Transcription
Hey folks, Eric Stackelbeck here. Welcome to a special breaking news edition of the Watchman newscast live stream. We thought we were going to head into the weekend quietly, peacefully, not to be. Some major developments are happening right now, unfolding in the world's most chaotic, volatile, and strategic region. Yes, the Middle East.
I'm in my car, as you can see, not the usual bells and whistles. I'm used to being in a studio with a suit on, but the great thing about this channel and our loyal watchmen and women on the wall here on our YouTube channel or subscribers is we can come to you anywhere, on the road, in the car. Whenever news happens, we're going to come to you. So, right now, I'm just coming to you down and dirty, straight from my phone for a quick update. I did not want you guys to go into the weekend without having a grasp of these major events that are unfolding. And by the looks of things, who knows, I'll be back with you tomorrow as well.
But, here's the deal. Number one, Iran, the US, heating up. I—I've said all along, let's just cast a skeptical eye at the ongoing peace talks, the memorandum of understanding, and lo and behold, the Iranian regime is going to do what the Iranian regime does, what it's done for 47 years now. They're going to go back on their word, folks. That's what demonic, fascist, Islamic jihadist death cults do.
And sure enough, today, Iran attacked a Singapore—a Singaporean flagged ship off the Omani coast in, you guessed it, the Strait of Hormuz. Now, we know the Iranian regime is hell-bent on controlling the strait to the point where they're talking about, "Look, once the 60 days of negotiations, if we get that far—more on that in a minute—but once those 60 days, hypothetical, are done, guess what? We, along with Oman," this is what the regime is saying, "we're going to control the Strait of Hormuz. And oh, yeah, we're going to charge a toll to every ship that goes through the Strait of Hormuz. Sorry, you got to pay a toll to the Iranian regime."
And where's that money going to go? I don't know, maybe to build up Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, to rebuild their nuclear program, their ballistic missile program. I laugh—I don't want to laugh, but I shake my head and I laugh at the naivete of people who think that this jihadi leopard in Tehran is going to change its spots. It ain't happening. They are who they are. They're a death cult. They're pure evil, and evil is relentless. And evil doesn't stop until it is decisively crushed. I bring you Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
But back to the task at hand, Iran strikes in the Strait of Hormuz earlier today. President Trump, shortly thereafter—this is about an hour ago, 2 hours ago—says, "I'm going to respond. This cannot stand. Iran's been warned. I'm going to respond." And sure enough, the United States a short while ago—we're about 5:00 in Texas right now on a street in Texas here, about 5:30 p.m. Central Time in the great state of Texas—and the US just came across the wires, did indeed respond, folks. Airstrikes hitting Iranian missile and drone storage facilities, and also some coastal radar sites, apparently, along the coast, Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz region. Explosions heard in southern Tehran, or southern Iran, we're hearing across the wires. Sorry about my shaky camera work.
Uh, but here we have it. And is this going to be just tit-for-tat, a bump in the road as talks continue? I mean, look, President Trump in previous weeks, before the MOU, the memorandum of understanding was signed, Iran would act up, attacking US bases, firing missiles at Kuwait, Bahrain, etc. And President Trump, who wanted a deal, said, "You know, it's not a big deal." Well, this is a big deal. And now Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the IRGC, they're vowing to respond to the US response as we head into Friday night, as we head into the weekend. Gosh, it's past midnight in the Middle East right now.
So, what comes next? Now, the IRGC's MO here, as I just adjust my arm, the IRGC's MO here has been real simple and very predictable. In fact, they target, they lash out, they respond by targeting US bases, number one, in the region, and number two, they're going to target US allies in the immediate vicinity, most likely. Uh, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Saudis, the UAE. I mean, the UAE, by the way, has borne the brunt of the Iranian onslaught since Operation Epic Fury launched on February 28th. The UAE absorbed more missile and drone fire from Iran than Israel did.
So, how will Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps respond? And by the time you're watching this, again, it's around 5:30 Central Time in the United States. By the time you're watching this, perhaps Iran has already responded. Uh, we don't know, but I would think the response is forthcoming. Another likely spot, we think of US bases, God forbid, uh, Arab Gulf allies in the region, also one of the regime's favorite retaliatory spots has always been Iraqi Kurdistan. They loathe the Kurds, who are US-aligned, even though President Trump's not too happy with the Kurds right now. But Iraqi Kurdistan, another potential, uh, response point, shall we say, reaction point, uh, for the Iranian regime.
