Will Trump Throw Israel Under The Bus?

[00:00:06]Good day. This is Demetri Lceras coming to you from Kamata, Greece on June 19th, 2026 for Reason to Resist.

[00:00:14]Yesterday after Reason to Resist published my interview of geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningson, which was very much about USIsrael relations, the uh memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran and the future trajectory of the uh USIsrael criminal war of aggression on Iran.

[00:00:35]There were some ostensibly dramatic developments in the US political discourse around USIsrael relations.

[00:00:44]And these dramatic developments uh related to commentary from US Vice President J. D. Vance, most of which was delivered in a press conference at the White House yesterday.

[00:00:56]This commentary, which on the surface was admittedly quite uh eyepopping, to put it mildly, uh came to my attention last night when I uh I was uh surfing through the alternative media to see what the most recent developments were.

[00:01:12]And uh everybody seemed to be talking about JD Vance's press conference uh at the White House yesterday, but everybody was focused on one particular snippet of the press conference which came uh at the very end. And in addition to that, there was similar commentary coming up of none other than ultraionist Hillary Clinton. Commentary from Vance and Clinton that was quite critical of uh the Israeli political elite. So, uh, I'm going to start by showing you those two clips, the, uh, quite remarkable statements of Vance at the end of his press conference yesterday and similar statements made very recently by Hillary Clinton. So, let's start with Vance.

[00:01:56]Um, there's a report in Axios that Netanyahu is fuming over this. Uh, he doesn't Israel doesn't feel uh, bound to theou as it relates to Lebanon. If, as you mentioned, your frustration with Israel strike Israel striking in Beirut hitting apartment buildings. If that continues, could it torpedo the deal?

[00:02:14]And what would the US's response be to a broader war in Lebanon involving?

[00:02:20]>> Yeah. Well, I don't want to get into hypotheticals that could torpedo the deal because I think the president's expectation is that all of our friends, the Israelis, the Arabs in the region, we're going to work together and actually see this deal to completion.

[00:02:33]Now, I saw the Axios report uh you know that that that Netanyahu is fuming.

[00:02:38]That's not reflective of the conversations that I've had with him, but maybe he's saying something to somebody else that he's not saying to me. What I will say, and this does bother me, is that you have seen people within BB's cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the president of the United States.

[00:02:57]Let's just pause there. Uh so he's giving BB a free pass as if there are people in his cabinet who say things that are extremely offensive to the president of the United States uh whose support is of existential importance to Israel as if BB doesn't control those people. Uh, and let's be very clear here. It needs to be said again and again. The people to whom uh, Vance is referring, which undoubtedly includes Smootrich and Ben Gavir, they're constantly being presented as the far right of Netanyahu's cabinet. Everybody in Netanyahu's cabinet is far right. And so are Netanyahu's political rivals as well. Whether you're talking about Benny Gance or Avdor Liber Lieberman or Nafali Bennett or even Yer Laped, the so-called leftist of uh Israeli mainstream politics, these people are all faright Nazi lunatics. So, let's just get that straight right then and there. But the key thing I want to point out here is that Vance is pretending that Netanyahu is innocent and that uh his uh his more extreme ministers or supposedly more extreme ministers have gone off on a lark and are acting without the authority of the prime minister of Israel. So, here's what he says next, and this is the part, what you're about to hear, which really got the alternative media worked up uh about a potential momentous change in USIsrael relations. And I guess my message to them would be twofold. Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower.

[00:04:45]>> Yes, that's true. Actually, there so well there may be other minor figures who are of no geopolitical consequence like Javier Malay of Argentina for example who love Israel but nobody cares about Javier Malay. He has no power. uh the person who has power and who uh is supporting Israel and who is requiring his vassels to support Israel is Donald Trump and it is entirely true to say that pretty much everybody else except for a few inconsequential figures like Javier Malay absolutely despise Israel.

[00:05:20]This is what he said next. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world. And the second message I would give to some of those cabinet members, BB to his credit has not gone down this path, but to some of these cabinet members in Israel who are attacking the president of the United States, the other thing that I would say is that over the last 3 months, twothirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars. The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump. and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in. Thank you all.

