Iran War Update: ceasefire collapsing amid blockade of blockade | Hour 3

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 dpetcleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. So let's get to your Iran update. We've got some doings that are doing as they do. This from Iran International dot com. Beruz Tarani is the reporter's name. The war with the United States and Israel has exposed unusually open divisions within Iran's clerical establishment, with hardline calls for escalation clashing with warnings over the cost of continued conflict. Proposals aimed at de escalation have been exchanged in recent weeks, according to officials on both sides, but the gap between Washington and Tehran remains wide, with core disagreements unresolved. Hard line cleric and when I say okay, anytime I hear the word hard line used in reference to the Mullahs, over in Iran or you know the IRGC leaders or the quote civilian leaders, right, they're all just they're. All hard liners. Just some are harder liners. Than the others, Okay, Like none of them are like we're going to reform the system. You know, we're going to allow for freedoms and so there's nothing like that in the Islamic regime, right, So, hard line cleric and Member of Parliament Mahmoud Nababian said Iran would escalate sharply if attacked again. Quote if the United States launches another attack, Iran would strike residential areas housing kings and heads of state in Arab countries south of the Persian Gulf. In other words, UAE, which left Opec last week. And he then went on to urge President Donald Trump to quote admit defeat. Which have you have you met Donald Trump? Have you have you heard about Donald Trump? I don't think no, I don't think that's gonna happen, like on anything. Ever, even in the face of obvious defeat, he won't. He would not admit defeat. So I don't think he's going to admit defeat after just pounding the bejeebis out of you. Guys and then blockading your blockade. I don't think like the defeat admission is in the cards here anytime soon. In contrast, quote liberal cleric, I don't know. Again, Like my view is like they're all on that hardline side of the spectrum, you know. Liberal cleric and human rights lawyer Mossen Rahami argued that opposing negotiations with Washington should those who oppose the negotiations should be held accountable for the human and material toll of the war. Yeah, they won't, they won't. While ultra conservatives, I don't know where they fall on this spectrum. They insist Iran must not negotiate. Rahami said, he's the liberal guy, said people in the streets of Iran are not opposed to negotiations, casting diplomacy as both a public demand and a strategic necessity at a time when the costs of war are mounting. He described Iran's military actions as defensive, but warned that the damage from a prolonged conflict could take years to repair. Steel plants, refineries, a major electricity and gas infrastructure have all been hit, adding that much of Iran's industrial base was built over the course of a century and so there's going to be a lot of cost and time in order to make those repairs if the kinetic activity were to even end, and it hasn't. It has not as of Within the last hour, as a matter of. Fact, the United States announced that they took out six speedboats, these. These rapid attack boats. That the because they don't have a they don't have like a proper navy anymore. You know, it's laying at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. So what they do have are these speedboats. And these speedboats have been, you know, riding around and they started attacking some of the merchant ships. And the Farce which is their news agency, it's called Farce' just it's very Dickensian. They're telling you whether to believe them or not. They published footage of an oil tanker on fire after it was allegedly struck near the UAE. So they hit a tanker, set it on fire. But the videos from last month, so again Farce living up to their name. So they got these six speedboats that were speeding all around in the Persian Gulf. And I'm not sure Iran is aware of this with their lack of internet and all. Actually the rulers. They get to keep their Internet, which is actually very helpful in identifying them, right, so who has internet and who doesn't, because apparently there's these thing called they're called like white sim cards or something, and that allows them to get around the firewall that Iran is using to lock down its own citizenry. And I believe they got all that tech from China, right, So they got these speedboats riding around and apparently we're unaware that Donald Trump and the military have become very adept at blowing up speedboats. We got a pretty good record of that. We started doing it in our hemisphere a couple of months ago, and today we apparently took out six of these things riding around in the Persian Gulf, and the Iranians were firing from the speedboats onto or at vessels. So if there was a ceasefire, which kind of seemed like there may have been a kind of ceasefire going on, right, Iran broke the ceasefire and detacked third party ships. By the way, Trump made an announcement yesterday that beginning today, we would begin escorting these ships from third third party countries through the Strait of Horror moves basically to free them from their captivity, which is what Iran has been holding them hostage in the Persian Gulf. Right, just because they're on a boat doesn't mean they're not being held any less as a hostage. They have been. And so the US says, we're going to start escorting you guys through. You take any shots at US, then game on. And apparently they took some shots at us, and game on. Let's see. A separate commentary on the Asur Iran website identified four quote strategic mistakes by hardliners, including underestimating US end Israeli power and focusing on the enemy's losses rather than Iran's own costs. Right, they keep talking in Iranian media and the leadership the IRGC and the quote hard liners talking about all the problems, all the losses that America and Israel have suffered, which is like by comparison, it's not really even close. And