Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / David Smith: Guardian Washington Bureau Chief says Trump wants help opening the Strait of Hormuz

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David Smith: Guardian Washington Bureau Chief says Trump wants help opening the Strait of Hormuz · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Week three of this war, and the US has unleashed
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: mess of strikes on Hager Island. This is Around's oil island.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Trump wants help opening the Strait of Horn moves. David
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Smith is Washington Bureau chief for the Galleon, joins us
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this morning. David, good morning, Good morning. So the issue
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of the strait? Has anyone come to his aid? Is
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: anyone saying yep, we'll jump on board and help.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: There not much sign of that yet. British ministers and
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: others sort of being very diplomatic and non committal, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: was notable. There's been a British newspaper report saying that
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: diplomats from France and Italy have been talking to the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Iranian government about getting safe passage for their ships. And
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: the Iranian Foreign minister has interviewed on one of the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Sunday politics shows in the US saying, you know, they're
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: open to countries who want to talk about safe passage
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: of their vessels. He couldn't mention in any country in particular,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: he said, So all a little bit nebulous right now.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: And what you're seeing in America is certainly some political
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: blowback against Donald Trump. Basically, why did he not think
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of this. I think many military experts and politicians feel
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: it was pretty obvious that Iran would be hopelessly outgunned
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  Speaker 2: and overwhelmed militarily. But it does have this card to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: play of closing the Strait Ashle news which of course
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  Speaker 2: the twenty percent of oil goes through there, and even
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  Speaker 2: for a position of weakness, it can inflict some pain
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  Speaker 2: on the US and indeed the entire global economy.
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  Speaker 1: It's literally in their playbook that they would do something
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  Speaker 1: like this. So is it fear to say that they
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: weren't prepared the Americans, or that they didn't see this coming,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: or they didn't prepare enough for it happening.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the White House denies that and claims that they
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  Speaker 2: did foresee it. And there's been some reporting suggesting that
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump was warned and this is a possibility by
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: his military planners, and his response was it'll be okay.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: The regime will have collapsed by then, or if it hasn't,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: the military can take care of it. But I think
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  Speaker 2: critics are pretty skeptical of that and feel that the
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: White House has been caught out here, and evidence of
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  Speaker 2: that is the way Trump has been fairly insulting towards
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: some Western allies such as Keir Starmer of the UK
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  Speaker 2: for several days and then yes, suddenly on Saturday we
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  Speaker 2: got this appeal from international coalition to help out, and
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  Speaker 2: he mentioned the China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and others affected by this, wanting them to weigh in
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  Speaker 2: and help provide the safety for the shipping. But among
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: other things, notable that China is mentioned. There often a
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: big US the adversary, of course, and Trump is visiting
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Beijing towards the end of the month and fascinating to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: see how China plays all of this. But yeah, it
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: does appear this at least one example of a lack
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: of US planning and foresights in a war that we
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and many members of the Democratic Party say Trump really
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  Speaker 2: failed to sell to the public and failed to form
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: a strategy on David.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your analysis this morning, David Smith, Washington Bureau, Shape
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: for the Garden.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: You for more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.