Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump says U.S. 'taking over the strait' as conflict with Iran reignites

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Trump says U.S. 'taking over the strait' as conflict with Iran reignites · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the news hour. The US is striking Iran
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for the third consecutive night, and Iran said a short
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: time ago it had fired a cruise missile at a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: US Navy ship. The attacks come after President Trump formally
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: notified Congress that the US and Iran have resumed fighting.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Mister Trump also said today he would again blockade Iran
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and the straight afore moves and impose a twenty percent
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: tax on ships passing through the strait, a move his
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: own administration denounced when Iran proposed a similar tax. Liz
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Landers starts us off on this busy day.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Over the weekend, war reignited American cruise missiles lit up
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the night sky. US Central Command said it hit more
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: than a dozen military targets, including the Bandera Bas Naval base,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: using unmanned sea drones. The US says the attack will
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: degrade Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping, but Iran also
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: launched a wave of missiles across the Gulf region. This
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: US military base in Kuwait went up in flames. No
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: US personnel were injured, according to Central Command. The tit
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: for Tat exchange exploding tensions over the embattled Strait of Hormuz,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: which both sides claimed to control.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Well, we're taking over the Strait.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: On an early morning phone call with Fox News, President
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Trump reiterated that the US will be, in his words,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the guardians of the Strait.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: We had a deal, it was a done deal, and
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: then they broke it. They always break it. We've had
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: ten deals with these veaeple and so we're just going
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: to hit them very hard and we're going to keep
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: the straight and we'll probably run it. Will become the
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Guardian of the Strait. Maybe we'll go with the guardian
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Angel of the Strait, and we should be reimbursed for that.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: On truth Social the President specified that the US would
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: charge a twenty percent toll on cargo from every country
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: that passes through the Strait. A spokesperson for the USA
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Shipping Agencies says there is no legal basis for such
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: a tax. US Central Command also announced that US forces
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: will resume the naval blockade of ships entering and exiting
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Iranian ports starting tomorrow afternoon. Iran, too was defiant. The
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Foreign Ministry insisted that Iran manages traffic and even has
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the right to potentially charge fees, not the US. Iran's
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: military also issued a warning.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Kish in cooperation with the United States and any logistical
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: support for that country's aggress or military will be regarded
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: as an active war against Iran's sovereignty and national security.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Should the war spread across the region, the flames of
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: war will engulf every country in the region.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Iran's Foreign Minister Abas Arakchi mocked President Trump's proposed fee
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: for passage in the Strait, writing twenty percent is too
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: much and Iran quote will be fair. The United States
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: and Iran both agreed to a memorandum of understanding in
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: mid June that allows for free flow of commercial shipping
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: in the strait for sixty days, but the agreement also
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: said quote Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the Strait of Hormuz. The United States committed to lift
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: and remove the naval blockade within thirty days. It also
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: included a provision that both nations would respect the other sovereignty.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Both sides have accused the other of violating the memorandum
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: in recent weeks. Today, Iran's Foreign ministry spokesman said the
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: deal has entered a quote state of crisis.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: If we look at the fourteen provisions, the Americans have
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: in one way or another mutilated various parts of it
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: in this short period. From the outset, we have said
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: that commitments would be met with commitments. We will fulfill
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: our obligations only as long as the other side abides
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: by its commitments.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Despite the United States's military superiority, MIT Professor Caitlin Talmage
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: explains that completely eliminating the Iranian and ability to threaten
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: shipping could be impossible with a US strategy largely reliant
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: on air power.
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: In the history of air power, there has never been
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: a military campaign in which bombing alone has produced the
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: sort of democratic regime change that we heard the administration
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: talking about as one of its goals in the opening
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: days of the war. In almost all cases where airpower
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: achieves successful results, it's used in combination with other tools,
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: particularly ground forces. And even when it is used in
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: combination with other tools, it doesn't always achieve decisive results.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Talmage says, with both the United States and Iran claiming
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: a victory and making demands of the other is a
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: formula for a standstill. Could this go on indefinitely?
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: Yes, and it might be the case that this is
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: the new equilibrium where there is continuing low level, relatively
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: low level back and forth conflict over the Strait and
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: with respect to US regional allies and US bases, and
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: neither side is able to actually bring it to some
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: sort of decisive conclusion. And we should remember that there
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: are real constraints on both sides ability to potentially bring
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: it to a decisive conclusion. Iran is the weaker military power.
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: It does not have the ability to evict the United
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: States from the region. It is still highly vulnerable to
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: US attacks. But on the other hand, the United States
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: willingness to escalate is limited because of the costs and
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: dangers involved in going to ground forces, because of limits
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: on its munitions in a continuing air power campaign, and
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: because of the higher oil prices that are involved in
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: continuing a naval blockade, so they may not be able
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: to have one of them checkmate the other. It could
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: go on like.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: This, the President hinting this afternoon during a radio interview
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: that he will strike that site called Pickax Mountain, saying
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: that the United States will probably give Pickax a shot
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: relatively soon. We connected with David Albright with the Institute
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: for Science and International Security, and he told us that
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Pickaxe Mountain is a nuclear related site under construction that
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: is supposed to hold centrifuges for enriching uranium, and that
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: it was large enough to also hold certain nuclear weaponization
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: activities like converting the enriched uranium gas into metal and
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: shaping it into bomb components.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Jeff, So, let's tell us more about the letter the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: President sent to Congress notifying lawmakers of resumed military action
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: between the US and Iran.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: We obtained this today, but this was actually sent on
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Friday of last week, July tenth, and it was sent
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: by the President to Chuck Grassley, who's the Senate, the
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: most senior senator in that body. And this comes, as
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: we laid out in our story that the US and
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Iran have been exchanging frequent fire in and around the
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Strait of War News. So the President sends these formal
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: notices to Congress about US military actions. To be in
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: compliance with the War Powers Resolution, president has to notify
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Congress within forty eight hours of US troops being deployed
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: into hostilities. So this resolution also the resolution also says
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: that the President has to wind down activities unilateral activities
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: that a president takes within sixty days. So the president
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: notified Congress a few months ago when all of this started,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: that put a sixty day timeline on things, and then
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the administration told them sixty days afterwards that things had
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: wound down. That was clearly not the case, Jeff. We've
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: seen these strikes since then, and so now the president
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: is notifying them. It seems like he thinks that he
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: is restarting the clock on the sixty days.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Okay with Landers. Thanks as always, of course, support journalism
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: you trust. Support PBS News.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today