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Trump criticizes Israel over Iran gas site attack · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: And a rare rebuke of Israel from the US President
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump says he knew nothing about Israeli attacks on
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  Speaker 1: Iran's South Pars gas field, the largest in the world.
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  Speaker 1: The president posted on social media, no more attack will
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  Speaker 1: be made by Israel on the area unless Tehran retaliates
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  Speaker 1: against Kata, which of course shares the gas field with
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  Speaker 1: Iran oil and gas facilities came under attack from Iran
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  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, including sites in Kata, the UAE and Q eight.
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  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia says it intercepted four missiles over Riad. As
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  Speaker 1: foreign ministers from the region met in the capital, sin
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  Speaker 1: ns Oren Leebman, Johnny as Now from.
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  Speaker 2: Jerusalem and Urn.
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  Speaker 1: I want to learn more if we can, about what
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  Speaker 1: happened with the Israeli attack on the Iranian part of
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  Speaker 1: the South Pars gas field. What do we know, what
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  Speaker 1: do we understand? We've certainly heard from the US president
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  Speaker 1: anything from the Israeli side, Becky.
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  Speaker 3: Before we saw President Donald Trump's response, we had heard
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  Speaker 3: from two Israeli officials that the attack was coordinated with
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  Speaker 3: the United States, and that, of course is no surprise
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  Speaker 3: since the very first opening strikes.
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  Speaker 2: Nearly three weeks ago.
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  Speaker 3: Now Israel and the US have been coordinated on nearly
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  Speaker 3: every aspect of this, and that's not only a testament
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  Speaker 3: to the relationship between the US and Israel at the
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  Speaker 3: political and military levels. It's also simply necessary to carry
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  Speaker 3: out these attacks with so many moving parts in the
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  Speaker 3: air and in the sea, all at once. So Israeli
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  Speaker 3: officials say the attack on the South Pars gas field
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  Speaker 3: was coordinated with the US, and it was intentionally targeted
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  Speaker 3: at gas and electricity infrastructure, not at oil infrastructure, to
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  Speaker 3: insulate the attacks and the price of fuel in the
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  Speaker 3: United States from Israel's ongoing attacks. Of course, that didn't
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  Speaker 3: work when Iran lashed out and attacked gas and oil
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  Speaker 3: infrastructure around the region. But everything we have heard from
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  Speaker 3: the Israelis, and we heard it again from a foreign
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  Speaker 3: policy advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin net Yahou last night
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  Speaker 3: on Jake Tapper's show, is that all of this has
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  Speaker 3: been coordinated with the US. And we've heard that from
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  Speaker 3: the US side as well, both political and military. So Becky,
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  Speaker 3: at this point, I think it's very difficult to believe
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  Speaker 3: Trump's claim that the US and he knew nothing about
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  Speaker 3: the attack on the South Pars gasfield because of the
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  Speaker 3: coordination we have seen to this very point. The idea
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  Speaker 3: that three weeks into a war that Israel wants to continue,
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  Speaker 3: that Israel would just simply go rogue and carry out
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  Speaker 3: attacks that are not coordinated with the US is incredibly
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  Speaker 3: hard to believe.
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  Speaker 2: Right now, What.
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  Speaker 1: Else do we know about the long list of targets
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  Speaker 1: that we understand Israel has at this point, they were
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  Speaker 1: it seems targeted at individuals and groups inside of Iran.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering whether this long list includes other installations
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  Speaker 1: outside of Tehran and the sort of you know, the neighborhoods.
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  Speaker 3: That answer is almost certainly. They're not going to give
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  Speaker 3: us a target list of what's remaining just yet, but
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  Speaker 3: we have seen them expand where they are striking. Yesterday
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  Speaker 3: the acknowledge striking on Iran's northern border their first strikes,
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  Speaker 3: they say, in northern Iran. Israeli officials tell us they
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  Speaker 3: hit Iranian naval assets in the Caspian Sea, which is
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  Speaker 3: again the first time we've seen that since the war.
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  Speaker 3: There are also almost certainly more targeted killings that Israel
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  Speaker 3: is planning to carry out, including against Muchtabahamanai and others,
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  Speaker 3: So that list has certainly has more targets on it,
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  Speaker 3: Becky as the war continues.
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  Speaker 4: So what do you make of this apparent split between
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  Speaker 4: the US and Israel, with President Trump in a rare
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  Speaker 4: rebuke of Israel, saying the US knew nothing about the
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  Speaker 4: strike on a key Iranian gas field, after Iranian state
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  Speaker 4: media blamed both the US and Israel, and President Trump
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  Speaker 4: calling on Israel to end or strikes on energy targets.
