Ceasefire 'not over' even as Iran attacked US forces 10x: Pentagon

[0:00] No, the ceasefire is not over. [0:02] Ultimately, this is a separate and distinct project. [0:06] And we expected there would be some churn at the beginning, which happened. [0:12] And we said we would defend and defend aggressively, and we absolutely have. [0:15] Iran knows that. [0:16] And ultimately, the president's going to make a decision [0:20] whether anything were to escalate into a violation of a ceasefire. [0:23] The defense secretary also said the new U.S. push to help guide commercial vessels [0:29] through the strait has proven successful. [0:31] He points to two U.S. ships transiting the strait yesterday. [0:35] A hundred ships-ish per day, though, crossed the strait before this war began. [0:40] Still, Secretary Hegseth says this proves, in his words, the lane is clear. [0:46] CNN's Elena Trine is live at the White House for us this hour. [0:49] Elena, what else do we hear, and what does it mean for this war? [0:54] Yeah, there were three mean takeaways from that briefing, Kate, [0:57] that I think we got a little bit more clarity on. [1:00] And one is, of course, Hegseth coming out and definitively saying, [1:04] no, the ceasefire is not over. [1:07] That is far more definitive language than we heard from President Trump yesterday, [1:11] who really dodged that question as we saw the U.S. and Iran exchange fire. [1:15] And Iran, of course, attack U.S. allies in the region, [1:19] and specifically the United Arab Emirates hitting one of their ports. [1:23] I think what they were really trying to make clear here is that the ceasefire remains intact [1:27] and that that fire exchange, what we heard Hegseth refer to it as a different project, [1:32] referring to Project Freedom, you know, the president's push to guide ships through the strait of Hormuz. [1:38] What that tells me is that all of the conversations that we have been having with our sources here at the White House, [1:44] Kate, about how the president still wants diplomacy to prevail, [1:47] how they are still pushing and hoping that a deal could be had before resuming full-out war, [1:53] more combat operations, that is still the priority here. [1:57] Of course, we'll see if that changes. [1:58] But that was what we heard the Pentagon maintain. [2:01] Another very interesting thing is about the war powers and the deadline. [2:05] You know, we've heard a lot of people in Congress who said that they saw May 1st [2:09] as that 60-day deadline from when the war began [2:12] to when the Trump administration really needs to seek approval from Congress to see the war continue. [2:19] Hegseth maintained that given they believe the ceasefire is still intact, [2:23] essentially the clock on that has stopped ticking. [2:26] Listen to what he said. [2:29] Ultimately, with the ceasefire, the clock stops. [2:32] If it were to restart, that would be the president's decision. [2:35] That option is always there, and Iran knows that. [2:39] And that's why, you know, their choices in Project Freedom are important. [2:44] The president retains the opportunity and the capabilities, [2:48] more capabilities than we had at the start of this, [2:50] to restart major combat operations if necessary. [2:55] So yeah, kind of essentially asserting that the Trump administration does not need [2:59] to seek approval from Congress at this point, [3:02] but that they could have that conversation in the future should the ceasefire not lead [3:07] to a diplomatic negotiation and really saying that it is in the president's hands on that point. [3:14] So giving a little bit more clarity here, though, not sure. [3:18] That's exactly the answer. [3:19] We know many lawmakers were hoping to hear, Kate. [3:22] Atlanta Train, great to see you. [3:23] Thank you so much. [3:24] Sarah? [3:25] All right. [3:25] Thank you so much. [3:26] Joining me now are retired Lieutenant General Sam Mundy [3:28] and a former commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command [3:32] and CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier. [3:36] First to you, Lieutenant, I do want to ask you about this separation that we heard from Pete Hegseth, [3:42] who says, look, we're going to restart the flow of commerce in the strait under umbrella Project Freedom, [3:50] which is separate and distinct from Project Epic Fury. [3:54] And he went on to say, we are not looking for a fight. [3:56] What does the language tell you? [3:58] And can these two things be separate and distinct as we are sitting here [4:03] and the ceasefire is currently in place? [4:09] Thanks, Sarah. [4:10] I think there is a distinction with a difference here. [4:13] One is clearly focused on opening the strait. [4:15] The other is on trying to drive Iran to, you know, [4:20] a little bit more client position in terms of its negotiating tactics. [4:25] So there could also be some thought here given to a situation that where the blockade must continue even after the strait is open. [4:40] So we don't want to give Iran any opportunity to say, oh, both of these are linked. [4:43] And so if one goes, then