Speaker 1: What's going on.
Speaker 2: 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 dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button.
Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet.
And again, thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 1: All Right, so.
Speaker 2: The ceasefire is kind of ceasing still, it's very shaky.
The this is gonna be a big test. We got
the talks scheduled for like another twenty four hours from
now in Pakistan. Jd Vance spoke before he got on.
I guess Air Force two to fly back from Hungary yesterday.
I've got his comments about the negotiations because yesterday there
was all this swirl about the Iranians ten point proposal
that Trump said that the ten point proposal was a
good framework from which to begin talks. And then Iran's
got these ten points that they pushed out and media
reported all over the place, and those ten points do
not align with any of the fifteen and so everybody's
left kind of scratching their head. But we may have
an answer for this, all right, So some developments. First,
President Donald Trump ordered military forces to remain deployed. He
did this in a truth social post. He said, all
US ships, aircraft, a military personnel with additional ammunition, weaponry,
and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the
lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded enemy
will remain in place in and around Iran until such
time as the real agreement reached is fully complied with.
If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely,
then the quote shooting starts end quote bigger and better
and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was
agreed a long time ago, and despite all of the
fake rhetoric to the contrary, no nuclear weapons, and the
Strait of Hormuz will be open and safe. In the meantime,
our great military is loading up and resting, looking forward
actually to its next conquest. America is back. Okay, So
that's the president's tweet. Essentially hours after the ceasefire with
Iran supposedly went into effect, Israel launched its largest wave
of strikes against has bought. Code name of the mission
is Eternal Darkness. Fifty fighter jets dropping one hundred and
sixty bombs on one hundred targets across the country in
ten minutes. They targeted command centers, intelligence, headquarters, rocket and
naval units, as well as assets of.
Speaker 1: The elite Radwan Force.
Speaker 2: Okay, and then Iran said, hey, you can't do that,
or else we're not going to go to the talks
with you because you said it's a ceasefire, and Israel
said not for us in Lebanon against Hesbala, which, for
people who don't understand, like Hesbala is a proxy army
that Iran funds and trains and deployed into Lebanon in
order to colonize it, destabilize it and take make it
over like it's a little mini Iran.
Speaker 1: That was the plan.
Speaker 2: There is still a functioning Lebanese government, but they were
supposed to be disarming Hesblah after the two thousand and
sixth war. I think they had some agreement in the
Lebanese army was supposed to be saying like, hey, you
can't have these weapons, you can't be hitting Israel and
all of this stuff. And you know that didn't turn
out so well, that didn't work at all. You got
Hesbala's been launching rockets and missiles and drones at Israel,
you know, since October seventh. So Israel now, according to
Amit Siegal, who publishes a newsletter called It's Noon in Israel.
He's a journalist over in Israel, he says, the Israeli
lesson from October seventh is that intentions do not matter.
Capabilities do. What does he mean by this, Well, for years,
the idea ignored the terror monster rising on its borders
and instead focused on whether the enemy intended to attack
or whether it was in its interest to do so. Right,
So they were like trying to think, you know, get
in the minds of Hamas. In practical terms, what this
means is that Iran says it's not going to sign
a temporary cease fire, but it did. It said the
straight up four moves would not reopen, but then it did.
It did, And they actually published a map showing where
boats should go because they mined some of the waters,
so they put a big box of red like don't
go into this area. I wasn't even sure that they
had dropped any minds down there, but apparently Iran says
they did, which is a war crime. Indeed, not hearing
any any of the screams of war criminal from the
people who've been screaming it for the last two days.
Iran also swore to include ending the war in Lebanon
and Hesbala suffered hundreds of casualties yesterday. This is what
remains of the Iranian axis that once cast a long
shadow across the Middle East, the Iranian victory image that
is being encouraged by broad segments of the international media.
They say that Iran survived ten rounds against the heavyweight
world champion and they live to tell the tale. That's
the narrative that Iran is pushing. And there are a
lot of people that hate Donald Trump in places all
over the globe, but here in America that are running
with this narrative. I heard a caller call into Vince's
show just before I got on the air, and he
said that we've already lost, which like, there is no
way you can look at what this operation has been doing.
