US awaits Iran response as Hormuz standoff drags into third week | Morning in America

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]with News Nation's Yael Ley. Yael, good morning from New York, my friend. Give us a better understanding of why the silence to this point with Iran.

[00:00:12]>> Very much so. Good morning, Hannah. Yes, this is day 71 since Operation Epic Fury began, day 27 of the US blockade and Iranian ports as that country remains defiant closing the straits of Hermuz.

[00:00:26]out. Also last night, President Trump for the first time speaking to White House um press corps for mentioned that he is waiting for a letter. He's waiting for a response from Thrron and as is the entire world. But as of now, we do not know if that response came to the latest American proposal to end the war. Iran's foreign minister though spoke with reporters as well overnight into saying quote, "We do our own thing and we don't care about deadlines." End quote. The same time, the president is signaling the United States could restart Project Freedom, that naval escort operation through the straight of Hermuz just days after pausing the shortlived mission to give diplomacy a chance, as the president mentioned. Now, the US is also turning up the pressure on China, imposing new sanctions on several Chinese companies accused of helping Iran, a move that comes just days before President Trump is set to meet President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Inside Iran, US intelligence sources say Supreme Leader Ali Kamei's son Maktab Kamei is still playing a key role in shaping Iran's war strategy that despite remaining largely out of public view. Now all of this is after no ships have managed to cross the straight of Hermoose since Wednesday. So that really key narrow passageway that has 20% of the world's oil consumption remains very much deadlocked. Hannah >> and like you mentioned day 71 of this conflict. Yael, looking ahead, representatives from Israel and Lebanon, they're set to meet in DC next week.

[00:01:53]What could a ceasefire between those two countries mean for a potential Iran peace deal?

[00:02:02]>> That's a that's a great question, Hannah. First of all, that would be the third time those delegations will be meeting Israeli and Lebanese. It is quite historic. That said, the people that will not be at the table will be Hezbollah. Hisbalah is an Iranianbacked militia armed and financed by Iran. It's one of its proxy armies around the region. Hamas in Gaza in Lebanon, the Houthis and Yemen. It has been a very active uh war between Hezbollah and Israel on that northern front. So any negotiations that will carry be carried out next week in Washington are fabulous. But what happens with Hisbala if a peace deal is enacted? How will they lay down their guns? How will the two sides, you know, or the United States make Iran stop support that type of a proxy group that nobody knows yet?

[00:02:48]Anna Yael, you are incredibly knowledgeable on this area in this area in the Middle East and we appreciate you coming on so much. Yay Ley, I'll check with you in the next hour, my friend.

[00:02:58]Stay safe. Thank you again. Here with us now, back here in the States, Colonel Ray Gerber, a retired Marine Corps colonel and longtime intelligence officer. Good morning, Colonel.

[00:03:07]>> Morning, Anna. How are you?

[00:03:08]>> I'm great. Thank you so much for coming on. Yesterday marked the third day, like Gael mentioned, in a row, no ships went through the straight of Hermoose. What do you make of the situation in light of the US crippling two flag tankers coming from Iran in the last 24 hours, but the president says the ceasefire remains intact currently? I think the ceasefire is tenuous. I think her commentary that set the stage pointing out that very few ships have actually passed through since the beginning of this in March basically illustrates that we've got a status quo.

[00:03:37]And in fact, our attack of Iranian tankers illustrates that it's a very difficult thing to garner confidence in commercial shipping in what is very a very tenuous military position right now.

[00:03:47]>> The president said just on Friday he's considering resuming operations to have US Navy ships guide cargo freighters through the street. Colonel, what could that operation look like?

[00:03:58]>> So, the initial insights that we got from that was is that we were playing essentially zone defense. And so we were trying not to escort the ships, but rather set the conditions so they could transit through freely. In getting two ships through in a very narrow time frame, there was still a significant amount of attacks in the straight as well as throughout the rest of the region. I think we could expect that to resume if we do attempt to start to escort or allow other vessels to go through.

[00:04:23]>> I want to read a quote from President Trump as he threatened Thrron in recent weeks. He said, quote, "Knock them out a lot harder and a lot more violently if Tyrron doesn't accept a peace deal." Why have his threats not made a difference so far? Like Yael said, I mean, they're standing their ground here.

[00:04:42]>> I think if you take it from the Iranian perspective, they've endured a significant amount of pain already when they had the leadership decapitations and all the strikes that occurred at the beginning of all this. They've in their mind seen what the US can do and they're seeing their strategy work as it relates to horizontally escalating and closing this straight.

[00:04:59]>> Thank you for watching. Subscribe below and download our NewsNation app right now on your phone and you will get fact-based, unbiased news for all Americans.