Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / U.S. fires on ship breaking its blockade of Iranian ports - No one is in control of Hormuz

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U.S. fires on ship breaking its blockade of Iranian ports - No one is in control of Hormuz · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: The United States military yesterday said it fired on a
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  Speaker 1: Panama flagship in the Gulf of Oman that attempted to
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  Speaker 1: evade the American blockade of Iranian ports. This comes as
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  Speaker 1: the Trump administration is emphasizing economic pressure on Iran. US
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  Speaker 1: Central Command said the vessel ignored warnings to stop, leading
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  Speaker 1: a Navy helicopter to fire missiles into the engine room,
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  Speaker 1: disabling the ship. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking to reporters last night, President Trump again insisted the
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  Speaker 1: US has control over the Strait of Horror moves, despite
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  Speaker 1: continued Iranian attacks there and shipping data that suggests otherwise.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, we have total control over the Hormo Strait. Right now,
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  Speaker 2: they don't have control. We have total control. We own it,
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  Speaker 2: and at some point maybe they'll do something and then
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  Speaker 2: they get blown away. But we right now, we're in
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  Speaker 2: a very good position. We have a country that has
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  Speaker 2: been the bully of the Middle East for fifty years.
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  Speaker 3: It's really fifty.
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  Speaker 2: One if you think about it. We've been saying forty
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  Speaker 2: seven for four years, and they're no longer the bully
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  Speaker 2: of the Middle East.
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  Speaker 1: Let's bring in President Emeritith of the Council on Foreign
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  Speaker 1: Relations Richard Haass. He's the author of the substack Home
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  Speaker 1: and Away. Richard, good morning. You're writing about this what
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  Speaker 1: president calls low key approach to Iran. What do you
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  Speaker 1: take that to mean? And what's your reaction to what
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  Speaker 1: he just said there? That the United States is in
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  Speaker 1: quote total control.
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  Speaker 4: Of the Strait of hormones. Easy to start with the latter,
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  Speaker 4: We're not. No one's in total control the straight of hormones,
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  Speaker 4: and willly, it's easy to deny you, so the straight
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  Speaker 4: or hor moves than it is to guarantee use. So
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  Speaker 4: we can deny youuse except we want to Iran or
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  Speaker 4: Ron can deny use to others. Insurers won't ensure cargo
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  Speaker 4: ships or tankers, so denials relatively easy, guaranteeing use relatively hard.
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  Speaker 4: So that's where the strait is very little traffic going through,
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  Speaker 4: much less than went through before the war, before the
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  Speaker 4: war began. And now I've gone on so long, and
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  Speaker 4: I forgot your first question.
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  Speaker 1: Just the low key Oh yeah, pursuit of this war,
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  Speaker 1: that's the president's term. What does that even mean?
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  Speaker 4: That means holding off any new use of military force
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  Speaker 4: for a couple of reasons. One is it hasn't worked.
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  Speaker 4: Iron's pretty good at taking a punch to our munition
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  Speaker 4: stocks are dangerously low. Three, there's always the danger of
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  Speaker 4: Irani and escalation, and they could destroy the energy and
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  Speaker 4: water infrastructure of the UAE Saudi Arabia, and that would
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  Speaker 4: take what's been a modest crisis gasoline prices, you know,
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  Speaker 4: say just about four dollars. We could knock them over
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  Speaker 4: five or six dollars if that were to happen. So
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  Speaker 4: that the president the bluff to use military force is
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  Speaker 4: just that, it's an empty bluff. So we're turning to economics.
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  Speaker 4: Too bad we didn't have that conversation in February. Would
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  Speaker 4: have been much much smarter from the get go. I
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  Speaker 4: actually think we might have succeeded right now, though economic
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  Speaker 4: pressure tends to be slow, and any form of coercion
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  Speaker 4: always leaves the initiative with the side being coerced. So
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  Speaker 4: we're trying to tighten the screws on Iran. It's up
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  Speaker 4: to them to decide whether there's so when to say uncle.
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  Speaker 4: And so this is slow motion. This is a slow
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  Speaker 4: motion game. The question is can we take the pain
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  Speaker 4: of a clue straight longer than they can take the
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  Speaker 4: pain of a failing economy, we'll see.
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  Speaker 1: So John, you're writing about this morning as well. You're
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  Speaker 1: using the term patients instead of low key, with the
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  Speaker 1: President saying he's patient in this war. Iran embolden if
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  Speaker 1: you look at some of the demands they're making lately,
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  Speaker 1: and the blockade, lift the sanctions, unfreeze the assets, get
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  Speaker 1: your troops out of the Middle East, all those things
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  Speaker 1: that aren't going to happen, but just a message of
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  Speaker 1: where they believe they are, the cards they think they hold.