If you look at what the operation has been actually doing,
who So here's a question for you. Has have the
Israelis or or the United States hit any of the
Iranian like the parliament. Have they hit any of these
types of buildings like the seats of government power? I mean,
they've been going after military installations, right, They've been going
after IRGC, They've been going after iatolas, they've been going
after nuclear programs, right, They've been going after the military
industrial base. But they haven't touched sort of like the
bureaucratic side of the Iranian government. Why is that? What
are they trying to do? What is the purpose here?
It's to create the friction that already exists between the
quote unquote civilian government and the theocracy, the IRGC, the Iyatola,
the Mullahs, right, which now it's becoming clearer that the
Nepo Ayatola like that he's basically like in a coma
someplace and they're they're doing a weekend at Bernie's deal
so the IRGC can take control. So there is a
there is a power struggle going on inside the Iranian
regime right now. And people think there's this one government
and there isn't there. There are like all these different
factions because like all of these different Mullahs the clerics,
they control different businesses and companies that make them a
lot of money. They funnel their money through these companies
to the IRGC to pay salaries, buy weapons, they send
it to their proxy armies and all of that. So
look at what we look at what we've been targeting.
It's the things that Donald Trump laid out in the
objective list, the thing that Marco Rubio said when he
laid out the objectives as well, and they never said
regime change. Trump's been saying, well, I guess it is
a different regime because you know, there's a lot of
people that were taken out. Okay, sure, I don't really
buy that. But the friction point is between these two elements,
one of which is obviously interested in talking to end
the war. That would be the civilian government versus the IRGC.
Who are you know, the true believers the Jihattist mindset.
They're the ones that are opposed to any kind of deal.
And yet what has now been acknowledged by Iran saying
Lebanon has to be off the table. They have to
be part of the ceasefire too. You can't be hitting Israel,
can't be hitting Hesbala. That is an admission finally to
what we all knew already, but Iran is finally now saying, Okay,
you got to stop hitting them because they're with us.
They're part of us as we knew. Here's a great idea.
How about making an escape to a really special and
secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive
up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection.
Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want
to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends
together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Ashville has
the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with
your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled
within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga
National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the
heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Asheville
and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all
the local attractions, with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs,
Wi Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch.
Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas and a
great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville
has the ideal spot for you for any occasion and
they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight,
three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all
there is to all offer a cabins Offashville dot com
and make memories that'll last a lifetime. So about forty
minutes ago, just as the show was getting ready to
start here, Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Nintanyahu put out
a statement saying, in light of Lebanon's repeated requests to
begin direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed the Cabinet yesterday
to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible.
The negotiations will focus on the disarmament of Hesbelah and
the establishment of peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon. Israel
appreciates the call made today by the Prime Minister of
Lebanon to demilitarize Beirut.
Speaker 1: That is a positive development.
Speaker 2: You black pillars, Oh my gosh, we're losing hmm.
Speaker 1: You got the Lebanese government.
Speaker 2: Gonna work with Israel to to finally newter Hesbala on
the border. That's a positive development after an Operation Rising Lion.
That's not what this one is. Rising Lion was the
Twelve Day war. After that, every available Iranian dollar was
invested in rebuilding the ballistic missile array, seen as the
only effective deterrent for Israel. The result was a relatively
quick recovery for the Iranians, but also enormous public anger
that was suppressed at the cost of massacre. Right, this
is when the Iranian people took to the streets. Their
economy was crashing and they had just been attacked, and
all the money is being siphoned off to rebuild the
ballistic missile programs and stuff, and people took to the
streets in opposition and they were slaughtered by the tens
of thousands. Now there is way more that Iran has
to rebuild, and fewer dollars because the money generating enterprises
that were dual use that were being used to build
the missiles, the drones, right, the fuel, all of that
stuff is now destroyed.
Speaker 1: And so what are you going to spend your money on?
Speaker 2: First, if you're Iran And this is what the quote
unquote civilian government. This is what they're looking at. Reportedly,
they're looking at like, well, even if we remain alive
and still like in power, how do we recover where
we got all the sanctions that Trump put on us
last year that helped to crash the currency. And now
we have all this stuff we have to rebuild. We
got bridges to rebuild, we got rail lines to rebuild. Right,
we have all of this, all of these needs.
Speaker 1: What are you going to? What are you gonna send
your money on?
