Latest / The President's Daily Brief / PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 17th, 2026: Iran’s Plan to Beat the U.S. Blockade Is Failing & Russia’s Satellite Help to Tehran

Transcript

PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 17th, 2026: Iran’s Plan to Beat the U.S. Blockade Is Failing & Russia’s Satellite Help to Tehran · The President's Daily Brief

• 0:12
  It's Thursday,
• 0:13
  the 17th of September.
• 0:14
  Welcome to the PDB
• 0:16
  afternoon bulletin.
• 0:17
  Well,
• 0:17
  all right,
• 0:18
  fine,
• 0:18
  it's a little bit more like the early evening bulletin.
• 0:21
  I'm Mike Baker,
• 0:22
  your eyes and ears on the world stage.
• 0:25
  All right,
• 0:25
  let's get briefed.
• 0:26
  First up,
• 0:27
  new reporting shows Iran's effort to bypass the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz
• 0:32
  is running into serious trouble,
• 0:34
  with thousands of trucks stranded and trade costs surging around the country.
• 0:39
  Later in the show,
• 0:40
  a CNN investigation finds Russian satellites may have helped Iran
• 0:45
  carry out one of its most damaging attacks
• 0:47
  on American military assets during the Iran war.
• 0:51
  Now,
• 0:51
  not to be
• 0:52
  churlish,
• 0:53
  but it should surprise no one at this point
• 0:56
  that Russia and China have both assisted the Iranian regime
• 1:00
  with satellite imagery,
• 1:01
  intelligence,
• 1:02
  and targeting assistance.
• 1:04
  But first,
• 1:05
  today's afternoon spotlight.
• 1:07
  For months now,
• 1:08
  Iran has been looking for ways around the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
• 1:13
  The idea was pretty straightforward.
• 1:15
  If Tehran couldn't move enough goods through its ports because of the blockade,
• 1:20
  it would move more of them by land,
• 1:22
  more trucks through Pakistan and Turkey,
• 1:24
  more freight through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan,
• 1:27
  more cargo across the Caspian Sea,
• 1:30
  more trains running all the way to China.
• 1:32
  Well,
• 1:33
  we're now getting a decent look at how that plan is working for the regime.
• 1:37
  And according to new reporting from The Wall Street Journal,
• 1:40
  it's not going according to plan.
• 1:42
  Thousands of Iranian trucks are getting stuck at the country's borders.
• 1:45
  Customs facilities are overwhelmed.
• 1:47
  Perishable goods are spoiling,
• 1:49
  and transportation costs are soaring,
• 1:52
  all of it
• 1:53
  adding to the economic pressure
• 1:55
  already being felt by ordinary Iranians.
• 1:58
  Let's start with Turkey.
• 1:59
  The journal reports that roughly 3700 trucks have been
• 2:03
  stranded on the Iranian side of that border,
• 2:05
  with some drivers waiting as long as 20 days to cross.
• 2:09
  Things aren't much better along the border with Pakistan.
• 2:12
  At one of the main crossings,
• 2:13
  roughly 700 trucks can be waiting at any given time,
• 2:17
  many carrying cement or bottled gas or other goods.
• 2:20
  But according to a local civic group cited by the journal,
• 2:23
  only about 40 trucks are being allowed through on a daily basis.
• 2:28
  Some Iranian drivers say they're spending days
• 2:30
  sitting in temperatures that can reach 122 degrees
• 2:34
  sometimes without adequate access to food,
• 2:37
  water,
• 2:37
  or sanitation.
• 2:39
  And because many of these trucks are carrying perishable goods,
• 2:42
  the delays are more than just inconvenient.
• 2:45
  Now,
• 2:45
  to be clear,
• 2:46
  some of these border problems existed before the blockade.
• 2:50
  Iran's land crossings were already inefficient and bureaucratic.
• 2:54
  The problem is that Tehran is now asking that system
• 2:57
  to handle substantially more trade
• 3:00
  well because its normal maritime routes have been
• 3:02
  blocked and it simply doesn't have the capacity.
• 3:05
  Iran has had some success finding alternatives.
• 3:09
  Traffic across the Caspian Sea as an example has
• 3:11
  reportedly increased sharply over the past 5 months,
• 3:14
  helping Iran bring in commodities like wheat and corn and cooking oil from Russia.
• 3:19
  A freight train connecting Tehran with the Xian,
• 3:22
  China
• 3:23
  is also running much more frequently.
