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Egypt struck for first time as conflict spreads · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Action overnight by the US. Meantime, Egypt says that a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: fire at its Mediterranean port of Damietta was caused by
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a drone. Now, this is the first time Egyptian infrastructure
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  Speaker 1: has been hit Elney with US following this part of
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  Speaker 1: this narrative, this will of course be fueling fears of
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  Speaker 1: a broadening war. Are those fears merited at this point?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this is what my sources are telling
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  Speaker 2: me and industry experts. So I was alerted to this
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  Speaker 2: late last night Dubai time, and there was shock in
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  Speaker 2: the industry that Egypt and Damietta port was targeted. It
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  Speaker 2: is a crucial port for Egypt. It is strategic, it
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  Speaker 2: has an alerg terminal, it is on the Mediterranean. And
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  Speaker 2: then initially it was a fire that erupted on the
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  Speaker 2: Enogas Winter which is a fuel storage unit as well
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  Speaker 2: as a rec gasification unit. That fire then spread onto
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  Speaker 2: the gas log vessel as well, and you can see
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  Speaker 2: some of the images of the fire as well as
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  Speaker 2: the smoke. Egyptian authorities extinguish this fire and then confirming
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  Speaker 2: today that indeed it was a drone strike. Now, my
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  Speaker 2: sources tell me that we don't know where this comes from.
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  Speaker 2: There is major concerns around the source of this drone.
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  Speaker 2: But if this is now a true expansion that extends
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  Speaker 2: beyond the Strait of Hormos and the attacks that we've
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  Speaker 2: seen in the Red Sea now heading towards Mediterranean ports,
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  Speaker 2: it really poses the question around hostility that is expanding
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  Speaker 2: and then drawing Egypt into this. And importantly it's energy
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  Speaker 2: infrastructure again, Becky, and it basically mimics and it has
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  Speaker 2: the hallmarks of what we've been seeing since the start
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  Speaker 2: of the war to try and cripple economies not only
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  Speaker 2: in the Gulf region but also now wordening it to
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  Speaker 2: the wider Middle East and even Mediterranean ports. In terms
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  Speaker 2: of impacting a country like Egypt, we know that these
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  Speaker 2: two vessels were quickly pulled out by tugboats. They're now
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  Speaker 2: idling in the Mediterranean into Kepler, and now Egypt needs
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  Speaker 2: to make some kind of plan contingency plan. These fuel
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  Speaker 2: storage units were brought in to deal with the high
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  Speaker 2: energy demand for Egypt over the summer period. The risk
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  Speaker 2: assessments right now, bishippers they don't know what this means,
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  Speaker 2: but they're wondering if this is a once off or
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  Speaker 2: whether this is a true escalation that's.
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  Speaker 1: Now broadened to other ports. Right, you're up to date, Lenny,
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for that. You're up to date both from
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  Speaker 1: Washington and indeed from the wider perspective in the region,
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  Speaker 1: more of course, as we get it. At the same time,
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  Speaker 1: Uranian media say explosions were heard across the south of
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  Speaker 1: the country. The US says it carried out powerful attacks
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  Speaker 1: on military command centers and on drone facilities. Or Pakistan,
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  Speaker 1: which played a mediating role in last month's US euron agreement,
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  Speaker 1: says it is trying everything it can to revive negotiations.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Liptak at the White House and we are getting
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  Speaker 1: the latest on the overnight US strikes on Iran from
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  Speaker 1: sant Com. What are they saying.
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  Speaker 3: They're describing this as a heavy wave of retaliatory attacks
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  Speaker 3: for those attempted strikes by Iran on US positions that
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  Speaker 3: happened two days ago. What Sentcom says they targeted were
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  Speaker 3: military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and
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  Speaker 3: defense sites, and maritime capabilities. They say that these were
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  Speaker 3: all targets of the IRGC and they were quote aimed
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  Speaker 3: to further diminished threats posed by Iran and its proxies
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  Speaker 3: to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighboring Gulf countries. This
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  Speaker 3: does seem to stop short of the full scale return
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  Speaker 3: to war that we know President Trump has been considering
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  Speaker 3: and that he's received options for. And you have seen
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  Speaker 3: how the US military has been bolstering forces in the
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  Speaker 3: region in the occasion that the President decides to go
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  Speaker 3: in that direction. But before the strikes began last night,
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  Speaker 3: the President described this as more of a tit for tat.
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  Speaker 3: He said it was the US's turn to strike Iran
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  Speaker 3: after Iran struck its positions in the region, and he
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  Speaker 3: even suggested that those Iranian strikes were the result of
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  Speaker 3: miscommunications between different factions in the Iranian regime. He said
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  Speaker 3: that the group of officials that the US was attempting
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  Speaker 3: diplomacy with had in fact apologized. And so how the
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  Speaker 3: President plans to proceed from here, I think at this
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  Speaker 3: point remains clear. But it is evident that this war
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  Speaker 3: is in fact expanding, even at a moment that he's
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  Speaker 3: trying to wind it down. You have what's happening in Egypt.
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  Speaker 3: You also have now the Saudis joining in on these
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  Speaker 3: strikes against the Iran backed militias inside of Iraq. Yesterday,
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  Speaker 3: we had the Saudi Defense Minister Khalid ben Salman here
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  Speaker 3: at the White House meeting both with the Vice President JD. Vance,
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  Speaker 3: but also with President Trump. It was an unannounced visit
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: and went somewhat under the radar, but I think a
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  Speaker 3: very important discussion as the President tries to gain the
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  Speaker 3: insights of partners in the region about where exactly they
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  Speaker 3: see this heading.
