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Simon, what is going on here? We've had Project Freedom, so-called, which Trump announced overnight
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Trump says that he wants to go and rescue the stranded mariners who are in the strait
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Then Iran apparently hits missiles. The US is rejecting the claims. What is going on
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Well, you mentioned the fog of war, Lewis. We are navigating a pea super in the strait of Hormuz today
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Iranian state media announced that a US warship, they did not name it
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had been struck by two missiles as it tried to enter the Strait of Hormuz
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And they said that the warship had then turned around and retreated
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The Americans now say that is flatly untrue. We've had a statement from US Central Command saying no US Navy ships have been struck
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US forces are supporting Project Freedom, I'll get to that in a moment, and enforcing the naval blockade on Iranian ports
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What that statement notably does not address is whether a US warship was targeted by Iranian missiles that may not actually have struck it
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And it certainly doesn't address the Iranian claim that a US warship turned around and retreated in the aftermath of whatever took place at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz
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Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates says that a tanker affiliated with its state-owned oil company Adnok has been struck in the Strait of Hormuz
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And of course we are dealing still with the chaos that was created last night by President Trump claim of the beginning of what he is calling Project Freedom which he characterized on social media as a humanitarian effort by the U Navy to assist crews
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sailors and others that are aboard all of those stranded vessels that cannot transit through the Strait of Hormuz
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because of the U.S. naval blockade. He says that conditions aboard those vessels are getting increasingly dire
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food is running out, water is running out, unsanitary conditions are developing
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and therefore, in an act of great magnanimity, the United States was going to launch this Project Freedom
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to help those vessels get through the Strait of Hormuz, which raised all sorts of questions about what exactly he was talking about
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The White House then scrambled to clarify that he was not saying the US Navy was going to escort those vessels through the strait
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He was simply saying that the US Navy would be guiding those vessels
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In other words, providing them with information about how they might themselves seek to transit the Strait of Hormuz safely
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But ultimately, of course, the risk would have been entirely with the captains of those vessels
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So not surprisingly, there have not been very many volunteers leaping up to take advantage of Operation Project Freedom, the most interesting aspect of which may well be the name
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Because remember, Donald Trump was facing a 60 day clock that was running out, ran out on Friday night to seek congressional authorization for Operation Epic Freedom
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The White House says there no need to seek that authorization because hostilities terminated on April the 7th when the ceasefire came into force To all intents and purposes the White House is claiming with a straight face that Operation Epic Freedom is either paused or has come to an end
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And there is a possibility here that what the White House ultimately seeks to do is restart hostilities
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give it all a new coat of paint, give it a fresh name
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and then say to Congress, so that 60-day clock starts from zero again now
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which, of course, many lawmakers would argue is being too cute by half
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And I think what we can say, although, as you say, the fog of war remains thick, Simon, I think what we can say is if there is any
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even a smidgen of truth whatsoever, even if it is just a warning shot
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which the Iranians are now saying, if it is true that a US naval ship turned around. Maybe the Americans won't admit to it. Who knows? But I mean, there can be no doubt
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I think, that Trump is going to consider that to be embarrassing and an escalation from his point
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of view. Well, it certainly plays into the argument of Chancellor Friedrich Mertz of Germany
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that Iran has humiliated the United States and potentially is continuing to do so. I mean
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the president's official position, the official White House position, is that this war is being
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won on a daily basis, that Iran has been completely neutered. As the president repeats like a mantra
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it has no navy, it has no air force, it has no anti-ballistic missile capability left. And yet
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the Iranians, whatever happened in the strait today, certainly they've struck a UAE tanker
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in the strait they still have the heft available And Pentagon officials have conceded In classified briefings for lawmakers thousands of ballistic missiles and drones at their disposal to keep the Strait of Hormuz essentially closed
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And the Iranians have, within the last couple of hours, said they will open fire on any vessel that seeks to make its way through the strategic waterway
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So this standoff is by no means over. The Americans rejected the latest 14-point peace proposals that Iran furnished over the weekend
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They didn't address the nuclear issue at all. There was never any chance the Americans were going to embrace them
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President Trump said in his Truth Social posting that talks with the Iranians are going well
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I mean, there is no evidence to support that claim as he continues to threaten a resumption of hostilities
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And very briefly, Simon, we should say, what do you make over the weekend of Trump's latest withdrawal of 5,000 American troops from Germany
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You've mentioned the Mertz spat that they've been having. Americans have been withdrawing troops previously
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What do you make of how Trump has announced this? Well, he said on Saturday that he's going to go even further than the 5,000 troop withdrawals
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that he's going to go a lot further in cutting back the American military presence in Germany
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a total of 36,000 American active duty personnel that are permanently based in Germany
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That clearly deeply unnerves European leaders. It is exactly what you would be doing if you were planning ultimately to pull the United States out of NATO
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He's got pledges to withdraw American troops also from Italy and Spain
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both of them on the naughty step here as well. So it just deepens the tensions across the Atlantic
