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Donald Trump has extended the Iran war ceasefire, hours before the agreement was set to expire. Writing on his Truth Social platform, the President said that he had agreed to a request from the Iranian regime to extend the agreement. It had been due to expire on Wednesday. The President said his agreement to extend the truce stemmed from the fact that the Iranian regime had been "seriously fractured" by the war, and this means they need time to put forward an agreed peace proposal to the US. Henry Riley is joined by former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos to discuss the latest. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #henryriley #trump #politics #iran #news #uspolitics #middleeast #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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He has said he will extend the ceasefire with Iran and continue blockade
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He put a statement on social media, where else, his Truth Social platform
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He said, based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured
0:12
not unexpectedly so, and upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Muneer
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and Prime Minister Shebhaz Sharif of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran
0:23
until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal
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I have therefore directed our military to continue the blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able
0:36
and will therefore extend the ceasefire until such a time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded one way or the other
0:44
Slightly different to what he told CNBC earlier today. Well, as I said two days ago when they said they won't send them, I said they'll be sending them
0:52
They have no choice but to send them. What I think is that we're going to end up with a great deal
0:57
I think it's got I think they have no choice we've taken out their Navy we've taken out their
1:02
Air Force we've taken out their leaders frankly which does complicate things in one way but these
1:06
leaders are much more rational it's a it is regime change no matter what you want to call it
1:12
which is not something I said I was going to do but I've done it indirectly maybe but I've done it
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and I think we're in a very strong negotiating position to do what other presidents should have
1:24
done during a 47-year period. We have 47 years where these bloodthirsty people have been
1:30
killing a lot of soldiers, a lot of our soldiers, and a lot of other people
1:34
They've killed 42,000 people over the last two months. And on CNBC, he also
1:40
hinted about resuming bombing. And bearing in mind this is also before we had
1:44
this ceasefire looming. It was due to come to an end tomorrow in Washington He hinted at resuming bombing against Tehran You need at least a prospect for a signed deal today and tomorrow
1:58
or else you would resume bombing Iran. Well, I expect to be bombing
2:06
because I think that's a better attitude to go in with. But we're ready to go
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I mean, the military is raring to go. They are absolutely incredible
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You know, I built the military my first term. I'm using it now. The military, when I took it over from Barack Hussein Obama
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they had just, it was so depleted, so sad. He was speaking with Joe Kernan of CNBC this morning
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how things can change. Let's bring into the conversation Mark Polymeropoulos, a highly decorated former CIA operations officer
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specializes in counterterrorism in the Middle East and South Asia, and always welcome on the program
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We always love having him on, so thank you, Mark, for joining us. Will you join us, of course, with this news
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that we are still digesting? Are you surprised? So I'm not surprised
2:48
What I've predicted is that the ceasefire would be extended. Because, look, it's clear to me that, and let me just say it from the United States perspective
2:57
Donald Trump does not want to resume the military campaign. And I think there's some element of truth that the Iranians don't want that either
3:04
And so, you know, this was clearly there's an impasse in the talks, even the modalities of the talks, who's going to go
3:11
But I always thought the ceasefire would be extended. And look, you brought up something, a really good point
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I mean, we're all over the place in terms of what Trump says on True Social, what he says in terms of interviews with the press
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And I just go back. There's a there's a comment from an Israeli official yesterday in the Israeli press
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They said if you take all of Donald Trump's comments and put it into chat GPT, chat GPT would explode
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And I think that actually a perfect way to look at kind of this interesting way of conducting diplomacy Yes quite Where are we then with the current state of play Because J Vance was due to visit Islamabad as we know
3:52
I hear in the last couple of hours we've seen Steve Witkoff
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and Jared Kushner enter the White House. Where are we with any sort of negotiation, Mark
4:03
So we're stuck just, again, in the modalities of who goes and when they go
4:08
Now, again, I think that the two sides are going to meet
4:12
I would be surprised, frankly, if any kind of military activity resumed. But now it's a question of the Iranians insisting on the blockade being lifted before negotiations resume
4:23
Of course, that's not something that President Trump wants to do. We've seen Jared Kushner, Steve Wyckoff in the White House, and J.D. Vance seemingly not on his way to Pakistan
4:32
Right. So you actually had Steve Wyckoff and Jared Kushner. Their plane took off from Miami. We expected them to actually go to Islamabad, but it was diverted to Washington
4:43
Apparently, there are meetings, policy meetings going on right now at the White House, including Vice President Vance, who has not left as well
4:50
So I think it's a you know, it's just a test of resolve right here. Nobody wants the military hostilities to resume both sides
4:57
But there are you know, there it's in they're kind of fighting over just the modalities of the talks
5:01
And, you know, the Iranians want to see the blockade lifted first. I think this is, again, part of this kind of bargaining
5:07
And so let's see what happens next. But the extension of the ceasefire makes sense so they can work these things out
5:14
I think there will be future negotiations, future talks. But this is just the Iranians playing a really tough game
5:20
That's what they do. And let's see how the U.S. responds. But I would be very surprised if they resumed the military campaign
5:27
I been proven wrong in the past but I think both sides definitely do want to see this come to an end It just a question of at least getting back to the negotiating cable which is proving to be a little problematic The sort of sticking point still in the deal
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obviously, we've had these issues with regards to the Strait of Hormuz, where there was movement
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last week. But really, that ability for Iran in terms of having a weapon, being able to enrich
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uranium, retain its capacity, the suspicion as I saw is that they are, although they will say they
5:57
don't want a bomb they want to be able to keep that capability to have a a weapon one day
6:02
potentially that's right this has to do with the uh the ability to uh enrich uh uranium that is a
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key fundamental difference right now and so you know ultimately there's going to have to be
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compromise on both sides even though president trump has said no you know uh uranium enrichment
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period um don't forget though in the last round of negotiations we did kind of throw on the table
6:23
There would be a 20-year kind of moratorium on it. Well, that is moving a little bit
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Of course, Trump then denounced his own negotiator's stance. But I think that we will get to the point where there has to be something
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and I'm going to raise this because there's going to be some hypocrisy involved
6:39
There will be something akin to the old Obama-era nuclear deal. It's going to be stronger
6:44
That was the JCPOA. That's something that Trump has lambasted, has railed against nonstop
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He pulled out of it. But I think ultimately the Iranians are going to have to be given something because they see the nuclear program as a sense of pride
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And so, you know, that's going to be quite interesting to see how we get there. Again, I think there'll probably be a deal, but it's going to be something along the lines of a stronger JCPOA
7:06
And then you have to ask the question, why did we do this in the first place? If we're going to negotiate a deal that probably could have been averted, the entire war could have been averted
7:15
And Trump's going to have to explain himself on that. But diplomacy is based on compromise
7:21
The maximalist positions of both sides are not going to be set in stone or then we're just going to get nowhere
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