[00:06:10]>> So again, you heard him go out of his way to uh exonerate BB for this uh critical commentary being directed by some fools in Netanyahu's cabinet towards Trump. But the main uh thing I want to point out here, two things. Uh first of all, he's basically admitting that the United States is the primary driving force behind the genocidal rampage of Israel. Twothirds twothirds of the munitions are being provided and not even at the expense of Israeli taxpayers, but at the expense of US taxpayers. So this simply supports uh the argument I've been making for over two years that this is very much a western and particularly a US genocide.

[00:06:51]it's uh just being conducted through a proxy, namely Israel. Uh but uh the even larger issue here is whether or not this constituted a veiled threat by JD Vance that the United States will withdraw uh support from Israel if these lunatics in Netanyahu's cabinet don't stop criticizing the uh the uh Trump regime.

[00:07:19]And there are a lot of people, it seems to me, I'm not going to name them. It's kind of beside the point, uh, in the alternative media, who do indeed interpret this as a veiled threat. I'm going to come back to that, uh, by looking at the totality of J. D. Vance's press conference and not simply this uh, particularly dramatic excerpt at the very end of the press conference.

[00:07:43]Uh and the other thing I want to point out about what he just said, if in fact it was a veiled threat, it was not a veiled threat to uh take uh US munitions away from Israel if Israel doesn't stop murdering innocents in Lebanon and Palestine. That wasn't a threat. The threat, if it was a veiled threat at all, and I don't think it was, uh, was, uh, a threat to take away support for Israel if the lunatics in Netanyahu's cabinet don't stop embarrassing the president. Now, that is much more believable than a threat to take away weapons because uh, Israel is mass murdering children. Uh, since when did the United States uh, government and particularly the Trump regime care about Israel's mass murder of children? No.

[00:08:32]No. This is all about the embarrassment being caused to Donald Trump. So to the extent there's discontent being expressed here with the criticisms coming from Israel. It's not uh discontent uh with Israel's genocidal rampage which is intensifying. If anything uh it is discontent with the fact that Donald Trump is being embarrassed. Okay. Now we'll come back to other aspects of uh JD Vance's press conference yesterday which I think are even more revealing. But before that, I want to show you similar commentary from Hillary Clinton uh which happened uh in the last uh few days.

[00:09:08]>> Doesn't send bombers to Iran uh because anybody else commands it to. But it's very clear that BB Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, pushed and pushed Donald Trump to do this. We have an account by Maggie Haberman in the Times about meetings in the situation room in which I think quite unusual a foreign head of state urged the president of the United States to go to war with it against a third party against Iran. Um it's my understanding that when you were secretary of state um BB Netanyahu made the same case.

[00:09:51]Uh, it's my understanding. Well, how did he acquire that understanding? Was he party to the conversations between Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu? Of course not. It's his understanding because he was told this by Clinton and was asked to put this question to Clinton. This is all a setup. Clinton wanted to say what she's about to say. So, here she goes.

[00:10:12]>> Tell me about that.

[00:10:15]>> Well, you're absolutely right. When I was secretary, it was a constant uh you know theme by uh Netanyahu and his then government, the then defense uh minister Ahood Barack, the former prime minister.

[00:10:32]>> It was relentless. It was a constant push. You know, I remember um >> what would he say to you?

[00:10:40]>> What >> what would he say to you? He would basically say um we need we need to uh you need to support us in attacking Iran. And back then this was you know 2009 to the end of uh 2012.

[00:10:57]We had more capacity than Israel did on several fronts uh to uh do that. Um, and so there was a a constant argument, uh, that we would have and and you know, I remember one day, um, I was on the phone for hours with A-hood, with BB, with others, you know, and they would say things like, you know, our planes are on the tarmac. And I'd say, well, good luck. I mean, great. Um, why are you doing this?

[00:11:27]>> Where else would planes be other than in the air?

[00:11:29]>> But on the tarmac, ready to take off?

[00:11:32]Yes. Um, well, no, they'd be in the hanger, but they were on the tarmac. Um, and you know, you would you would say things.

[00:11:40]>> So, you're saying you were they were you were you were being played >> all the time?

[00:11:48]>> Yeah, she was being played all the time.