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  Speaker 1: So what does patients mean right now for the White
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  Speaker 1: House mean?
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  Speaker 5: To this point, nothing has worked in Iran, So that's
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  Speaker 5: they're going to now try nothing. They're going to just
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  Speaker 5: try to let this sit and they're gonna try to
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  Speaker 5: ramp up economic pressure. They are going to, to Richard's point,
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  Speaker 5: they're going to back off some of the threats of
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  Speaker 5: kinetic attacks. They're going to try to they're walking away
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  Speaker 5: from negotiations at least the time being. As I write,
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  Speaker 5: you know, every time Trump touts a possible breakthrough negotiations,
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  Speaker 5: the hardliners in Tehran seems to delight in changing their
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  Speaker 5: terms and yanking away a possible deal. It's like Lucy
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  Speaker 5: holding the football for Charlie Brown, except this time the
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  Speaker 5: pig skin is straight. Four moves like they just won't
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  Speaker 5: you know, they get to the brink and they pull
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  Speaker 5: it back. They can change the terms, and they're trying
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  Speaker 5: to embarrass the president. So they're trying to ramp up
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  Speaker 5: sanctions here, but it is going to rely Joe on
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  Speaker 5: the calendar because the President, first of all, is famously impatient,
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  Speaker 5: and he could escalate things with the true social posts
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  Speaker 5: and this goes out the window. Also the course the
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  Speaker 5: midterms are approaching. And then, lastly, and I write this
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  Speaker 5: in the piece as well, some new reporting about how
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  Speaker 5: US officials have been consistently surprised at how resilient Iran
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  Speaker 5: and its economy have been. No doubt, Iran's economy is
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  Speaker 5: worse off today than it was in February, No one
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  Speaker 5: disputes that. But they have shown me that they have
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  Speaker 5: much worse off. But they have shown there's now a
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  Speaker 5: sense though they're not exactly at the breaking point either.
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  Speaker 5: So the question is how long is this going to
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  Speaker 5: take before this economic pressure forces Tehran to come to
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  Speaker 5: the table and actually do serious negotiations.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the President's best strategic move is to continue to
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  Speaker 3: put this economic pressure on Iran because again, hot war,
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  Speaker 3: kinetic war doesn't work. Hasn't been working effectively with the Iranians,
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  Speaker 3: again because we're doing it from the air. It's far
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  Speaker 3: different if the United States wanted to go in with
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  Speaker 3: boots on the ground. But there is not the will
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  Speaker 3: among the people or the present are certainly not congresso.
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  Speaker 3: The Iranians know that. So there are limits to what
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  Speaker 3: you can do militarily from the air. There are also
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  Speaker 3: limits when it comes to munitions. And John lemiir I've
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  Speaker 3: got to ask you about the latest reporting from all
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  Speaker 3: the sources that you talk to, all the people that
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  Speaker 3: you know. Richard talked about a serious lack of munitions,
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  Speaker 3: and I'd love to have clear follow this as a
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  Speaker 3: member of the Senate Armed Services Committee for many years,
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  Speaker 3: but you know, we keep seeing these reports that our
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  Speaker 3: munition stocks are extraordinarily low or dangerously low. And then
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  Speaker 3: Pete Hegesith will call somebody a commie or something just
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  Speaker 3: some stupid child insult if a reporter actually repeats what
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  Speaker 3: people in the Pentagon are saying to them. So my
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  Speaker 3: question is, what's your latest reporting on munitions and then
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  Speaker 3: declare how the hell does a country spend trillions and
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  Speaker 3: trillions of dollars on munitions and on their defense, on
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  Speaker 3: their military machine and then run out of munitions so quickly. Jonathan,
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  Speaker 3: first to you, what's the state of munitions?
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  Speaker 4: And they are low.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, the president speaks these grand terms, and of
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  Speaker 5: course the United States has lots of weapons, but the
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  Speaker 5: specific type of these interceptors, these these defense missiles stockpiles
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  Speaker 5: are dangerously low. I write about that, and the piece
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  Speaker 5: as well that there is concern they wouldn't be able
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  Speaker 5: to have to have enough to say withstand that attack
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  Speaker 5: in Asia were something to happen elsewhere, And that's the
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  Speaker 5: other part of the calculation why they won't They don't
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  Speaker 5: think they should do it all out striking on Iran
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  Speaker 5: right now as well.
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  Speaker 1: Iran will retaliate, and
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  Speaker 5: We may not have the ability to defend our bases
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  Speaker 5: the region and or allies in the region.