Transcription
Now, supposedly the Iranians are even charging these extortion fees to the Chinese. And I'm thinking, okay, well, you're going to force, if that's the case, China is your ally. You're obviously right. If you're Iran, why are you putting them in that position? And it does seem a little bit like Trump is going to let this pain point go on for a bit longer because he's like, well, we don't get our oil from the Straight of Hormuz. Having said that though, we've all seen that it's a global economy with oil and the price goes up everywhere. But I wondered like is he playing a little bit of chicken here, saying to our allies, I think it's going to hurt you more than it's going to hurt us. I'm betting you're going to get in the game or like [clears throat] why is why is Iran charging fees to when does anybody else get involved? I guess that's what I'm asking. Does anybody else get involved?
Yeah, it's a really it's it's a really interesting question, right? It's a very important question. I I don't know that it's I would want to see more um corroborated information that that definitively says the Iranians are charging the the the Chinese regime or Xi Jinping and the Communist Party from moving oil. Uh, you know, I I think I I think that would be that's a very interesting development, but I I'm not sure that it's entirely accurate at this point because the Iranians really have very few friends and and certainly the Chinese, you know, you never really want to say they're your friend. They're very opportunistic and they'll always do whatever is in their own best interest, which frankly, you know, every nation should do. But um that's an interesting point as to when the allies and the Gulf States jump in um that's what I mean by setting the table. if we had approached them in early days, okay? And you know, you're not going to give them operational details about when you're going to, you know, get on target, but you you have these quiet conversations with them and say, "This is the way it's going to be, and by the way, undoubtedly, we're going to see the blockade or them attempt to in the straight. Here's, you know, what we would propose. Here's why we, you know, we're asking for your support. by the way, we are degrading their military and and minimizing the threat and that benefits everyone. So, how about a little assistance? Um, right.
But I think, you know, at this stage, President Trump is now talking about, well, maybe declare victory, you know, and not worry about whether the straits open or not and kind of throw it at the rest of the world and say, you know, we did our part, you do your part. Um, that's problematic. Look, this this idea of opening the straight through an escort system through an international naval force, you know, that provides sea and air cover for tankers moving through the straight. That's a very complex thing. Could we do it? We could do it, but then for how long? Right. Right. It's seemingly it does it isn't even cost effective. I I learned that like a $20,000 drone can cost us up to a million dollars to blow up. It it makes no sense. And I I I see that. Um but so so Mike, what happens then? Because so you've got this peace plan and it is there any do you think there's any chance there's somebody in Iran that is like the the person in Venezuela that goes you know what I think I am going to play ball with the West. Uh I'm not I'm not as ideological as I thought that I was. I don't mind sitting on top of this country comfortably and being the new leader um and driving 15 Lamborghinis. Like, is there a corrupt person in there that takes the peace deal or are they just so ideologically captured there's no hope of that?
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's tough to you can't put the uh the experience from Venezuela and layer that on top of Iran and think you're going to get the same result. You just can't. It's not. There's no there's no real comparisons there. And I think perhaps the US administration was somewhat um intoxicated with the experience from Venezuela at least to date. Obviously, it's an ongoing experiment. Uh but you can't do that. There's no defined credible u identifiable opposition in in Iran. You know, it's very interesting and not to bang on about this, but I I find over the past couple of days u the White House has been working on a new narrative, right? they're rolling it out and they they've kind of put the memo out and said and every administration does this, right? You get your talking points out there, everybody starts repeating it. The idea is we're working with a new regime. We're talking to a new regime, right? And and you know, we we find them, you know, reasonable and uh you think that's the word they use. You think it's not a new regime. This is the old regime. Still the Islamic Republic. you got different faces, you know, deck chairs have been rearranged, but and again, make no mistake, this is I I think and and all the golf states, the the players out there, a lot there's, you know, there there's fairly unanimous thought that the world and certainly that region would be far better off without the Iranian regime. And every US administration since 79 has just kicked this can down the road and and refused to deal with it thinking somebody else deal with it. We'll put together this some ridiculous you know agreement which they never stick with. Okay. There is no reason to have 60% uh enriched uranium if you you know are claiming that you have a civilian peaceful nuclear program. Nothing over 5% makes sense. You don't need it. and yet they've been stockpiling it. Getting from 60% to weapons grade is is the easy lift. So, it's about time. I'm not saying it's not. I'm I'm just saying it's far more complicated at times than I think the administration seems to be explaining.
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