So, that's happening right now. That's just one of two very huge events that are unfolding just in the past few hours here as we head into the weekend. So, we're keeping a very close eye on the Iran situation right now.
And the second event, Lebanon-Israel, major, major, historic—more on that in a minute—but real quick, something to think about, the talks. J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, that's been the negotiating team. The US negotiating team with the Iranian regime. They were in Switzerland, obviously, a few days ago, and I didn't like the way it went as an American observing it. I thought it was demeaning to the vice president and his team the way the regime conducted itself, the way the Qatari mediators—I mean, we talk about the talks. Look, you're counting on Qatari and Pakistani mediators, really? Talk about wolves in sheep's clothing who are sympathetic to the Iranian regime and their Islamic brothers. So, I didn't like the way it went.
The memorandum of understanding, you guys have heard me in live streams, on newscasts over the past week and a half. I've got questions, and I've got major concerns, no doubt. I'm all about peace through strength, and President—oops, sorry there. President Trump is as well. And you know, the attacks on Iran, the the hugely successful operation, which has decimated the regime and its military capabilities, incredible, historic. And those attacks, you could say, brought the regime to the negotiating table, brought them to their knees, brought them to the negotiating table, but it's been said often times, Iran has never won a war, the regime, but they've never lost a negotiation. This is where it gets dicey.
Once that ceasefire went into effect on April 8th, the momentum Israel and the US had in that incredible historic joint military campaign kind of came to a screeching halt. And now, the negotiation in the early stages, I don't like the optics of it. Uh, the memorandum of understanding, obviously some serious questions about it, to say the least. Uh, President Trump has earned the benefit of the doubt. I've said this throughout. I trust him. He's earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Iran. Up until this MOU, he's essentially done all the right things. He has taken on this regime and confronted them head-on like no president before him. So, let's see how this plays out.
Does this unravel? I mean, look, I think at the end of the day, and we discussed this on the live stream the other day, folks, at the end of the day, it's clear why the president has agreed to agreed to talk about a deal. Remember, the MOU is not a final deal. It's an agreement to discuss possibly a final deal. In the next 60 days, they will continue to talk. Clearly, the president agreed to this because of oil and gas prices and the midterms.
And I talked to someone yesterday who's pretty well informed and plugged in in DC, a good friend, who said, "Eric, there's no way after the midterms, and God willing, uh, the the radical insane left does not prevail, either take the House or the Senate in November. You saw—if you if you wonder why I'm so concerned, you saw the future of the immediate future of the Democratic Party in New York City Tuesday night, where we have Democratic socialist, Islamist madness, anti-American, anti-Semitic, fanatical tyrants in the making, mini Jacobins, think the French Revolution. So, yeah, I don't want that in November. Sorry. And President Trump doesn't either."
And but he's thinking, "Look, the average American's not an Iran expert or a Middle East expert, maybe not as concerned with foreign policy as we are here in the live stream. I wish everyone was because what happens over there doesn't stay over there, especially in a prophetic sense and a biblical sense. But, most people, and understandably to a degree, are concerned about the wallet, the pocketbook, oil and gas. Hey, it's summertime here in America, people are driving to and fro, 4th of July's coming up, people driving long distances, and they want low gas prices. And if they don't have low gas prices come November, they might not vote for Republicans. I—that's what it is. The president knows it. So, he made a very difficult, I think, decision to pause things, but he's a smart guy. He understands Iran's regime. He knows what they do. They lie, they double-talk, they obfuscate, they're incapable of telling the truth or keeping to a deal, especially with an infidel power like the United States. The example of their prophet Muhammad, who agreed, for instance, to a 10-year peace treaty with rival tribes in Mecca. He was in Medina. After 2 years, when he found he was strong enough, or he felt he was strong enough, he broke the treaty like that and attacked. So, the Hudna, they call it. So, President Trump gets this. I don't know that they get—people around him definitely get the theological aspect, too. Um, but I don't know the—look, the depth of it is they want the Messiah, the Islamic Messiah, to return, the Mahdi, the 12th Imam, they call him. They think with a great war they can usher in the Islamic version of the end times. This is who they are. They're true believers, folks, fanatics, fanatics, who cannot be reasoned with. They must be crushed. I think the president gets that in his core, and that's why he took them on in the first place, and took out Soleimani, pulled out of the original Iran deal back in 2018, the Obama abomination, that Iran deal, the JCPOA. So, we shall see, but in that's longer term. In the short term, let's see how this plays out.