both goes, that sort of thing. [4:47] So I think that's, to me, what this says is that the blockade will continue. [4:53] It also probably has something to do with other countries that may want to join the Strait of Hormuz effort. [5:00] For example, we heard overnight that South Korea, I think, is reconsidering its participation in the Strait of Hormuz. [5:08] And so keeping these two separate would enable, you know, other countries to join in. [5:13] Asia is really hurting from the lack of oil and gas because they use quite a bit of it that comes through the Strait of Hormuz. [5:21] I do want to let y'all both listen to what Pete Hegseth said about other countries. [5:28] Kim, I'll have you listen to this and respond to the other end. [5:32] This is a temporary mission for us. [5:34] As I've said before, the world needs this waterway a lot more than we do. [5:41] We're stabilizing the situation so commerce can flow again, but we expect the world to step up. [5:49] Now, Kim, you know, we all know they did not go to the world, so to speak, to sort of try to get them on board before taking up this war. [5:57] But they have been repeatedly trying to get, you know, different countries to now help with the Strait of Hormuz. [6:03] What are your thoughts on what you heard there? [6:05] Yeah, no one wants to join this mission until they're sure they're not going to get shot at or have a shoulder fired missile fired at them from the Iranian coast. [6:17] So we're going to see in the next few days if this is working. [6:22] The market, the owners of the ships will judge whether this red, white and blue dome, as Hegseth has described it, really is going to keep their multimillion dollar ships and cargo safe enough to pass through. [6:37] But even so, this might let a lot of those ships out that have been waiting on the inside of the Gulf to leave. [6:46] But is this going to restore free flowing traffic back and forth? [6:51] It is a first step, but it's a narrow channel. [6:55] And now the Pentagon has laid down a challenge to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying we're going to make this safe for these ships to pass, basically daring them to do something. [7:08] The chairman of the Joint Chiefs even said Iran has been grasping at straws with its southern attacks. [7:15] They're going to want to prove that wrong. [7:18] I do want to ask you, Lieutenant General, about how difficult this is. [7:23] We heard the defense secretary saying that two U.S. ships have already transited through the strait with the help of a couple of destroyers that protected them. [7:32] How difficult is it going to be to try and do this safely if Iran's, as you heard Kim there say, is completely not into this and may attack whatever tries to go through? [7:44] It will be a whole lot more difficult when they're, you know, during active conflict, you know, such as what we saw yesterday, of course, as opposed to today, as I understand it, it's relatively quiet over there. [8:00] So that's pretty obvious, I think, to everybody. [8:03] So let me just back up and say, you know, in the intervening weeks since the ceasefire took place, CENTCOM has undoubtedly postured forces, has completed its plan and probably rehearsed it, maybe not physically. [8:19] But they've tried to make this as squeaky clean and as squeaky tight as they possibly can. [8:25] And so, you know, from the U.S. side, I think it's safe to assume that they can execute this mission with the capabilities that have been provided to them. [8:38] It's been characterized as a defensive mission. [8:41] And so far, I would say that's largely held up. [8:43] I'm frankly pretty pleased with the restraint that U.S. forces have been able to show. [8:48] So it's difficult, but there are a couple of things in favor of the operation. [8:55] One is that this route that is south of the normal traffic separation scheme, the one that hugs the Omani coast, is as close to Oman and the United Arab Emirates, of course, the southern side of the Gulf as you come into the through the strait, as you can possibly be. [9:11] So that gives a little bit more standoff time to react to Iranian attacks against it. [9:19] And it also means that these small boats that are appearing in the news, the six or seven, according to some report that we heard overnight, that were destroyed, that were taken care of by U.S. forces, you know, they're going to have a lot longer run to get across. [9:35] And they're essentially going to be coming into the teeth of the defense. [9:38] So I think those are some things that speak to how this could possibly work in our favor. [9:45] And this dome that everybody's talking about, the multi-domain dome, layered with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, stacked with aircraft, both strike aircraft as well as helicopters, such as the ones that were used in yesterday's provocations. [10:04] This is going to be, you know, a total joint effort, but it's one that that CENTCOM seems up to up to providing. [10:13] All right. Retired Lieutenant General Sam Mundy and Kim Dozier, thank you both so much for your analysis this morning.