in fact, a lot of the things that you guys have been saying, like you said yesterday, I think you said that you hit two US ships and that did not happen. Farce right once again, but these are the things that they're telling themselves, and this is a problem like a from a military planning standpoint, If if you're lying to yourselves about what the reality is, how do you overcome? How do you adapt and overcome? Like you have to confront reality in order to find solutions. If you keep lying to yourself about what is real and what is not, you're going to keep making the same mistakes over and over, and then you're going to be in a lot more trouble. The commentary on this Iranian website also warned against portraying Western adversaries as internally collapsing. Apparently, apparently the IRGC has been saying that America and Israel are collapsing. They argued that political divisions and democracies tend to narrow in wartime. All right, let's look at the oil situation. Iran has begun curbing oil production as was expected last week because the US naval blockade has been tightening around its oil trade. Exports have been locked down. They can't get through, and so the storage has been filling up, and they've been putting a whole bunch of this oil into tankers in the Persian Gulf. They've been hanging out near carg Island. The blockade which took effect April thirteenth has left Tehran trying to manage a pressure campaign aimed at its most important source of revenue, and it appears to be working. But America is losing. The Pannicans cry. You know. Stories are powerful. 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They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit Creative video dot Com. Alrighty, So, within the last forty minutes, Sentcom commander says, the US sank six Iranian boats that tried to obstruct the US from freeing the ships trapped in the Strait of Hormuz, including by firing cruise missiles at the US Navy. One South Korean cargo ship was damaged. The Islamic Republic has also fired missiles at the UAE repeatedly in recent hours, and there are reports of damage at the Fujira oil depot. Meanwhile, Israeli air defense system Iron Dome. Has been deployed to the UAE. That was not known, but now it is, and this system was used to intercept an incoming Iranian missile today, marking the first operational use of Israel's Iron Dome outside of either Israel or the US. Iran International reports that Israel had secretly deployed an Iron Dome aerial defense system and soldiers to operate it to the UAE at the beginning of the war with Iran. So they've had the Iron Dome since the beginning. Here, that's pretty important. I think Donald Trump just posted within the hour onto truth social Iran has taken some shots at unrelated nations with respect to the ship movement called Project Freedom. This is the escort service. That not that kind of escort service. It's a vessel escort operation, okay, and so it's titled Project Freedom. He says, perhaps it's time for South Korea because the ship took a hit. Perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join the mission. We've shot down seven small boats or as they like to call them, fast boats. It's all they've got left. Other than the South Korean ship. There has been at this moment no damage going through the street. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kin will have a news conference tomorrow morning. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So Iran has had to limit its oil production because the blockade is preventing the ships from their ships from getting out right. They launched the blockade, which I point out like that is also an act of war. They did the blockade, and they were only letting their ships through or any ship that would pay them the toll as long as they weren't flagged, you know, under Israel or America or whatever. And so then Trump comes in, he says, I see your blockade, and I will I will call your blockade with my own blockade of your ships. And so that's been the that's been the status quo for what two weeks now, two and a half weeks. And in the meantime, Iran cannot shut off its oil production without having to go through a lengthy process to start it back up again. But they're running out of storage space, and it was predicted that they would run out of storage space within two to three weeks. Bloomberg reports that the war has entered a stalemate, with Washington betting that lost oil revenue will force Iran to yield, and Tehran is betting that it can outlast the economic pain and keep global energy prices elevated. A senior Iranian official told Bloomberg that Tehran is proactively reducing crude output to stay ahead of storage limits, rather than waiting for the tanks to fill completely. So this is to buy time, right, They're going to sl down production so they don't have to shut it off, right. So it's just but that could affect as much as thirty percent of their oil reservoirs. Before the blockade, they were producing a little bit more than three million barrels a day with exports close to pre war levels. And this then gets to this whole notion of the shadow fleet. The shadow fleet is as zeneb Rebua, I've quoted her work often, this is the real war, she says, the shadow fleet. We've been cracking down via sanctions and this blockade on the shadow fleet, and we know who these boats are, and we know that they are going to the what they call these Chinese teapot facilities. These are like small reactor or refineries. And so by cracking down on these tankers that evade sanctions, they were allowed to pass through. The strait of horror moves right, and this has hurt China as well. Since the blockade began, around has increasingly turned to floating storage, Bloomberg said, aging and in some cases derelict tankers have gathered near carg Island, Iran's main export terminal in the Persian Gulf. This was the target that everybody said when Trump was talking about hitting infrastructure, They're like, you take off carg Island, and they're like they have no oil industry, Like ninety percent of their oil goes through this this island. That's just basically all