Speaker 2: Should it buy a new navy, buy a new air force,
invest in missile production again, rebuild Hesbelah, which is groaning
under a heavy deficit, or invest domestically to try to
calm down your population whose situation has only gotten worse.
And then there's the Gulf states all around you that
were attacked by Iran. They've been taught a lesson too.
They're not going to forget this. They are not Israel.
They're not accustomed to rounds of fighting every year or
two generations of Emiradis, Qataris and Saudi's. They will now
carry the trauma of running to unprotected spaces. While tourism, stability,
and energy went up in flames. Yeah, Israel, right, all
of their building codes require you to have a bomb
shelter like people have. Like people know where their bomb
shelters are. They rush to the shelters they do, like
this is a part of life for it. These other
countries don't have that, and they got a taste over
the last month, they got a taste of what the
Israelis lived through at the hand of Iran. The state's
most critical assets have been reduced to rubble. Iran's military industry,
it's steel production, the petrochemical plants that served as their
economic lifeline. They've all been crippled, offering no near term
recovery capability unless the regime is overthrown by its own people.
Speaker 1: This is not the end, though.
Speaker 2: Over in Lebanon, Operation Eternal Darkness, ten minutes, fifty fighter jets,
one hundred and sixty bombs targeting one hundred targets.
Speaker 1: Why why now?
Speaker 2: A couple reasons, according to Amid Sigaal Number one. With
the ceasefire Israel, they've got all these fighter jets that
now are not flying over Iran. So oh and by
the way, one note there they've been flying over Arab
country's airspace, which is something you would never have thought
possible twenty years ago. So you got all these fighter
jets now they can run this mission into Lebanon. The
strikes also serve as a definitive statement that Israel interprets
the ceasefire to not apply to Hesbellah. And if Trump
was going to impose a ceasefire on Israel into Lebanon,
if he was going to do that to try to
get the Iranians to the table, well, Israel wanted to
ensure that at least it delivered this devastating blow first.
So this then prompts the Iranians to say, we're closing
the strait of Warmus again. That's it, because if Hesbelah
is not going to be protected, then we're going to
close the straight And why even bother talking and all this,
So who are you actually talking with? This is the
problem with the IRGC doing its weekend at Bernie's, with
the Ayatola sidelining and doing sort of a coup against
the civilian leadership. Well, who are we negotiating with? Who
actually has the power? Again? Driving a wedge between these
different factions inside of the leadership ranks who are now
looking at each other like well, are you cutting a deal?
Why are you willing to cut a deal? Who's been talking?
Who's been leaking? This is There are multiple layers to
all of this stuff.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things,
to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of
our past while transcending generations. They help us process the
meaning of life and our stories are told through images
and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in
nineteen ninety seven in mint Hill, North Carolina. It was
the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images,
photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos
and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative
Video will go over all of the details with you
to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off
in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a
week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos
for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or
just your family stories all told through images. That's what
your photos and videos are. 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. From the
text line, Jack says, what happened with the meeting yesterday
between Trump and the UN? I'm not aware of a
meeting between Trump and the UN. He had a meeting
with ATO and before that meeting with the NATO chief
Mark Rudy Routti whatever. Before that meeting, Trump had said
I think he socialed it out. He was like, like,
what's the point of being in NATO, Like, we're going
to discuss getting out of NATO with the NATO chief.
And so he has the meeting and here's what Ruddy
said moments ago. When it came time to provide the
logistical and other support the United States needed in Iran,
some allies were a bit slow, to say the least.
In fairness, they were also a bit surprised. To maintain
the element of surprise for the initial strikes, President Trump
opted not to inform allies ahead of time. But what
I see when I look across Europe today is allies
providing a massive amount of support nearly without exception. Allies
are doing everything the United States is asking. They have
heard and are responding to President Trump's reques US. Okay,
can we fly over your freaking country now? Can we
land at our bases that we paid for?
Speaker 1: Can we do that? How about that? Like that to
me is the bare minimum.
Speaker 2: But the yeah, I'm not buying I'm not buying this,
Like the European allies not very ally behavior the Gulf
coast countries, they're actually doing more. I mean, Iran was
complaining that after the ceasefire was announced that they got hit.
Speaker 1: There was an attack on Levon Island and they were like,
you guys did it?
