Iran basically admits they have, actually, invaded Lebanon | Hour 1

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All Right, so. The ceasefire is kind of ceasing still, it's very shaky. The this is gonna be a big test. We got the talks scheduled for like another twenty four hours from now in Pakistan. Jd Vance spoke before he got on. I guess Air Force two to fly back from Hungary yesterday. I've got his comments about the negotiations because yesterday there was all this swirl about the Iranians ten point proposal that Trump said that the ten point proposal was a good framework from which to begin talks. And then Iran's got these ten points that they pushed out and media reported all over the place, and those ten points do not align with any of the fifteen and so everybody's left kind of scratching their head. But we may have an answer for this, all right, So some developments. First, President Donald Trump ordered military forces to remain deployed. He did this in a truth social post. He said, all US ships, aircraft, a military personnel with additional ammunition, weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded enemy will remain in place in and around Iran until such time as the real agreement reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the quote shooting starts end quote bigger and better and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary, no nuclear weapons, and the Strait of Hormuz will be open and safe. In the meantime, our great military is loading up and resting, looking forward actually to its next conquest. America is back. Okay, So that's the president's tweet. Essentially hours after the ceasefire with Iran supposedly went into effect, Israel launched its largest wave of strikes against has bought. Code name of the mission is Eternal Darkness. Fifty fighter jets dropping one hundred and sixty bombs on one hundred targets across the country in ten minutes. They targeted command centers, intelligence, headquarters, rocket and naval units, as well as assets of. The elite Radwan Force. Okay, and then Iran said, hey, you can't do that, or else we're not going to go to the talks with you because you said it's a ceasefire, and Israel said not for us in Lebanon against Hesbala, which, for people who don't understand, like Hesbala is a proxy army that Iran funds and trains and deployed into Lebanon in order to colonize it, destabilize it and take make it over like it's a little mini Iran. That was the plan. There is still a functioning Lebanese government, but they were supposed to be disarming Hesblah after the two thousand and sixth war. I think they had some agreement in the Lebanese army was supposed to be saying like, hey, you can't have these weapons, you can't be hitting Israel and all of this stuff. And you know that didn't turn out so well, that didn't work at all. You got Hesbala's been launching rockets and missiles and drones at Israel, you know, since October seventh. So Israel now, according to Amit Siegal, who publishes a newsletter called It's Noon in Israel. He's a journalist over in Israel, he says, the Israeli lesson from October seventh is that intentions do not matter. Capabilities do. What does he mean by this, Well, for years, the idea ignored the terror monster rising on its borders and instead focused on whether the enemy intended to attack or whether it was in its interest to do so. Right, So they were like trying to think, you know, get in the minds of Hamas. In practical terms, what this means is that Iran says it's not going to sign a temporary cease fire, but it did. It said the straight up four moves would not reopen, but then it did. It did, And they actually published a map showing where boats should go because they mined some of the waters, so they put a big box of red like don't go into this area. I wasn't even sure that they had dropped any minds down there, but apparently Iran says they did, which is a war crime. Indeed, not hearing any any of the screams of war criminal from the people who've been screaming it for the last two days. Iran also swore to include ending the war in Lebanon and Hesbala suffered hundreds of casualties yesterday. This is what remains of the Iranian axis that once cast a long shadow across the Middle East, the Iranian victory image that is being encouraged by broad segments of the international media. They say that Iran survived ten rounds against the heavyweight world champion and they live to tell the tale. That's the narrative that Iran is pushing. And there are a lot of people that hate Donald Trump in places all over the globe, but here in America that are running with this narrative. I heard a caller call into Vince's show just before I got on the air, and he said that we've already lost, which like, there is no way you can look at what this operation has been doing. If you look at what the operation has been actually doing, who So here's a question for you. Has have the Israelis or or the United States hit any of the Iranian like the parliament. Have they hit any of these types of buildings like the seats of government power? I mean, they've been going after military installations, right, They've been going after IRGC, They've been going after iatolas, they've been going after nuclear programs, right, They've been going after the military industrial base. But they haven't touched sort of like the bureaucratic side of the Iranian government. Why is that? What are they trying to do? What is the purpose here? It's to create the friction that already exists between the quote unquote civilian government and the theocracy, the IRGC, the Iyatola, the Mullahs, right, which now it's becoming clearer that the Nepo Ayatola like that he's basically like in a coma someplace and they're they're doing a weekend at Bernie's deal so the IRGC can take control. So there is a there is a power struggle going on inside the Iranian regime right now. And people think there's this one government