refineries and ports. US Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said this week that carg Island was quote soon nearing capacity, warning that the pressure could cost Iran about one hundred and seventy million dollars a day in lost revenue and forced Tehran towards negotiations. Now, Iran could try to move some of the oil over land, however, that capacity is only about a quarter million to three hundred thousand barrels a day and they're producing three million right. Other options include rail. They could try to ship via rail to China, but that's less economical. These Chinese teapot refineries rely on discounted crude and very thin margins. While Treasury has also imposed new sanctions on individuals and networks tied to Iron Shadow banking system as well, including the buyers who are linked to the teapot refineries. This is a multiple directions, multiple angles of pressure being applied, economic, industrial, militarily blockade, right and targeted assassinations of leadership. Got a text here from Jennifer who says Israel sharing its Iron dome technology with an Arab country. It is indeed a new world we are living in. Yeah, never thought i'd hear that, all right. So, within the last hour, Trump said quote, if the Iranians try to target US ships in this area, they will be blown off the face of the earth. Update six or seven boats have been blown off the face of the earth for attempting to strike at naval vessels as well as civilian ships. Sentcom's Admiral Brad Cooper says the cruise missiles were going after both US Navy ships, but mostly after commercial shipping. We defended both ourselves and consistent with our commitment, we defended all the commercial ships. We have had drone launches against commercial ships, all of which were defended against, consistent with our commitment. And then the small boats were all going against commercial ships and all were sunk by apaches and Seahawk helicopters. Let's see here, because all of this is within the. Last hour. One day, so Iran has launched several waves of attack on the UAE one day before these attacks. So yesterday, the Islamic Republic State TV accused UAE of involvement in attacks on Iran's Siri and Levan Islands during the war, including claims that Amarati Mirage jets wing loong drones and unmarked F sixteens had taken part in strikes during the war in Iran. I don't know if any of that's true, but if it's coming from the Iranian regime, I'm gonna say no. But that's just my default. I just anything they say, I just assume is not true. That's not to say it couldn't be true. I just we have no idea, and given their propensity to lie about everything all the time, that's my default. Then there was a senior UAE official told Israel that the UAE does not intend to remain silent about the attacks. Israel's Channel twelve reports quote, the Iranian regime has begun attacking us. We will strike back, according to the official. They put out a statement strongly condemning the renewed treacherous Iranian aggression using missiles and drones. And then. I had something else here that was new. Oh yeah, Open source intel says the Pentagon's about to get very busy. Trump is calling on South Korea to help with the blockade, considering it as one of their ships that got hit Trump says Iran fired on vessels, including a South Korean cargo ship, but added there's been no other damage to shipping that's been making its way through the strait. Zenebribua reports that the UAE's assets were constantly undervalue due to missiles from Iran being pointed at them, and when the US puts sanctions on the IRGC, that put the UAE in a bit of an uncomfortable position because there are entities inside UAE based in Dubai that are part of Iran's shadow banking system. And when the sanctions came down against the IRGC, that then forced compliance which then actually strengthened the UAE financial system, it did not weaken it. And then there was one other thing I saw come down moment. Oh, there's going to be a press conference tomorrow by Pete Hegseth and Dan Kine that was announced a little while ago. That'll be tomorrow. Here it is Iran International reporting more commercial ships are en route to travel across the Straight up for moves after two US flagged vessels successfully left the waterway. That's according to a report by Newsmax, who cited an interview with Sentcom commander Admiral Brad Cooper. So that's a positive development. We're so losing. Gosh, getting so many of these ships out of the Persian Gulf through our blockaded blockade or they're blockaded blockade. Wall Street Journal quoted an Irani official saying Tehran could attack US warships with tools like mine carrying dolphins. They're going to deploy the dolphin mining squad. Now, yes, it's it does raise the eyebrows. However, there is a long history of Iranian officials invoking animals in warfare and espionage. And I mean, honestly, these are people and a regime that sent children to clear minefields. So do you think they're gonna have any problems trapping some mines to dolphins? Of course not Iran. International reports that Iran did attack two vessels. I mean, they claimed that they hit two US warships, but that's the US says that did not happen. They did attack two vessels. A tanker seventy eight nautical miles north of Fujaira. Which is UAE. They were hit with IRGC projectiles, and then there was a bulk carrier that was eleven nautical miles west of Syric Iran. These were hit by small boats. Pakistan's government says that twenty two crew members from a seized Iranian container ship had been evacuated to Pakistan by the United States. The crew members will be handed over to Iranian authorities today, adding that the ship would be moved back to Pakistani waters for a return to its original owners after necessary repairs. The spokesman of the Iran's National Security Council said that quote, the Strait of horm moves isn't closed by a tweet to be opened by a tweet. The path to open They're not called tweets anymore, sir Okay. The path to opening the Strait of Hormuz is either accepting defeat, reaching an agreement and acknowledging Iran's sovereignty and supremacy over