Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 28th, 2026: UN Sounds Alarm Over Iran’s Nuclear Stockpile & Bukele Sends Troops to Haiti

Transcript

PDB Afternoon Bulletin | October 28th, 2026: UN Sounds Alarm Over Iran’s Nuclear Stockpile & Bukele Sends Troops to Haiti · The President's Daily Brief

• 0:12
  It's Wednesday,
• 0:12
  the twenty-eighth of October.
• 0:14
  Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 0:17
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 0:18
  your eyes and ears on the world stage.
• 0:20
  Alright.
• 0:21
  Let's get briefed.
• 0:23
  First up,
• 0:24
  the United Nations is sounding the alarm over
• 0:27
  Iran's nuclear program,
• 0:29
  warning that inspectors still can't account for a significant amount of
• 0:34
  highly enriched uranium.
• 0:35
  Where did that uranium go?
• 0:37
  They say the amount that's missing.
• 0:39
  Could produce up to 10 nuclear weapons.
• 0:42
  I'll have the details
• 0:44
  later in the show.
• 0:45
  Salvadoran President Naib Bukele
• 0:47
  follows through on his threat of military action,
• 0:50
  reportedly sending 1000 troops into Haiti
• 0:53
  to search for 4 missing servicemen.
• 0:56
  But first,
• 0:56
  today's afternoon spotlight.
• 0:59
  After two American-Israeli military campaigns against Iran,
• 1:02
  One of the biggest questions surrounding
• 1:04
  the regime's nuclear program remains unanswered.
• 1:08
  What happened to hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium
• 1:12
  that Iran possessed before the bombing began?
• 1:15
  Now it's a
• 1:17
  stockpile potentially large enough to produce
• 1:19
  material for roughly 10 nuclear weapons,
• 1:22
  and international inspectors still can't verify where it is,
• 1:26
  how much survived the attacks,
• 1:27
  or whether any of it has been moved.
• 1:30
  That warning came Tuesday from Rafael Grossi.
• 1:33
  He's director of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
• 1:35
  and you say,
• 1:36
  does that have an acronym?
• 1:37
  And I say,
• 1:37
  of course it does,
• 1:39
  IAEA
• 1:40
  during a briefing before the United Nations Security Council.
• 1:44
  According to Grossi,
• 1:45
  Iran has failed to provide the information or access
• 1:48
  that's necessary to account for its previously declared nuclear material,
• 1:53
  including approximately 440 kg of uranium
• 1:56
  enriched to 60% purity.
• 1:59
  Now,
• 1:59
  uranium used in civilian nuclear power plants is
• 2:03
  typically enriched to around 3 to 5%.
• 2:06
  Weapons grade uranium meanwhile is generally enriched to about 90%.
• 2:11
  Iran had reached 60%,
• 2:13
  far beyond what's normally needed for
• 2:15
  civilian nuclear energy or research,
• 2:18
  and much closer to weapons grade material.
• 2:21
  According to the IAEA,
• 2:23
  if Iran's estimated 440 kg stockpile remained intact
• 2:27
  and underwent additional enrichment,
• 2:29
  it could theoretically yield enough weapons grade uranium
• 2:32
  for approximately 10 nuclear bombs.
• 2:35
  Now,
• 2:35
  that doesn't mean that Iran has 10 nuclear weapons,
• 2:38
  producing the material is only one step toward building a functioning bomb,
• 2:43
  but the quantity
• 2:44
  involved explains why international inspectors
• 2:46
  are so concerned.
• 2:48
  And here's the problem.
• 2:49
  Nobody outside Iran can independently verify
• 2:52
  how much of that material still exists.
• 2:55
  The IAEA's last estimate dates to June of 2025,
• 2:59
  just before Israel launched its initial campaign
• 3:02
  against Iranian nuclear facilities.
• 3:05
  American forces subsequently joined those strikes,
• 3:08
  targeting critical components of Iran's nuclear infrastructure,
• 3:11
  including facilities at Fordow,
• 3:13
  Natanz,
• 3:13
  and Isfahan.
• 3:15
  The bombing caused extensive damage,
• 3:17
  of course,
• 3:17
  enrichment buildings were destroyed,
• 3:19
  underground facilities were struck,
• 3:21
  and
• 3:21
  Iran's ability to produce additional enriched uranium was severely disrupted.
• 3:26
  And then of course in February of this year,
• 3:28
  the US and Israel launched another military campaign against Iran,
• 3:32
  once again targeting elements of its nuclear infrastructure.