Uh, Iran, they're feeling bold right now, they're feeling like they're in control, and they're controlling these negotiations, and we've—we survived the best that America and Israel, the little Satan and the great Satan could throw at us, we survived it. For now. But did they survive it because the time—I mean, most of the regime has been decimated. You've got like the C-team now doing the negotiations. We shall see. I think this regime's on borrowed time. Uh, in the long run, a few months, a few years, I don't know. But at the end of the day, big events are happening, we're keeping an eye on it.
I've got to mention though, two things, Lebanon, but number one, hey, if you like what you're hearing, breaking news, current events, chiefly from the Middle East, Israel, but we go around the horn, Europe, China, right here in America where I'm sitting, wherever there's news, geopolitics, we bring it to you from an unapologetically biblical perspective, even on a street in Texas in my car. By the way, if this is your first time watching, I'm usually in a studio, it usually looks a little bit more professional than this, but I've got to say, a lot of people say, "You know what? I like it down and dirty, man. Just give it to me straight, you're a real dude, you're a normal dude, and I like you just hanging and in the car," and I kind of like it, too. It's more comfortable than a suit and tie to be in a T-shirt, 'cause I'm in a suit and tie usually every day doing my nightly show for TBN, it's called Stackelbeck Tonight. Uh, beautiful studio here in Dallas, and it's amazing, but YouTube is cool 'cause you can let your hair down a little bit, and hey, people are watching. That—that's the amazing thing about the media landscape today, it's changed so much, and I can just come to you from my car with breaking news, and many, many people are watching. We've got over 1.1 million subscribers on this channel. For such a time as this, it goes without saying. So, we would love for you to join us here every day as watchmen and women on the wall. Click the notification bell so you get alerts. Be sure to subscribe, and we're coming to you in these momentous Bible times we're living in.
Speaking of which, final thoughts. This is important. I mentioned history. Israel and Lebanon. Okay, talks unfolding right now in DC. And Israel and Lebanon—Lebanon just came to a historic agreement. Now, they don't have, remember, uh, Lebanon is Israel's immediate neighbor to the north, ravaged by 50 years of civil war, and in particular the last, especially the last 26 years since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, ravaged by Hezbollah, Iran's main proxy, its crown jewel, which has essentially created a state within a state in southern Lebanon.
Iran is very successfully—I mentioned a few minutes ago, I've got questions about the MOU and concerns. The chief one is the Lebanon portfolio, if you can call it that, to sound really technical, because the Iranian regime, it seemed, had successfully linked, um, the ceasefire in Lebanon and the fate of Lebanon and the outcome there with the fate of Iran. Because Iran's saying, "Look, Hezbollah's on the ropes. Israel has smashed them since October 8th." Yeah, October 8th, the day after the October 7th massacre, that's when Hezbollah, if you remember October 8th, 2023, unilaterally unilaterally attacked Israel. And Israel responded, and the response has been severe, and rightfully so, and Hezbollah's a shell of what it was, and yet it's still causing damage, still has rockets and drones, not nearly as many, but they still have them, and they're firing them on a daily basis on the orders, at the behest of their masters in Tehran.
Now, that threw a wrench into the larger Iran deal because Israel responds like any sovereign nation would and Iran is saying to the US, "Hey, rein Israel in. Get them to leave Hezbollah alone or no deal." And the US it seems is kind of playing along with this and even President Trump was like chastising Israel for responding to terror attacks from Hezbollah. Now, this is common sense. I'm in America. If a terror group in Mexico or Canada on our borders is launching rockets and drones into America, we're going to respond with overwhelming and lethal force as any sovereign nation would do in its right mind with a strong normal leader. Israel certainly has that in Benjamin Netanyahu, so they responded forcefully against Hezbollah. Iran whined and pouted and gnashed its teeth and it jeopardized the larger deal with Iran, so Israel is getting castigated. It's insanity.
But, it seems we had a course correction today. I am happy to report, folks. Marco Rubio, our great Secretary of State. President Trump said he's the best ever. I think he's right. The guy's amazing and I hope to interview him soon, by the way. Secretary, if you're listening, I'd love to get you to do a sit down with you for Stakelbeck Tonight and for the Watchman News Channel here.
But, here are the the the quick bullet points for you. It's historic because it's a deal between Israel—Lebanon. Not an Abrahamic accords deal yet, but that could be in the offing because again, Israel—uh, Lebanon do not have normalized relations. They don't—Lebanon officially at least does not recognize Israel's right to exist. There's no relations there. But, this deal is big. It does a few things. It pushes Iran out of Lebanon. So much for that linkage thing which J.D. Vance, look, he was pushing it it seemed. And Rubio's saying that and they get along, and but they're very different men in the realm of foreign policy. And more on that on a future live stream. Um, but Rubio gets it. I'll say that.