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  Speaker 5: My thinking about that is that the President Trump has
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  Speaker 5: made a political analysis, and that is that the greatest
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  Speaker 5: vulnerability we in the United States and especially the world,
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  Speaker 5: as your previous commentators have made mention, is vulnerability in.
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  Speaker 2: The energy sector.
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  Speaker 5: So that particular political pressure, both domestic and foreign, is
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  Speaker 5: felt by President Trump, and what he saw was an attack.
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  Speaker 5: Perhaps we don't know this for certain, but certainly initiated
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  Speaker 5: by Israel. Whether or not Israel had any previous approval
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  Speaker 5: or at least giving alerts to the United States, doubtful,
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  Speaker 5: nobody knows, but that hit energy. And if there is
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  Speaker 5: anything that President Trump does not want to happen, that
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  Speaker 5: is a political downsta lied as a result of an
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  Speaker 5: uproar both in the United States and around the world
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  Speaker 5: about the desperate circumstances that are resulting from the quite frankly,
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  Speaker 5: the embargo of fossil fuels, natural gas, petroleum bottled up
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  Speaker 5: down there at the straight straits of Hermos.
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  Speaker 4: Could this signal the US stepping back a little bit?
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  Speaker 3: Here?
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  Speaker 2: I am an optimistic person, so.
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  Speaker 5: Perhaps again we have I'm not one of these who
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  Speaker 5: have optimism hasn't pushed me to the point in which
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  Speaker 5: I would embrace the.
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  Speaker 2: Expectation that this war will end in another week to
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  Speaker 2: two weeks.
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  Speaker 5: And that's because we use an expression in the military,
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  Speaker 5: the enemy has a vote. And what that means, quite
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  Speaker 5: simply is we can have all the best plans in
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  Speaker 5: the world. We can establish our objectives limited or broader,
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  Speaker 5: but we are in a conflict with a regime that
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  Speaker 5: has a long history grounded in religious fanaticism.
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  Speaker 2: It is not so simple.
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  Speaker 5: To encourage the Iranian leadership to abandon what, from its
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  Speaker 5: perspective is an existential conflict. Meaning Iran from the date
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  Speaker 5: of its formation in nineteen seventy nine has dedicated itself
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  Speaker 5: to self preservation and directly and has expressed very clearly
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  Speaker 5: destruction of Israel and the implementation or imposition of huge.
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  Speaker 2: Pain in the United States.
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  Speaker 5: I don't see the Iranians necessarily backing down, regardless of
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  Speaker 5: what President Trump has done vis a vis Israel and
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  Speaker 5: the bombing of the South Pause oil fields.
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  Speaker 4: So what about boots on the ground. A US military
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  Speaker 4: ship with almost twenty five hundred military personnel on board
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  Speaker 4: is heading to the region, and according to Reuters, the
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  Speaker 4: Trump administration and is considering sending thousands more. Now we
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  Speaker 4: don't know exactly what they'll be doing, but there is
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  Speaker 4: talk of them getting troops to extract Iran's enrich uranium
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  Speaker 4: or possibly sending them to Cargo Island. How risky would
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  Speaker 4: these ground operations be.
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  Speaker 5: First way to answer that question is to incorporate what
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  Speaker 5: you have described as two objectives of US landforces. One
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  Speaker 5: is securing the uranium that is buried across Iran locations.
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  Speaker 2: Not necessarily well known.
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  Speaker 5: That is a very difficult task because you're putting American
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  Speaker 5: soldiers in harm's way deep inside the country, and that
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  Speaker 5: becomes a real fight on the ground. The second use
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  Speaker 5: of American soldiers, at least from my perspective, is to
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  Speaker 5: establish some sort of enclave around the Straits Hermos, that
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  Speaker 5: is the area of vulnerability, that particular geographic location, and
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  Speaker 5: the utilization of that location.
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  Speaker 2: By the Iranians.
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  Speaker 5: It has caused what we see of the great pain
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  Speaker 5: now suffered around the world. So you get ground troops
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  Speaker 5: and you've establish a beachhead around the Straits of Hermos
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  Speaker 5: for the purpose of one locating additional ground to ship
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  Speaker 5: weapons as well as Iranian forces naval assets that constitute
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  Speaker 5: the threat to shipping. So there are two, as you've recited,
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  Speaker 5: two potential locations for the imposition of US forces, both
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  Speaker 5: extremely dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know what will happen.
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  Speaker 4: Retired Major General Mike McCauley, thank you so much for
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  Speaker 4: joining us. Appreciate it.