and there isn't there. There are like all these different factions because like all of these different Mullahs the clerics, they control different businesses and companies that make them a lot of money. They funnel their money through these companies to the IRGC to pay salaries, buy weapons, they send it to their proxy armies and all of that. So look at what we look at what we've been targeting. It's the things that Donald Trump laid out in the objective list, the thing that Marco Rubio said when he laid out the objectives as well, and they never said regime change. Trump's been saying, well, I guess it is a different regime because you know, there's a lot of people that were taken out. Okay, sure, I don't really buy that. But the friction point is between these two elements, one of which is obviously interested in talking to end the war. That would be the civilian government versus the IRGC. Who are you know, the true believers the Jihattist mindset. They're the ones that are opposed to any kind of deal. And yet what has now been acknowledged by Iran saying Lebanon has to be off the table. They have to be part of the ceasefire too. You can't be hitting Israel, can't be hitting Hesbala. That is an admission finally to what we all knew already, but Iran is finally now saying, Okay, you got to stop hitting them because they're with us. They're part of us as we knew. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. 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So about forty minutes ago, just as the show was getting ready to start here, Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Nintanyahu put out a statement saying, in light of Lebanon's repeated requests to begin direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed the Cabinet yesterday to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible. The negotiations will focus on the disarmament of Hesbelah and the establishment of peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon. Israel appreciates the call made today by the Prime Minister of Lebanon to demilitarize Beirut. That is a positive development. You black pillars, Oh my gosh, we're losing hmm. You got the Lebanese government. Gonna work with Israel to to finally newter Hesbala on the border. That's a positive development after an Operation Rising Lion. That's not what this one is. Rising Lion was the Twelve Day war. After that, every available Iranian dollar was invested in rebuilding the ballistic missile array, seen as the only effective deterrent for Israel. The result was a relatively quick recovery for the Iranians, but also enormous public anger that was suppressed at the cost of massacre. Right, this is when the Iranian people took to the streets. Their economy was crashing and they had just been attacked, and all the money is being siphoned off to rebuild the ballistic missile programs and stuff, and people took to the streets in opposition and they were slaughtered by the tens of thousands. Now there is way more that Iran has to rebuild, and fewer dollars because the money generating enterprises that were dual use that were being used to build the missiles, the drones, right, the fuel, all of that stuff is now destroyed. And so what are you going to spend your money on? First, if you're Iran And this is what the quote unquote civilian government. This is what they're looking at. Reportedly, they're looking at like, well, even if we remain alive and still like in power, how do we recover where we got all the sanctions that Trump put on us last year that helped to crash the currency. And now we have all this stuff we have to rebuild. We got bridges to rebuild, we got rail lines to rebuild. Right, we have all of this, all of these needs. What are you going to? What are you gonna send your money on? Should it buy a new navy, buy a new air force, invest in missile production again, rebuild Hesbelah, which is groaning under a heavy deficit, or invest domestically to try to calm down your population whose situation has only gotten worse. And then there's the Gulf states all around you that were attacked by Iran. They've been taught a lesson too. They're not going to forget this. They are not Israel. They're not accustomed to rounds of fighting every year or two generations of Emiradis, Qataris and Saudi's. They will now carry the trauma of running to unprotected spaces. While tourism, stability, and energy went up in flames. Yeah, Israel, right, all of their building codes require you to have a bomb shelter like people have. Like people know where their bomb shelters are. They rush to the shelters they do, like this is a part of life for it. These other countries don't have that, and they got a taste over the last month, they got a taste of what the Israelis lived through at the hand of Iran. The state's most critical assets have been reduced to rubble. Iran's military industry, it's steel production, the petrochemical plants that served as their economic lifeline. They've all been crippled, offering no near term recovery capability unless the regime is overthrown by its own people. This is not the end, though. Over in Lebanon, Operation Eternal Darkness, ten minutes, fifty fighter jets, one hundred and sixty bombs targeting one hundred targets. Why why now? A couple reasons, according to Amid Sigaal Number one. With the ceasefire Israel, they've got all these fighter jets that now are not flying over Iran. So oh and by the way, one note there they've been flying over Arab country's airspace, which is something you would never have thought possible twenty years ago. So you got all these fighter jets now they can run this mission into Lebanon. The strikes also serve as a definitive statement that Israel interprets the ceasefire to not apply to Hesbellah. And if Trump was going to impose a ceasefire on Israel into Lebanon, if he was going to do that to try to get the Iranians to the table, well, Israel wanted to ensure that at least it delivered this devastating blow first. So this then prompts the Iranians to say, we're closing the strait of Warmus again. That's it, because if Hesbelah is not going to be protected, then we're going to close the straight And why even bother talking and all this, So who are you actually talking with? This is the problem with the IRGC doing its weekend at Bernie's, with the Ayatola sidelining and doing sort of a coup against the civilian leadership. Well, who are we negotiating with? Who actually has the power? Again? Driving a wedge between these different factions inside of the leadership ranks who are now looking at each other like well, are you cutting a deal? Why are you willing to cut a deal? Who's been talking? Who's been leaking? This is There are multiple layers to all of this stuff. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven in mint Hill, North Carolina. 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He had a meeting with ATO and before that meeting with the NATO chief Mark Rudy Routti whatever. Before that meeting, Trump had said I think he socialed it out. He was like, like, what's the point of being in NATO, Like, we're going to discuss getting out of NATO with the NATO chief. And so he has the meeting and here's what Ruddy said moments ago. When it came time to provide the logistical and other support the United States needed in Iran, some allies were a bit slow, to say the least. In fairness, they were also a bit surprised. To maintain the element of surprise for the initial strikes, President Trump opted not to inform allies ahead of time. But what I see when I look across Europe today is allies providing a massive amount of support nearly without exception. Allies are doing everything the United States is asking. They have heard and are responding to President Trump's reques US. Okay, can we fly over your freaking country now? Can we land at our bases that we paid for? Can we do that? How about that? Like that to me is the bare minimum. But the yeah, I'm not buying I'm not buying this, Like the European allies not very ally behavior the Gulf coast countries, they're actually doing more. I mean, Iran was complaining that after the ceasefire was announced that they got hit. There was an attack on Levon Island and they were like, you guys did it? You guys did in Israel and America were like, no, we didn't, we didn't do that. And now it turns out that was carried out by Mirage fighter jets used by the United Arab Emirates. Yes, the UAE, which is a little bit so that Iran has been flinging hundreds or thousands of missiles and drones into their country and hitting their gas and oil production facilities. So yeah, they were a little salty at that. The UAE says it will seek clarification on the terms of the ceasefire agreement to find out like does this cover us, and the US says, yes. You're not allowed. Iran's not allowed to hit you guys, and you guys can't hit them, and so far that seems to be holding so far. Qatar's foreign minister has discussed the ceasefire with the Saudi Arabian counterpart. They also emphasized the importance of protecting maritime routes and ensuring freedom of navigation. The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia also spoke by phone to discuss developments. Iran's nationwide internet blackout has entered its forty first day. That is a record. It's unprecedented. God only knows what we're going to see when when communications return there. Turkey sorry, Turqua is how they want it pronounced now said It raided Islamic state networks nationwide, detaining nearly two hundred people following that gun battle that occurred outside of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul by three attackers. What else here? Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has issued a deadline for European allies to commit tangible military assets to the Strait of Hormuz, including naval deployments. According to Dershspiegel, the German publication, Mark Ruddy told member states that earlier political commitments are no longer enough. They actually have to guard the waterway that they rely on, so Iran cannot do to them again what they're doing now right. Iran has released an official map of required shipping routes. It shows vessels must travel closer to Iran's coast and confirms for the first time that usual routes are now considered dangerous due to the risk of naval minds. What about the uranium, Benjamin Nton Yahoo said, quote the enriched uranium will completely come out of Iran and it will be then either by agreement or by renewing the war. Iran's nuclear chief had said that demands by adversaries to limit the country's uranium and Richmond program would fail. The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said such calls were quote wishful thinking and would not stop. Could not stop Iran's nuclear activities. Quote no law or individual can stop us, said Mohammed ISLAMI. How much of that is the saving face bluster? Don't know. Regarding Lebanon, Iran is warning that if Israel does not halt it strikes in Lebanon, it's going to walk away and riding to Iran's defense were the European countries, the UK, the French and Australian leaders, I think Germany and I think everybody at this point they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Lebanon too, that's got to be included in the ceasefire deal with Iran and Lebanon. Their leader was like, whoa, any discussion about ceasefire agreements in Lebanon will not be negotiated by anybody other than Lebanon. Like, this is our country. What are you guys doing. We're not part of the EU. You don't speak for us. The US Iran ceasefire according to the EU Foreign policy chief Kadjak Karas, She says it should be extended to Lebanon. Hezbelah dragged Lebanon into the war, but Israel's right to defend itself does not justify inflicting such massive destruction. Oh, we're back to the proportionality argument. Look, Israel, you need to suffer, you know, a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand rockets and drones into your residential areas and cities and stuff. You need to just live with that and spend a whole bunch of money on your systems to take out all of these missiles. That's just the price of being a Jew. I guess I don't know, because you cannot try to eliminate all of the networks in the because Hesbala dug. They dug tunnels. All along the border with Israel so they can hide their rocket munitions. They could pop out and send a bunch of rockets go back underground, right, this is their tactic. And so Israel blew a bunch of the tunnels up, took out a whole bunch of THEIRS leadership again, and so Lebanon needs to step up now, like, if you want this Iranian proxy terror eliminated from your borders, you're gonna have to do something about it, all right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why. Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Let's go over here and chat with Dean. Hello, Dean, Hi, Pete, Hello, Hey. I had two questions, and one was I don't understand. I'm glad we can track this pilot and figure out exactly where he is and pick him off. And yet it seems like the Straits all of a sudden don't go here because there's minds they plant in minds. Don't you know we seem so sophisticated in some areas and not in others. Or am I just interpreting it wrong? I did an entire. Hour on the Strait of Hormuz asking the question of why we haven't opened it yet, and like, do you think that we are incapable of opening it? The one the most logical thing I heard is that actually China gets eighty percent of their flow of oils straight and if we were to destroy the infrastructure, then they are China would have to be drawn into the conflict and you know, take a position, and then things could really unravel and our relation, you know, our wars supposedly more with Iran than it is with China. Right. It's also so if you've got all of these other regional and international actors that benefit from the strait being opened, but they're not willing to do anything to keep it open. This is Trump basically the same message he sent Tonado, right, which is, why are we allied with you? If you're not, if you're not going to provide any of your own security, you're not going to put any skin in the game, right, Because I mean, I think if we wanted to, we could, the military could. I think that's very clear from what we just saw in the last five weeks. So then there becomes a there becomes a larger question then of well, what is the benefit to increasing pressure for leverage in allowing the Strait to remain closed? And I went over all like because it goes into maritime policy, the overhaul of the navy that Trump has been trying to do, but he's being blocked by China's lobbyists, members of Congress. You got oil. Producers, you got all these different actors, and of course the big insurance companies, Like that's the main people think that like vessels are getting you know, hit and they're exploding all over the place, and that's not what's happening. The insurance carriers are refusing to ensure the vessels going through. And so the if the United States is able to break that monopoly of the insurance carriers, right then we become the center of maritime shipping instead of London, which is incapable. They don't. They sent out one boat the other day and it had to return because there uh they're water purifier systems uh failed on the boat. Like they don't have an avy anymore, they're a coastguard. Well, I know it's as it has been, as it is and as it will be, but it just seems like the strategic thing that everybody's talking about is not really at the crux of the matter. It should be to you, you know, political and it should be all of those things should be what we should be explaining so we understand. No, No, I don't. I don't want if if, if there are all sorts of other dynamics and and concessions at play here, then I don't. I don't think you should be negotiating that through the media or through tweets. No, but if we understand the situation and it's you, we're not. We're not mediating it. We're just trying to, you know, give a good picture of it. You know what the actual issues are. That's what we're here for. That's what I've been doing for. Yeah, So I would say, go to the peak pod dot com and go look up. It was last week I did an episode on One of the hours I talked about here was on all of the different factors regarding the maritime. Policy, the overhaul of the navy. Right. One of the things Trump wanted to start building when he took office was the Golden Fleet. These massive ships and what are they designed for? Choke points like That's the key is who controls all of the choke points. I appreciate the cal Dean, but I think it was yesterday or day before Putin sent one of his naval vessels down the British Channel, like just completely unmolested, just going to cruise right through. Like Britain can't control its own territorial waters. These choke points all around the globe are vital for commerce. And if we are not going to do the policing, you see what happens when we don't, right, You see, like bad actors go in there, they control the choke point, they shut down trade, they wreck the global economy. Right, oil flows dry up. So who do you prefer police the choke points? Because they have to be capable and willing to do so, and what we have seen so far is nobody really seems able or willing to do it. So you want China to run the choke points because you know what they're gonna do, right, They're going to control them. They'll charge tolls, they'll extract concessions from countries, They'll use it as further leverage to spread their communist ideology and become more and more powerful. Right, the people who want us to fail at this are also the people who want a quote multipolar world, which is a degradation of America's status and I'm not on board with that. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.