And this deal that was signed says essentially that it—Lebanon now, it empowers the Lebanese government and the Lebanese armed forces to essentially push—a God willing—push Hezbollah out of Lebanon entirely. I don't know if that's possible, but to disarm Hezbollah, to take Hezbollah on head-on. It allows Israel to remain a buffer zone, maybe a smaller one slightly, but a buffer zone nonetheless in southern Lebanon to defend against any potential Hezbollah attacks. But again, Iran is now shut out of the conversation. Secretary Rubio, thank you. Israel's happy about it. The great Ambassador Yaki Lopez, a better friend of mine, the Israeli ambassador to the US. He was the point man on the talks on the Israeli side, happy about it. The Lebanese are happy about it.
Essentially with this deal, this deal is saying Iran and Hezbollah, "You're done. You have no right to be in Lebanon functioning as you do." Certainly not Iran, which is a foreign entity. But Hezbollah, yeah, many of them, most of them of course are Lebanese born. But still, you can't do—you may be Lebanese and you've lived here, but you can't do what you were doing anymore. And by the way, it's been 44 years. Iran created Hezbollah way back in 1982. Hezbollah, by the way, which has more American blood on its hands than any terror group other than Al-Qaeda. Hundreds of Americans at least Hezbollah has killed, most notoriously the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. 243 brave US servicemen killed by a Hezbollah suicide bomber on the on the orders of Iran. As much as I love Ronald Reagan, he didn't respond. He pulled out right away and it sent the wrong message. No one's perfect. He was a great president.
Uh, but the gauntlet has been laid down. Iran's not happy. Hezbollah's not happy. But here's the deal. This almost demands—this deal today between Israel and Lebanon. It demands confrontation between not Israel and Hezbollah, although that'll happen because Israel will respond to the predictable Hezbollah attacks. >> [snorts] >> But it demands that the Lebanese central government and the Lebanese armed forces, the LAF, they finally step up. And folks, I'm nervous. Almost have nervous, but I'm skeptical would be a more accurate word because they've never done it. They've never shown the gumption and and the the steadfastness to challenge Hezbollah. They've been a little scared, I think. Outgunned is part of it. But now they're saying, "You know what? The US has our back. Israel has our back. Once and for all, let the Lebanese people handle what is ultimately a Lebanese problem. This is a terror hornets' nest on Lebanese soil. Let the people of Lebanon deal with it. We say the people of Iran, we want the Iranian people regime change in Iran God willing to be organic from the people. Amen. Hopefully soon. Please God. But shouldn't the people of Lebanon take their country back from Hezbollah and from Iran's regime? I think so. And this I think today takes a major step towards that.
Now look, they may drop the ball. The LAF and Lebanese government, they they may not follow through. But in the very least this deal, the mere signing of this deal sends a message. And it assuages my fears that we were going to throw Lebanon to the wolves, we're going to empower Hezbollah there and handcuff Israel. This is madness. That's why I was so concerned. The Lebanon—the MOU for me, the Lebanon issue and Hezbollah was first and foremost of the concerns. And they weren't being adequately addressed in my view. Now they are, it seems today with this deal. I'm also not thrilled about sanctions relief for Iran, that's and I've talked about that as well.
But today the two big stories, Iran the US kind of going toe-to-toe here militarily and Lebanon—Lebanon a big deal. I think at the end of the day as we close here, the Iranian axis is going to be decisively smashed. It's we're halfway there if not 75%. Uh, but they still are lethal enough to cause a lot of damage, a lot of unrest, instability, affecting global oil markets, etc. I'll say this. This is my closing salvo. Finish the job. What have I said here since February 28th? Mr. President, finish the job. Get this thorn out of the world's side, this wicked regime. Empower the Iranian people. Finish the job. Now more than ever this is the chance, the golden opportunity to do it.
Man, breaking news from the car on the street here in Texas. Have a great weekend and if anything big happens, look if Iran attacks, we'll come back to you tomorrow. No worries, we'll be here all weekend keeping you informed. Be sure to subscribe. Have a great weekend despite all the madness because you know God's on the throne. So what are you worried about? God's on the throne. And his son rules and reigns. Amen. Have a great weekend. God bless you until next time. Remember, never hold your peace. See you soon.
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