Speaker 2: You guys did in Israel and America were like, no,
we didn't, we didn't do that. And now it turns
out that was carried out by Mirage fighter jets used
by the United Arab Emirates. Yes, the UAE, which is
a little bit so that Iran has been flinging hundreds
or thousands of missiles and drones into their country and
hitting their gas and oil production facilities. So yeah, they
were a little salty at that. The UAE says it
will seek clarification on the terms of the ceasefire agreement
to find out like does this cover us, and the
US says, yes.
Speaker 1: You're not allowed.
Speaker 2: Iran's not allowed to hit you guys, and you guys
can't hit them, and so far that seems to be
holding so far. Qatar's foreign minister has discussed the ceasefire
with the Saudi Arabian counterpart. They also emphasized the importance
of protecting maritime routes and ensuring freedom of navigation. The
foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia also spoke by
phone to discuss developments. Iran's nationwide internet blackout has entered
its forty first day. That is a record. It's unprecedented.
God only knows what we're going to see when when
communications return there. Turkey sorry, Turqua is how they want
it pronounced now said It raided Islamic state networks nationwide,
detaining nearly two hundred people following that gun battle that
occurred outside of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul by three attackers.
Speaker 1: What else here?
Speaker 2: Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has issued a deadline
for European allies to commit tangible military assets to the
Strait of Hormuz, including naval deployments. According to Dershspiegel, the
German publication, Mark Ruddy told member states that earlier political
commitments are no longer enough. They actually have to guard
the waterway that they rely on, so Iran cannot do
to them again what they're doing now right. Iran has
released an official map of required shipping routes. It shows
vessels must travel closer to Iran's coast and confirms for
the first time that usual routes are now considered dangerous
due to the risk of naval minds. What about the uranium,
Benjamin Nton Yahoo said, quote the enriched uranium will completely
come out of Iran and it will be then either
by agreement or by renewing the war. Iran's nuclear chief
had said that demands by adversaries to limit the country's
uranium and Richmond program would fail. The head of the
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said such calls were quote
wishful thinking and would not stop. Could not stop Iran's
nuclear activities. Quote no law or individual can stop us,
said Mohammed ISLAMI. How much of that is the saving
face bluster?
Speaker 1: Don't know.
Speaker 2: Regarding Lebanon, Iran is warning that if Israel does not
halt it strikes in Lebanon, it's going to walk away
and riding to Iran's defense were the European countries, the UK,
the French and Australian leaders, I think Germany and I
think everybody at this point they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Lebanon too, that's got to be included in the ceasefire
deal with Iran and Lebanon. Their leader was like, whoa,
any discussion about ceasefire agreements in Lebanon will not be
negotiated by anybody other than Lebanon. Like, this is our country.
What are you guys doing. We're not part of the EU.
You don't speak for us. The US Iran ceasefire according
to the EU Foreign policy chief Kadjak Karas, She says
it should be extended to Lebanon. Hezbelah dragged Lebanon into
the war, but Israel's right to defend itself does not
justify inflicting such massive destruction. Oh, we're back to the
proportionality argument. Look, Israel, you need to suffer, you know,
a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand rockets and drones
into your residential areas and cities and stuff. You need
to just live with that and spend a whole bunch
of money on your systems to take out all of
these missiles. That's just the price of being a Jew.
I guess I don't know, because you cannot try to
eliminate all of the networks in the because Hesbala dug.
Speaker 1: They dug tunnels.
Speaker 2: All along the border with Israel so they can hide
their rocket munitions. They could pop out and send a
bunch of rockets go back underground, right, this is their tactic.
And so Israel blew a bunch of the tunnels up,
took out a whole bunch of THEIRS leadership again, and
so Lebanon needs to step up now, like, if you
want this Iranian proxy terror eliminated from your borders, you're
gonna have to do something about it, all right. If
you're listening to this show, you know I try to
keep up with all sorts of current events, and I
know you do too, And you've probably heard me say
get your news from multiple sources.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 2: Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is
why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an
app and it's a website, and it combines news from
around the world in one place, so you can compare
coverage and verify information. You can check it out at
check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the
link in the podcast description too. I started using ground
News a few months ago and more recently chose to
work with them as an affiliate because it lets me
see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The
blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by
the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground,
dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll
get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage
plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription
then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports
ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent.