• 3:25
  But an Iranian trade official estimated that moving a
• 3:29
  single shipping container from China to Iran by land
• 3:33
  now costs around $12,000.
• 3:35
  By sea,
• 3:36
  that same container would cost roughly $3000.
• 3:40
  Now I'm not known as a math guy,
• 3:43
  but according to my math,
• 3:44
  that's 4 times the price just to move the same goods.
• 3:48
  One Iranian business leader has estimated that
• 3:50
  the blockade could eventually cost Iran around
• 3:53
  $18 billion a year
• 3:56
  in additional transportation and logistics expenses,
• 4:00
  and somebody,
• 4:01
  of course,
• 4:01
  eventually has to pay for that.
• 4:03
  Increasingly that would be the Iranian consumer.
• 4:06
  In some cases,
• 4:07
  Iranian import experts say the added transportation costs and border delays
• 4:12
  can account for as much as a third of the
• 4:14
  final price of everyday goods once they eventually reach Tehran.
• 4:18
  That's happening while Iran is already dealing with extraordinary inflation.
• 4:22
  According to Iran's official statistics agency,
• 4:25
  food prices in August were roughly 128% higher
• 4:29
  than they were just a year earlier,
• 4:31
  and the pressure isn't limited to the roads.
• 4:33
  Iran's largest commercial container port has
• 4:36
  reportedly been sitting largely idle,
• 4:38
  while thousands of containers
• 4:40
  destined for Iran remain stranded in neighboring countries.
• 4:44
  Meanwhile,
• 4:45
  Mahan Air,
• 4:45
  an Iranian airline already under US sanctions,
• 4:49
  said Wednesday that it was suspending flights to
• 4:51
  Oman and Turkey following another round of American sanctions
• 4:55
  targeting companies accused of supporting the carrier.
• 4:58
  So Iran is now being squeezed from several directions at once.
• 5:02
  Its ports are constrained.
• 5:03
  Its overland routes are clogged and expensive.
• 5:06
  Some air connections are narrowing,
• 5:08
  and neighboring countries can close or restrict border crossings with
• 5:11
  very little warning,
• 5:12
  as Iraq demonstrated over the weekend.
• 5:15
  When it temporarily shut cargo terminals along
• 5:17
  the Iranian border,
• 5:19
  and that's the larger problem for the Iranian regime.
• 5:22
  Iran's strategy doesn't require it to completely
• 5:25
  replace maritime trade with trucks and trains,
• 5:28
  but it does require that those alternative routes move enough goods cheaply enough
• 5:34
  to at least keep the economy floating.
• 5:38
  All right.
• 5:38
  Coming up next,
• 5:39
  Russia may have played a direct role in helping Iran target a US base in Saudi Arabia
• 5:45
  before a major strike.
• 5:46
  I'll be right back.
• 5:48
  Hey,
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• 8:13
  Welcome back to the PDB
• 8:15
  afternoon bulletin.
• 8:16
  We're now getting the clearest look yet at how Russia allegedly helped Iran
• 8:21
  carry out one of its most precise attacks on
• 8:23
  American forces in the opening weeks of the conflict.
• 8:26
  A new CNN investigation found that 14 Russian spy satellites
• 8:30
  passed over Prince Sultan Air Base in.
• 8:32
  Saudi Arabia
• 8:33
  just
• 8:33
  two days before the Iranian regime attacked it on the 27th of March.
• 8:38
  That base houses American troops and military aircraft.
• 8:42
  Here on the PDB we first started discussing possible Russian
• 8:45
  targeting support back in March and April of this year.
• 8:48
  When reports emerged that Russia was helping Iran identify US targets
• 8:53
  at the time,
• 8:54
  the Financial Times reported that Russia
• 8:56
  was supplying Iran with intelligence on American
• 8:59
  military assets across the Middle East,
• 9:01
  citing unnamed US officials and other people familiar with the assistance.
• 9:06
  A Ukrainian intelligence assessment reviewed by Reuters later alleged
• 9:09
  that Russian satellites conducted at least 24 reconnaissance surveys of
• 9:14
  46 locations across 11 Middle Eastern countries.
• 9:18
  Between the 21st and 31st of March,
• 9:21
  including again the Prince Sultan Air Base,
• 9:24
  Iran attacked that base with at least one missile and several drones,
• 9:28
  wounding a dozen US service members
• 9:30
  and damaging or destroying critical equipment.