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  Speaker 4: The war with Iran is now expanding across the Middle East.
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  Speaker 4: Egypt now confirms that it has come under attack for
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  Speaker 4: the first time since the war began, and just yesterday
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  Speaker 4: US Central Command said that Saudi Arabian forces joined American
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  Speaker 4: forces and conducting joint strikes against Iran backed terrorist sites
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  Speaker 4: in Iraq. Overnight, Sentkam says it conducted a new wave
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  Speaker 4: of strikes across Iran. They say it was in response
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  Speaker 4: to Iranian attacks on US forces. The strikes were forecasted
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  Speaker 4: by President Trump earlier, who said it was who said
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  Speaker 4: from the Oval Office that it was quote unquote our turn.
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  Speaker 4: The question now is how many more turns will there
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  Speaker 4: be before any negotiations to end this war start back up.
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  Speaker 4: In a real way again, joining me right now, CNN
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  Speaker 4: national security analyst beths It's good to see you, Beth. Egypt,
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  Speaker 4: Saudi Arabia, they're now involved in this thing. What does
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  Speaker 4: this mean for the war?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I don't think Egypt is involved yet, which is
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  Speaker 5: really an important kind of nuance here is that the
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  Speaker 5: Iranians or we don't actually know who struck a.
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  Speaker 6: US LNG facility.
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  Speaker 5: It's not exactly a facility, a platform in Egypt. Egypt
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  Speaker 5: hasn't responded, and I don't think they will. I'm not
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  Speaker 5: sure Iran wanted. I don't think they wanted Egypt to respond.
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  Speaker 5: But this is part of a potential kind of horizontal
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  Speaker 5: and vertical escalation of what's going on right that we're
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  Speaker 5: seeing more territory horizontally, more geography involved, but most of
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  Speaker 5: it is aimed at US and then also Saudi assets,
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  Speaker 5: but the kinds of assets are also changing. So we're
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  Speaker 5: seeing this vertical escalation in terms of not just US
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: military bases, but also this kind of logistics or energy facilities.
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  Speaker 5: And so we are seeing an escalation now and again
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  Speaker 5: today Iran has responded with attacks on Jordan and Kuwait,
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  Speaker 5: and so we're we're seeing this tip for tat Kate,
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  Speaker 5: and you know, there's some big questions here because there's
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  Speaker 5: got to be an off ramp at some point, but
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  Speaker 5: the president now is.
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  Speaker 4: Deciding yeah, upper, yeah, exactly. The Saudi Arabian foreign minister
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  Speaker 4: he met with the US after the joint strikes were conducted,
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  Speaker 4: and the Kingdom's assessment, according to sources seen as reporting,
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  Speaker 4: is that Iran will seek to create leverage through escalation
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  Speaker 4: and will continue trying to use pro Iranian militias in
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  Speaker 4: Iraq and Yemen's huthis to do so. And I read
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  Speaker 4: that thinking two straight weeks of nightly strikes by the
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  Speaker 4: United States did not bring Iran to the table, and
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  Speaker 4: then you have kind of this declaration of they want
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  Speaker 4: to The assessment is they are going to escalate in
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  Speaker 4: order to gain themselves leverage.
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  Speaker 6: What does this do?
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  Speaker 4: It kind of gets us back to the same questions
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  Speaker 4: like what's the off ramp.
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  Speaker 6: It's really difficult to say.
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  Speaker 5: And I think that this is something that you know,
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  Speaker 5: all of us who are watching this closely have been
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  Speaker 5: saying for weeks now, is that there doesn't seem to
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  Speaker 5: be a very clear off ramp. Someone has got to Basically,
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  Speaker 5: I don't want to say capitulate, but has got to stop.
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  Speaker 6: In order to get the negotiations back. But it takes
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  Speaker 6: two to tango.
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  Speaker 5: And I think what Iran is showing that you know,
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  Speaker 5: they escalated during the pause, right, So we had this
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  Speaker 5: pause and then they did this surprise attack on Jordan.
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  Speaker 5: I think it was purposeful. I think it was to
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  Speaker 5: send a message that they It happened when the President
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  Speaker 5: was meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, and it
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  Speaker 5: happened when there are these discussions about what's going to
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  Speaker 5: happen to the Strait of Hormus. And I think Iran
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  Speaker 5: is showing very clearly they have very clear red line
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  Speaker 5: on control of the Strait of Horror, moves huge leverage.
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  Speaker 5: The Saudi Huthi issue is slightly separate, obviously connected, but
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  Speaker 5: the Houthis also have their own problem with the Saudis
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  Speaker 5: in terms of a blockade on Yemen that they are
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  Speaker 5: they want broken. So now it's all coming together and
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  Speaker 5: in a couple hours we're going.
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  Speaker 6: To see the head of the Houthis give a press conference,
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  Speaker 6: and at that press conference.
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  Speaker 5: They're going to threaten to escalate some more against the
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  Speaker 5: United States, which they have not yet, it's only been Saudi.
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  Speaker 5: But if the United States resumes full scale war against Iran,
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  Speaker 5: the Houthis say they're coming in and they're going to
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  Speaker 5: block the bob Elmandeb straight for everyone, not just Saudi ships.
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  Speaker 6: So again, more escalation is in the picture.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, sure seems that way. Beth, it's great to see you.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you.