• 3:36
  But destroying nuclear facilities is not the same thing
• 3:40
  as destroying the nuclear materials stored inside them,
• 3:43
  and that distinction lies at the heart of the IAEA's warning.
• 3:47
  The agency believes some of Iran's highly enriched uranium
• 3:50
  survived the attacks.
• 3:52
  In March,
• 3:53
  Grossi said inspectors believed more than 200 kg
• 3:56
  could still be inside underground tunnels at Isfahan.
• 3:59
  With additional material potentially remaining at Natanz,
• 4:02
  those estimates,
• 4:03
  however,
• 4:04
  have not been verified through inspections.
• 4:07
  The uranium could still be buried inside damaged facilities.
• 4:10
  Some may have been destroyed during the bombing.
• 4:12
  Other material could potentially have been moved elsewhere.
• 4:15
  Without access to the sites,
• 4:17
  of course,
• 4:17
  inspectors can't establish what happened,
• 4:20
  and Iran,
• 4:21
  as you might guess,
• 4:23
  has refused to provide that access.
• 4:25
  According to Grossi,
• 4:26
  the IAEA was forced to withdraw its inspectors
• 4:28
  during the June 2025 conflict for security reasons.
• 4:32
  They've been available to return for months,
• 4:35
  but Tehran has continued blocking access
• 4:37
  to its most sensitive nuclear facilities.
• 4:40
  There is one notable exception,
• 4:42
  the Bushehr nuclear power plant,
• 4:44
  where inspectors have been permitted
• 4:45
  to conduct limited verification activities.
• 4:48
  And they've been granted limited access to that facility because,
• 4:51
  well,
• 4:52
  it isn't critical to Iran's nuclear weapons development program.
• 4:55
  The unresolved questions center on facilities such
• 4:58
  as Fordow and Natanz and Isfahan,
• 5:01
  where Iran conducted enrichment operations
• 5:03
  or maintained sensitive nuclear infrastructure.
• 5:06
  And the standoff has now produced a major diplomatic escalation.
• 5:10
  In September,
• 5:11
  the IAEA's board of governors formally reported Iran
• 5:15
  to the UN Security Council for failing to meet its nuclear safeguards obligations.
• 5:21
  Well,
• 5:21
  that should do it.
• 5:23
  You know how the Islamic Republic's leadership
• 5:25
  hates to disappoint the UN Security Council.
• 5:28
  Surprisingly,
• 5:28
  or maybe not surprisingly,
• 5:30
  because we are talking about the IAEA and the UN,
• 5:33
  it was the first such referral in 20 years.
• 5:36
  The resolution passed with 23 countries supporting it,
• 5:39
  while,
• 5:39
  can you guess who vetoed it?
• 5:41
  Well,
• 5:41
  that would be Russia and China and ***.
• 5:43
  They voted against it.
• 5:45
  Iran rejects the accusations,
• 5:47
  insisting its nuclear program has always been peaceful.
• 5:50
  Iranian officials argue that American and Israeli
• 5:53
  attacks created the dangerous conditions preventing inspections,
• 5:57
  and say renewed verification must be part of a broader diplomatic agreement.
• 6:00
  But here's the
• 6:01
  Thing.
• 6:02
  Iran has never provided full transparency or full access to their nuclear program.
• 6:07
  The old trust but verify axiom only applies
• 6:11
  if you can actually verify,
• 6:13
  and the Iranian regime has always kept certain
• 6:15
  sensitive sites off of the access list.
• 6:19
  At Tuesday's Security Council meeting,
• 6:20
  Iran's representative also accused Western governments
• 6:23
  of using the nuclear issue to justify continued pressure on Iran.
• 6:28
  But Grossi maintains that Iran's safeguards obligations remain
• 6:32
  in force regardless of the military conflict,
• 6:35
  and this then creates a dilemma for Washington.
• 6:38
  The American and Israeli strikes inflicted
• 6:40
  substantial damage on Iran's nuclear infrastructure,
• 6:43
  but international inspectors still can't establish
• 6:47
  just how much highly enriched uranium survived,
• 6:49
  where it's being stored,
• 6:50
  or
• 6:51
  whether Tehran could eventually use it to restart parts of its nuclear program.
• 6:56
  There is also an important distinction here.
• 6:58
  The IAEA
• 7:00
  has not established that Iran is currently
• 7:02
  enriching uranium to weapons grade levels,
• 7:04
  or that Tehran has an active coordinated nuclear weapons program at the moment.
• 7:09
  What it is saying is that inspectors can no longer independently verify
• 7:14
  the status of material that could become central to such an effort.