• 9:33
  Among the losses was a Boeing E-3 Sentry,
• 9:36
  which tracks aircraft and missiles
• 9:38
  while helping coordinate American military operations.
• 9:42
  But here's what made the strike especially troubling.
• 9:44
  The E-3 Sentry had been moved from its pre-war location.
• 9:49
  So you ask how did Iran find it?
• 9:51
  Well,
• 9:52
  working with Project Aurora,
• 9:53
  that's a space analysis initiative,
• 9:55
  and Kayan Space,
• 9:57
  that's
• 9:57
  an American satellite tracking company,
• 10:00
  CNN's investigation used orbital data to reconstruct the
• 10:03
  Russian activity above Prince Sultan Air Base.
• 10:07
  It found that Cosmos 2573,
• 10:09
  a Russian military satellite capable of
• 10:12
  capturing detailed reconnaissance imagery,
• 10:15
  passed over the base alongside 13 other Russian spy satellites on the 25th of March.
• 10:21
  Of those 13 satellites,
• 10:23
  8 signals intelligence satellites were capable
• 10:25
  of intercepting radio and radar emissions,
• 10:28
  potentially locating American air defenses.
• 10:31
  2 infrared satellites could detect heat signatures while 3
• 10:34
  were reportedly synthetic aperture radar satellites
• 10:38
  capable of seeing through clouds and darkness and identifying moving equipment.
• 10:43
  Together they could show Iran
• 10:44
  what was at the base,
• 10:46
  where American defenses were positioned,
• 10:48
  and where valuable US assets had been relocated.
• 10:52
  CNN sources say the satellites played an integral role in
• 10:55
  the attack and assessed that the Iranian regime's precision strike.
• 10:59
  would have been nearly impossible without Russian geospatial intelligence.
• 11:03
  Now
• 11:04
  there's an important
• 11:05
  sourcing distinction here.
• 11:07
  CNN did not obtain information specifically confirming that the Russian
• 11:11
  satellite images were provided directly from the Kremlin to Tehran.
• 11:15
  What it did independently establish was where the satellites were positioned
• 11:20
  and the kinds of information they could collect.
• 11:22
  And CNN says its sources,
• 11:24
  including two US officials,
• 11:26
  have evidence that Russia then passed some of that intelligence to Iran,
• 11:30
  helping the regime
• 11:31
  carry out precision attacks.
• 11:33
  Now that tracks with the Ukrainian assessment that we discussed in April
• 11:37
  which alleged that a Russian satellite
• 11:39
  photographed Prince Sultan before the strike
• 11:41
  and returned the next day to assess damage.
• 11:45
  CNN sources also suspect Prince Sultan was not an isolated case.
• 11:49
  They believe Russian satellites provided targeting
• 11:51
  information for other Iranian attacks,
• 11:54
  including one that damaged a CIA facility in Riyadh.
• 11:58
  That assistance gave Tehran capabilities that it lacks on its own,
• 12:02
  as the regime
• 12:03
  has only a few military satellites
• 12:05
  and nothing approaching Russia's reconnaissance network.
• 12:09
  The founder of Project Aurora told CNN,
• 12:11
  quote,
• 12:11
  The war would not be where it is today
• 12:14
  if it wasn't for the unique capabilities that the Russians gave to the Iranians,
• 12:18
  end quote.
• 12:19
  As for Moscow's motive,
• 12:21
  well,
• 12:22
  CNN sources point to American intelligence
• 12:24
  support for Ukrainian strikes against Russia.
• 12:27
  Ukrainian President Zelensky made the same accusation after the attack,
• 12:30
  saying Kiev's intelligence
• 12:32
  caught Russian satellites photographing Prince Sultan,
• 12:35
  pointing to preparations for the strike.
• 12:38
  Now,
• 12:38
  predictably,
• 12:39
  this will not shock you,
• 12:40
  the Kremlin
• 12:41
  denies providing satellite imagery or any such support
• 12:45
  to the Iranian regime.
• 12:47
  And that,
• 12:47
  my friends,
• 12:48
  is the PDB
• 12:49
  afternoon bulletin for Thursday,
• 12:51
  the 17th of September.
• 12:52
  If you have any questions or comments,
• 12:53
  and I hope you do,
• 12:54
  just reach out to me at PDB@tv.com.
• 12:58
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• 13:10
  I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back tomorrow.
• 13:12
  Until then,
• 13:13
  well,
• 13:13
  stay informed,
• 13:14
  stay safe,
• 13:15
  stay cool.
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