Crawford: Iran is 'OUT OF OPTIONS'

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Okay, happening right now. We are awaiting the Iranian response to the draft peace agreement to end the Iran conflict. And it comes as the US military strikes two more Iranian ships that were caught violating the blockade Friday amid a fragile ceasefire. Let's go live now to uh Lucas Tomlinson. He is in Dubai with the very latest on on this uh peace on these peace talks that are kind of at a standstill right now.

[00:00:28]>> That's right. We're still waiting on that response, Aisha. Now, all was calm today in the UAE after three different missile and drone attacks from Iran earlier this week and after US destroyers came under attack in the street of Hormuz on two separate occasions. On the latter, uh, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US forces launched a counterattack and explained why.

[00:00:50]>> Of course, we fired back at them. They were shooting at us. That's what I would expect to do. Only stupid countries don't shoot back when you're shot at, and we're not a stupid country. They threaten Americans, they're going to get blown up. I mean, that's the that's how much clearer can you be than that.

[00:01:04]>> And a senior British official telling our own Brett Bear, the UK is getting in on the action, dispatching a Type 45 destroyer to the region. HMS Dragon, one of only about three destroyers that are seaorthy right now, has air defense capability, but cannot launch land attack missiles like our destroyers fire those Tomahawk cruise missiles. And the French have sent their only aircraft carrier to the Red Sea after recent transit through the Suez Canal. It's not clear what her ultimate destination is, Aisha, but her jets could be welcomed to help open the straight and get some of the more than 1,500 commercial ships stranded in the Persian Gulf with more than 20,000 seaf farers aboard, getting them through the straight of Hormuz. And late this week, three US Navy guided missile destroyers came under attack for the second time this week. This time on an outbound transit of the straight. US forces then launched a counterattack to destroy those missile and drone launch sites as well as Iran's toll booth on Keshum Island. And on Friday, a single F-18 Super Hornet, a Rhino as the pilots call it, singlehandedly disabled two empty Iran Iranian oil tankers trying to run the blockade going to guns to do it using a 20 millimeter cannon. And the US Navy says this blockade remains in effect. 58 commercial ships have been turned away and four oil tankers have been disabled. as we await these peace talks with Iranians. Aisha, >> okay, Lucas Tomlinson live for us.

[00:02:24]Lucas, thank you very much.

[00:02:27]>> Are you optimistic about Iranian response to your proposal?

[00:02:30]>> We'll see what happens. Look, uh, they have no military. They have not a lot left. We'll see what happens.

[00:02:38]>> So, we are still waiting for an answer from Iran. Meanwhile, President Trump says the new retaliatory strikes on Iranian targets this week are just a quote love tap. For more, let's bring in House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Arkansas Congressman Rick Crawford. Uh Chairman, great to have you on. I want to get your read on this moment that we're in right now. We haven't heard anything back from Iran, at least no public announcements uh from Iran or from the White House. How do you read this?

[00:03:08]Well, I think first you need to recognize President Trump has shown a pretty amazing level of forbearance here. I mean, uh, he's he's done an awful lot to give them plenty of options to avoid any kind of military strikes.

[00:03:22]So, we'll see what happens. They the Iranians have run out of options as it applies to their ability to uh to strike us, but um at any scale. So, it'll be interesting to see, you know, what how they respond. You know, the foreign minister of Iran said yesterday, I believe, that the Iranians would not bow to US pressure and he was talking about the military blockade that continues to be enforced um leading to some skirmishes really in the strait. Um do you think that Iran isn't going to be willing to make a deal as long as we've got our military blocking their ports?

[00:04:00]>> Well, I think they need to come to terms with the fact that they don't own the straight of Hormuz. I know they think they have a claim to it, but um the reality is that's an international waterway. It's it's an international choke point that they have chosen to try to to impede. And everybody in the world ought to be concerned about this and particularly the Europeans. I'm I'm encouraged, as you mentioned earlier, uh the UK is actually stepping up and finally getting in the mix here. Um but uh I know the heavy lifting has been done by the United States under President Donald Trump's leadership. But the reality is the Omanis and the Emiratis have every bit as much of a claim to the Straight of Hormuz as the Iranians do. And it's in their interest and ours to resume uh the freedom of navigation through the Straight of Hormuz.

