Trump says US to ‘blockade all ships entering or leaving Strait of Hormuz’

[0:00] Good to have you. We begin with some breaking news. [0:02] The U.S. President Donald Trump just posted on Truth Social warning Iran. [0:09] It read, Iran promised to open the Strait of Hamuz and they knowingly failed to do so. [0:16] This caused anxiety, dislocation and pain to many people and countries throughout the world. [0:21] They say they put mines in the water even though all of their navy and most of their mine droppers [0:28] have been completely blown up. They may have done so, but what ship owner would want to take the chance? [0:35] There is great dishonour and permanent harm to the reputation of Iran and what's left of their leaders. [0:41] But we are beyond all of that. As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this caps lock, [0:47] International Waterway, open and fast. Every law in the book is being violated by them. [0:54] I have been fully debriefed by Vice President J.D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner [0:59] on the meeting that took place in Islamabad through the kind and very competent leadership [1:05] of Field Marshal Asim Muneer and Prime Minister Shabbat Sharif of Pakistan. [1:10] They are very extraordinary men and continuously thank me for saving 30 to 50 million lives [1:15] in what would have been a horrendous war with India. [1:19] I always appreciate hearing that. The amount of humanity spoken of is incomprehensible. [1:27] The meeting with Iran began early in the morning and lasted throughout the night, close to 20 hours. [1:33] I could go into great detail and talk about much that has been forgotten, but there is only one thing [1:41] that matters. Iran is unwilling to give up its nuclear ambitions. In many ways, the points that were agreed [1:49] too are better than us continuing our military operations to conclusion, but all of those points [1:55] don't matter compared to allowing nuclear power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, [2:01] unpredictable people. [2:02] My three representatives, as all of this time went by, became not surprisingly very friendly [2:10] and respectful of Iran's representatives, Mohammed Baga Ghalibbaf, Abbas Araqchi and Ali Bagheri. [2:17] But that doesn't matter because they were very unyielding as to the single most important issue. [2:23] And as I have always said, right from the beginning and many years ago, Iran will never have a nuclear [2:30] weapon. Donald J. Trump. [2:33] Well, we are live in Tehran and Islamabad, where we start with our White House correspondent, [2:41] Kimberley Halkert. Kimberley, I was reading that for the first time. You may have been hearing that [2:46] for the first time. We know that obviously Trump was dialed in multiple times during the talks in [2:53] Islamabad. But what would you make of this very, very long truth social post promising that the [3:03] Strait of Hormuz needs to be open, that the international waterway must be opened soon and [3:10] fast in caps lock, and obviously reiterating the American stance that Iran must give up its nuclear [3:16] ambitions. Where do we go from here? [3:24] Well, we go to what I think is the second part of Donald Trump's very lengthy and long tweet. [3:31] And correct me if I'm wrong, Niamh, because I'm reading this in real time just like you, [3:35] but it seemed to me there were two posts in quick succession. And the second post or the first, [3:42] I'm not sure which order came in, but I believe the second might be even more consequential than [3:47] the first about the Strait being open because it starts out. So there you have it. The meeting went [3:53] well. Most points were agreed to. But the only point that mattered, nuclear was not. Leaders are dead, [4:00] he goes on to say near the end of it in Iran. But he says Iran will not be allowed to profit off the [4:05] illegal act of extortion. What he means is the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. They want money and more [4:12] importantly, they want nuclear. Additionally, and at an appropriate moment, this is key. We are fully [4:19] locked and loaded and our military will finish up the little that is left of Iran. These are the words I [4:28] think are most consequential because the U.S. president said very, very firmly before these [4:35] talks, he said that if a no deal is reached, the military was loading up and would be ready to go. [4:44] And so the U.S. president now has reiterated that. So this is the big fear that everyone had, [4:52] is that this would just be a pause in fighting. But the U.S. president has indicated that he is [4:59] ready to resume at a time and place of his choosing. So it's obviously going to be concerning [5:06] because this is going to have ramifications that go far beyond Islamabad. The fact that the U.S. [5:11] president has reiterated his threat and says he is now going to carry out and finish the job of [5:19] epic fury, the joint operation between the United States and Israel on Iran that was started and [5:25] only temporarily paused for the talks that occurred here and have resulted in no deal in Islamabad. [5:35] Kimberly, just give us a sense of the sentiment there in the wake of these high-level talks [5:41] in Islamabad. Is there any perception whatsoever that there are avenues for further discussion or is [5:48] at least when it comes to negotiations as they stand right now? Have the shutters come down? [6:00] There, until Donald Trump sent that post, there definitely was still the air of hope in the [6:08] atmosphere here in Islamabad. Look it, behind me here or off to the side, I'm not exactly sure where [6:14] in the frame the Serena Hotel is, but something historic occurred. Groups of people that have never [6:20] sat face to face in decades, not since 1979, achieved that for the first time. That is being seen [6:28] beyond Donald Trump as a major world diplomatic breakthrough. And there, we also know that there [6:35] was rapport for the first time. We also know that there were teams that hung