• 7:18
  All right.
• 7:19
  Next up,
• 7:20
  El Salvador reportedly sends 1000 troops into Haiti,
• 7:23
  backed by American military transport planes,
• 7:26
  as President Naib Bukele escalates the search
• 7:29
  for 4 missing El Salvadoran servicemen.
• 7:32
  I'll have more on that when we come back.
• 7:35
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• 7:36
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• 7:39
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  Welcome back to the PDB afternoon bulletin.
• 9:59
  The search for 4 missing Salvadoran servicemen is
• 10:02
  becoming a major military operation inside Haiti.
• 10:06
  Around 1000 soldiers have reportedly been deployed
• 10:09
  as El Salvador's president Naib Bukele puts troops
• 10:13
  behind his warning to the island's gangs.
• 10:15
  The news on the latest development comes from
• 10:17
  a security official in Haiti who told Reuters
• 10:20
  the troops arrived over recent days.
• 10:22
  And the US has been helping with that deployment.
• 10:24
  A US military official said Southern Command provided C-130 transport aircraft
• 10:29
  to help move the Salvadoran troops into Haiti.
• 10:32
  You'll remember Bukele's warning last week.
• 10:34
  He said he believed criminal groups
• 10:36
  were holding four Salvadoran servicemen hostage
• 10:39
  unless those men were returned alive and unharmed.
• 10:41
  He warned a larger military response would follow.
• 10:45
  Their disappearance goes back to the 18th of October
• 10:48
  when armed attackers ambushed their vehicle outside the capital of Haiti,
• 10:51
  Port au Prince.
• 10:53
  The men escaped the burning vehicle during the attack
• 10:55
  but disappeared in the chaos that followed.
• 10:58
  Bukele said they were Air Force technicians returning to base from a market.
• 11:02
  They'd been sent to help evacuate wounded personnel,
• 11:05
  not to fight Haiti's gangs.
• 11:07
  Since then,
• 11:08
  the search has been complicated by uncertainty over
• 11:11
  human remains that were recovered in Haiti.
• 11:14
  So here's what we know at this point.
• 11:16
  On Saturday,
• 11:17
  Bukele rejected reports suggesting that those
• 11:20
  remains belonged to the missing Salvadorans.
• 11:22
  His response,
• 11:23
  quote,
• 11:23
  They are not our men.
• 11:26
  The International Gang Suppression Force addressed the discovery on Sunday.
• 11:29
  It confirmed receiving remains through a humanitarian organization,
• 11:33
  but said it could not establish whether they belonged to the missing personnel.
• 11:37
  And then on Monday,
• 11:38
  the Washington Post reported that some remains apparently did not
• 11:41
  match the Salvadorans with DNA testing underway outside of Haiti.
• 11:46
  No Haitian gang leader has claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 11:49
  Wilson Joseph,
• 11:50
  a leader of one of the armed gangs operating around Haiti's capital,
• 11:54
  has released videos denying that his group is holding the
• 11:57
  Salvadorans and rejecting responsibility for what happened to them.
• 12:01
  Before the ambush,
• 12:01
  El Salvador had at least 124 personnel
• 12:05
  serving with the UN-backed gang suppression force.
• 12:08
  That's according to a UN report.
• 12:10
  To put that in perspective,
• 12:11
  the entire international force has recently
• 12:13
  been operating with roughly 2000 personnel,
• 12:16
  well short of its authorized 5500.
• 12:20
  The reported Salvadoran reinforcements increased that headcount by half.
• 12:24
  Initial reporting doesn't establish how the arriving troops will coordinate
• 12:28
  with the international force already on the ground.
• 12:31
  And the Dominican Republic is also now offering support.
• 12:35
  President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic,
• 12:39
  which shares a land border with Haiti,
• 12:41
  said this week that his government was prepared to
• 12:43
  provide logistical assistance to the arriving Salvadoran troops.
• 12:47
  The reinforcements are entering a country,
• 12:49
  of course,
• 12:50
  where
• 12:50
  gangs control much of the capital and surrounding regions.
• 12:53
  The violence
• 12:54
  has already displaced nearly 1.5 million people.
• 12:59
  And that my friends,
• 13:00
  is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday,
• 13:02
  the 28th of October.
• 13:04
  If you have any questions or comments,
• 13:05
  please reach out to me at PDB@hefirstv.com
• 13:09
  and to listen to the show ad-free,
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  by visiting PDBpremium.com.
• 13:19
  I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow.
• 13:21
  Until then,
• 13:22
  stay informed,
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  stay safe,
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