the Strait of Hormues, or returning to the battlefield, accepting another humiliating defeat and acknowledging iran sovereignty and supremacy over the Straight of Hormus. No path remains other than this. It kind of seems like it's like heads, you win, tails, I lose kind of an offer there, my dude, Like what I don't okay, I guess it's to the battlefield. You guys did such a great job last time, so I'll see how that goes. The UAE has announced all schools closed and remote learning due to is Iranian missile strikes and drone attacks that have now begun. I think that's a violation of the ceasefire. Yeah, pretty much, definitely a ceasefire violation, and so they've got their missile defenses. The Iron Dome. Israel apparently snuck into the UAE before this action even began. Everybody knew that Iran would start attacking the UAE, and UAE says they will now retaliate. The Iron Dome has assisted in intercepting several Iranian missiles already. Iran's like if the UAE, if you guys do anything, then everything's on the table for targeting and all that. Like as if that isn't the case right now, like you're already sending missiles and drones into your neighboring country. You're already doing this, and the ua is like, oh, we're gonna We're gonna hit you back hard now, and like right now, Israel and the US like we're not running bombing campaigns and all that stuff, So like the skies are open UAE. If like you want to make some bombing runs, you know, go right ahead. I guess. There was a maritime bulletin announced a US security corridor is now in place in the Strait of Hormuz, directing vessels to sail south of the old traffic lanes closer to the coast of Oman. This is following the launch of the escort service the vessel protection operation called Project Freedom. Also, open source intel Announce reported that Trump's team has added Nick Stewart from the Foundation for Defending Democracies to the Iran nuclear talks. He'll join Witkoff, Kushner j Vance in the discussions. Also, Iran's nationwide internet blackout has now entered its sixty sixth consecutive day, passing one five hundred and sixty hours with no restoration of access for the public. They've also been arresting and hanging people that are caught with starlink devices that allows them to they're doing these patrols. Earlier reports from a couple of weeks ago where that China gave them the technology and the vans so they could drive around and detect starlinks and when they find people with a starlink, they take them into custody and then they murder them. That's that's what the peaceful nation of Iran is doing to its own people. They just murdered three more of their three more men yesterday by hanging publicly. And I've talked about how they do their hangings there. It's not like a trapdoor that breaks your neck very quickly. They raise you up on a crane very slowly, so you suffer, so you're tortured, you asphyxiate, and yeah, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said, it's very difficult for that's in a sewer pipe to know what's going on in the outside world. Some color for the Iranian leadership as they literally sit in the dark. Number one, the US has complete control of the Strait of Hormuz. Number two, there is a hard currency shortage in Iran. Number three, food and gasoline rationing are in place in Iran. Number four, the entire international community has turned against you. And number five, the blockade will continue until there is pre February twenty seven freedom of navigation, a return to the status quo ante. A quick reminder from Senator Tom Cotton for all the people that are complaining about the gas prices. In twenty twenty, Republicans and President Trump tried to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at twenty dollars a barrel, and Democrats blocked that from happening. Just in case anybody needed the reminder, Ag Hamilton, he is a commentator and writer. He says, this is not complicated. The regime in Tehran has already changed, right, there's this, oh, you know, regime change. Trump said, regime change. Remember a couple of weeks ago, and Trump said, there's different people in there. And he's correct, there are different people there because the whole top, like three levels of leadership were all taken out, and like the people that assumed those roles. Then are these are lower ranking officials that then got elevated. Right, That doesn't mean that they are good at what they are doing. So and he you are talking to different people. So that's what Trump was saying when he said there's already been kind of a regime change, right, And AG Hamilton says, yeah, the people that you're talking to has changed. It's because almost every leader from the previous terror regime is dead now. The Trump administration's strategy is to apply pressure until they get someone in charge who will give them what they want, which is an end to the nuclear program with extensive checks to monitor that. Number two and end to funding terrorist proxies throughout the region in their colonization efforts, end and end or severe limitations on their ballistic missile program. These goals have been aligned with regional partners, and it happens to serve America's long term interest too. We can argue about the type of pressure that's being applied, but that's the strategy, right. The Islamic Republic strategy is to use economic and media pressure to get Trump to abandon the war before achieving these goals. So you know where are you applying the pressure and whether the Trump administration is going to give in first. That's their last remaining tool of leverage. Attempts to frame this as a Vietnam style debacle and push constant misinformation on behalf of the regime to score political points. But your act. When you do that, you're actually prolonging the war because they are convincing the remaining leaders of the regime that they can wait it out to get Trump together give it up without giving up those elements so just keep that in mind. We are in the informational battle space when you are online. 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 thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.