[00:04:41]>> Yeah. But they but they're not helping, right? I mean, these NATO allies aren't really coming to our aid. And and one of them is Italy. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was just there meeting with the Prime Minister Georgia Maloney. Um, and we just pulled troops out of Germany. Here's a back and forth with with Marco Rubio on whether or not we got to pull our troops out of Italy too.

[00:05:02]Watch.

[00:05:04]>> Can you say in your meeting with Prime Minister Maloney whether you talked about the possibility of withdrawing US troops from Italy as well as the possibility of the United States withdrawing from NATO altogether?

[00:05:12]>> No, I we didn't discuss any specifics like that and that's a decision for the president to make. It's a decision every president makes. Um the the fact of the matter though is and I I said, you know, publicly and I've said repeatedly, I've been a strong supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate and even now. And >> so would you support us pulling our troops out of more NATO countries like Italy?

[00:05:35]>> I'm not sure that we need to pull out of NATO altogether, but I think it's it's worth a conversation to say, hey, look, when are you going to step up? We've stepped up. We stepped up in Ukraine to help protect Europe um and and did so when many NATO countries weren't doing that. So we have always pressure but that but to add pressure which which I think is what's going on here. Would you support pulling more troops out of these NATO countries? I think there was 5,000 service members out of Germany.

[00:06:05]Something like that in Italy.

[00:06:08]>> Um I'm not sure that that's necessary in in Italy. We'll let the president make that decision. But you know pulling troops out or repositioning is a different consideration. You could easily reposition troops into a country like Poland for example which is a fantastic ally to the United States and wants to help and does when we ask for it and they're there for us. Other countries we're seeing now the UK as indicated earlier. They're showing up but it's kind of you know too little too late. I mean what kind of contribution are they really making? Are they doing this to try to save face? And the reality is there's an economic consideration to this as well. I mean, if you take military, US military out of countries like Germany, Italy, the UK, it's going to have a huge negative impact on their economy as well as their national security. So, it's it's more than just a simple um you know, security decision. It's also an economic security decision.

[00:06:57]>> Well, it's having an impact on gas prices here at home for Americans, and Democrats are pouncing on that. This is uh former Vice President Kla Harris saying that Russia is the big winner here in this war. watch.

[00:07:11]>> You want to know who's the big winner on on the Iranian war? Russia.

[00:07:17]>> Because because of the oil issue, what has he done? He's lifted sanctions on Russia. You know what that means?

[00:07:23]They're making money to sell oil that otherwise they were prevented from selling. What else does it mean? We're sending artillery, ammunition, air defense that otherwise would be going to Ukraine. I'll get your response to that, chairman.

[00:07:39]>> Yeah, she's still trying to be relevant, but look, the reality is the oil prices impact everybody, but as uh the the previous administration um energy secretary Granholm said, the president has no control over gas prices. And how that applies to Biden and not to Trump, I'm not sure. But, you know, the ru the rules always change when the Democrats are in power and when Republicans are in power, there's a different set of standards there. So the reality is that everybody ought to be concerned about what's taking place in Iran, but we're not making a calculation about the overall supply chain when we think about does Venezuelan supply now offset that 20% that is not moving through the straight of Hormuz. And by the way, we'll resume traffic in the straight of Hormuz quickly. That will happen within a matter of days, maybe weeks. Um, so I'm not I'm not too worried about that.

[00:08:29]I know it's a it's a pain right now to pay these extra uh gas prices, but we're already starting to see them come down a little bit. At least in my neck of the woods, they've been fluctuating, you know, in about a 30 to 40 cent range.

[00:08:40]They're back down on the low end of that range now. So, I think we're starting to see a correction.

[00:08:45]>> Okay. Uh Chairman Crawford, great to have you as always.

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