Speaker 1: Let's go over here and chat with Dean. Hello, Dean, Hi, Pete, Hello, Hey.
Speaker 3: I had two questions, and one was I don't understand.
I'm glad we can track this pilot and figure out
exactly where he is and pick him off. And yet
it seems like the Straits all of a sudden don't
go here because there's minds they plant in minds. Don't
you know we seem so sophisticated in some areas and
not in others. Or am I just interpreting it wrong?
Speaker 1: I did an entire.
Speaker 2: Hour on the Strait of Hormuz asking the question of
why we haven't opened it yet, and like, do you
think that we are incapable of opening it?
Speaker 3: The one the most logical thing I heard is that
actually China gets eighty percent of their flow of oils
straight and if we were to destroy the infrastructure, then
they are China would have to be drawn into the
conflict and you know, take a position, and then things
could really unravel and our relation, you know, our wars
supposedly more with Iran than it is with China.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: It's also so if you've got all of these other
regional and international actors that benefit from the strait being opened,
but they're not willing to do anything to keep it open.
This is Trump basically the same message he sent Tonado, right,
which is, why are we allied with you? If you're not,
if you're not going to provide any of your own security,
you're not going to put any skin in the game, right,
Because I mean, I think if we wanted to, we could,
the military could. I think that's very clear from what
we just saw in the last five weeks. So then
there becomes a there becomes a larger question then of well,
what is the benefit to increasing pressure for leverage in
allowing the Strait to remain closed? And I went over
all like because it goes into maritime policy, the overhaul
of the navy that Trump has been trying to do,
but he's being blocked by China's lobbyists, members of Congress.
Speaker 1: You got oil.
Speaker 2: Producers, you got all these different actors, and of course
the big insurance companies, Like that's the main people think
that like vessels are getting you know, hit and they're
exploding all over the place, and that's not what's happening.
The insurance carriers are refusing to ensure the vessels going through.
And so the if the United States is able to
break that monopoly of the insurance carriers, right then we
become the center of maritime shipping instead of London, which
is incapable.
Speaker 1: They don't.
Speaker 2: They sent out one boat the other day and it
had to return because there uh they're water purifier systems
uh failed on the boat. Like they don't have an
avy anymore, they're a coastguard.
Speaker 3: Well, I know it's as it has been, as it
is and as it will be, but it just seems
like the strategic thing that everybody's talking about is not
really at the crux of the matter. It should be
to you, you know, political and it should be all
of those things should be what we should be explaining
so we understand.
Speaker 1: No, No, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want if if, if there are all sorts
of other dynamics and and concessions at play here, then
I don't. I don't think you should be negotiating that
through the media or through tweets.
Speaker 3: No, but if we understand the situation and it's you,
we're not. We're not mediating it. We're just trying to,
you know, give a good picture of it. You know
what the actual issues are. That's what we're here for.
Speaker 1: That's what I've been doing for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would say, go to the peak pod
dot com and go look up. It was last week
I did an episode on One of the hours I
talked about here was on all of the different factors
regarding the maritime.
Speaker 1: Policy, the overhaul of the navy. Right.
Speaker 2: One of the things Trump wanted to start building when
he took office was the Golden Fleet. These massive ships
and what are they designed for? Choke points like That's
the key is who controls all of the choke points.
I appreciate the cal Dean, but I think it was
yesterday or day before Putin sent one of his naval
vessels down the British Channel, like just completely unmolested, just
going to cruise right through. Like Britain can't control its
own territorial waters. These choke points all around the globe
are vital for commerce. And if we are not going
to do the policing, you see what happens when we don't, right,
You see, like bad actors go in there, they control
the choke point, they shut down trade, they wreck the
global economy. Right, oil flows dry up. So who do
you prefer police the choke points? Because they have to
be capable and willing to do so, and what we
have seen so far is nobody really seems able or
willing to do it. So you want China to run
the choke points because you know what they're gonna do, right,
They're going to control them. They'll charge tolls, they'll extract
concessions from countries, They'll use it as further leverage to
spread their communist ideology and become more and more powerful. Right,
the people who want us to fail at this are
also the people who want a quote multipolar world, which
is a degradation of America's status and I'm not on
board with that. All right, that'll do it for this episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: 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 dpetecleanershow dot com. Again,
thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.