the other critical waters.
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