around after J.D. Vance [6:42] boarded Air Force Two along with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to leave Islamabad. Those people were [6:49] talking at the much lower level. And the hope was that this would continue, that there would be [6:55] some sort of shuttle-type diplomacy between the intermediary of Pakistan, and that there would [7:03] at least be able to, on the technical level, be discussions that would continue. But it's a real [7:09] question now about whether or not that still stands, given the president's statements that have [7:14] just come out. The U.S. president, again, making very clear, and this is something that's going to [7:20] disrupt the oil markets and certainly cause energy to spike, is that he says that the one thing that [7:27] mattered to the United States was making sure that Iran could never build a nuclear weapon. [7:32] That was not achieved. So by all accounts, the U.S. president is saying this was a failure, [7:37] even though everyone else saw the breakthrough in the discussion being a success. The U.S. president [7:43] has drawn a new line saying that the U.S. military is locked and loaded and will finish up the little [7:50] that is left of Iran. The threat can't be any more clear than that. And I expect that we're going to [7:56] start to see the rippling ramifications, whether it's in the oil markets, whether it's in fear of [8:01] escalation, is going to quickly ensue as a result of this post that really has spiked any sort of [8:09] sense of hope that existed here up until moments ago. Kimberley, we'll get the view now from Ali [8:16] Hashim in Tehran on this. Ali, look, we are trying to put into context the latest Truth Social post [8:24] from Donald Trump. You may have heard some of it from Kimberley Halkett there in Islamabad. [8:28] It boils down to this. Trump says the U.S. is ready to finish up Iran at a, quote, [8:33] appropriate moment. We are fully locked and loaded. This, of course, off the back of a perception [8:39] that the talks in Islamabad have failed. Give us a sense of what overarching message at least the [8:46] Iranian negotiators are carrying back from Islamabad to their home country. Well, the Iranian negotiators [8:56] went to Islamabad saying and indicating clearly that there is a pillar of mistrust holding this tent of [9:06] negotiations. And for them, what happened yesterday overnight for around 21 hours was the last possible [9:16] attempt to reach a deal with the United States, though, as I told you, they went with a lot of mistrust. [9:23] And the street here also holds a lot of mistrust. Now, given the fact President Trump's reaction, [9:30] this is going to have its own implication also on the Iranians because they took into consideration [9:37] this is a ceasefire. This is not the end of war. And they've said this. And in the past, actually, [9:42] they said they're not going for a ceasefire. They will go for an end of war. But this didn't happen. [9:46] So now they're still controlling the strait. They are repeating day after day, hour after hour, [9:54] that they're not opening the strait as far as the conditions they put for that aren't met. [10:01] One of them is the issue of Lebanon and the ceasefire in Lebanon. The second is on freezing the [10:08] assets. Now, I think we are outside this circle now. We are in a different circle now, [10:15] dealing with a new situation, actually an old situation that's being renewed. The threat of war, [10:21] the resumption of war. For Iran, this would mean back to business just like last week. And then [10:29] no one knows how this is going to reach a new station or a new juncture where there's a possibility [10:37] to talk once again. You know, before the war, the main issues were the nuclear issue and the [10:44] ballistic issue. Now, especially in the latest talks that took place in Islamabad yesterday on this [10:52] dome, the main issue was the strait of Hormuz, an issue that wasn't on the table even a few weeks ago. [10:58] Yeah, I mean, what do we make of the fact that it wasn't even mentioned by J.D. Vance in this final [11:05] news conference that he gave in Islamabad? I'm sure there would have been more questions [11:10] put to him about that, but it wasn't among the first that were asked of him. I mean, [11:15] just looking at this Truth Social post by Donald Trump in more detail, this promise to finish up [11:21] Iran, an appropriate moment, appears to be contingent upon the strait of Hormuz waterway being open [11:28] and open fast Donald Trump's words. Where are we right now when it comes to Iran's leverage [11:35] over the strait of Hormuz and whether or not in any way a compromise there might help stave off [11:42] Trump promising to finish up Iran? Well, it's, yeah. Actually, it's now clear that the [11:53] epicenter of this whole conflict has shifted from the nuclear program to the strait of Hormuz because [12:03] the strait of Hormuz has more direct implication not only on this region but on the world. This, [12:10] the weaponization of the strait by Iran created a kind of a global energy crisis that is just [12:19] accumulating day after day and reaching the houses, each house in the United States, Europe and the [12:26] whole world. At the same time, this is having more implications on the region. Iranians seem till the [12:32] moment capable of closing the strait or at least creating a situation of managed passage just according [12:40] to whom they agree with and they disagree with. And we've seen this even tomorrow, sorry, yesterday, [12:47] according to the maps and the programs that track the Marines. So for the Iranians, they know very [12:55] well that this is their asset right now. And that's why they are insisting on continuing it. And as we've [13:01] been saying before, the supreme leader, the new supreme leader, Mustafa Khamenei, mentioned this [13:06] trade for now a couple of times in two statements. And that's not only a, let me say official decree, [13:13] this is becoming for the Islamic Republic and a religious decree.