[00:11:50]So, yeah, this doesn't make Israel look particularly good, but uh this is not evidence that the US political elite is prepared to abandon Israel. This is Hillary Clinton basically telling the American public, I was strong enough and smart enough to avoid the overtures and the pressure from the Trump regime, whereas uh this I'm sorry, from the Netanyahu regime, whereas this kook and this incompetent buffoon in the White House who has been calling me a criminal all these years didn't have the good sense to actually resist the pressure of uh of uh BB Netanyahu. That's what this is all about. It's just political payback. This has nothing to do with any kind of sea change in USIsrael relations. She's just taking the opportunity to embarrass Donald Trump by revealing how she withtood the pressure that Donald Trump uh caved into according to her. Now, uh to give you an example of kind of how the commentary to go back to commentary of JVD Vance has gotten people all excited in the alternative media, here's a post uh from Tita Parsy. Uh this was uh put out in the last uh day or so. Uh and this is a a a similar set of commentary commentary which JD Vance was giving not in that press conference but in uh in another interview in the last couple of days. JD Vance said to some uh corporate media hack uh in response to to Israel opposing the MEU quote my response to them would be what is your exact proposal? You're a country of 9 million people. you can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have. Close quote. And Treata Parsey goes, "Holy smokes."

[00:13:27]Like this is some kind of u huge statement. Now, I respect treats does a lot of good work. Uh but uh I think this is just emblematic and I don't mean to pick upon pick on him because I've seen a lot of commentary like this in the last 24 hours that we're witness some witnessing some kind of momentous uh transformation in the relationship between the United States and Israel and that uh the United States government is truly determined to see this so-called peace process through to a successful uh conclusion and with all due respect to people like treat and others who seem to uh embrace that view, albeit with some reservations.

[00:14:07]Um, I strongly disagree. So, let's get into uh some of the uh more revealing commentary in JD Vance's press conference yesterday. And I just want to say uh first of all, a shout out to John Helmer because uh this morning when I woke up, I had not yet had an opportunity to watch the entire press conference. I've learned from experience that when something like this which is on its face is quite remarkable and I was taken aback when I saw this last night watching dialogue works with Nema Alkrushed who this was the first place I learned of it and then I saw other commentary on Judge Npalitano and uh yet more commentary and other alternative media platforms about this precise clip that I just showed you at the end of the JD Vance press conference. I was my jaw was hanging down like I was whoa that's wild to see to hear them saying this sort of thing. Uh and yeah, you could say that it's that's it is a veiled threat. But when I woke up this morning, uh John Helmer had e emailed me overnight an article that he just wrote uh after he viewed the entire press conference and brought to my attention some things which I thought really undercut completely this suggestion that JD Vance is uh is signaling some kind kind of uh uh profound uh change in the uh attitude of the US government towards Israel. Uh so with that, let's look at uh some of these other uh very revealing excerpts from that press conference.

[00:15:36]We'll start with this one.

[00:15:38]>> Let me just say a couple of things off the bat. First of all, I think the president's peace plan in Iran is already bearing real fruits for the American people. Last night, 12.5 million barrels of oil went through the straight of Hormuz. That is a high since the beginning of the conflict. Oil prices are down nearly at their level from the pre-war conflict. Gas prices drop below $4 a gallon today for the first time since the conflict. And importantly, they're going to keep falling further given how low price low oil prices are. Um on the uh military side, the Iranians for the second night in a row did not shoot at any ships in the straight of Hormuz. So, so far they are honoring their end of the commitment. And on the blockade, Sentcom has allowed north of a dozen ships to go through our naval blockade. And so, we're also honoring our end of the early part of the agreement.

[00:16:25]So the point I just want to make here is you know the very first thing that uh JD Vance did in that press conference was highlight the drop in the price of gas.

[00:16:37]That's what thisou is all about you know and that is exa I think this is this is basically revealed by uh the manner in which he uh uh decided to uh commence the discussion with the corporate press at this press conference. The price of gas has come down. were delivering relief to the American people. That is why they've entered into thisou. They had to lift the blockade in order to get ships going through the straight of Hormuz uh back to or as close to as possible pre-war levels because the United States economy was about to uh uh land itself in serious trouble and pro quite possibly crash altogether. And uh Donald Trump is very concerned about the midterms. That's his primary focus right now, retaining control of the the House and the Senate because if he loses that, not only would will it be uh well not impossible for him to pursue his agenda in Congress, but much more importantly to him, he'll be impeached and uh he could end up uh finding himself subjected to criminal prosecution in short order. So, uh this is really existential for Donald Trump, winning the midterms. And uh you ain't going to win the midterms if the United States economy has been plunged into a severe recession or worse. Uh so that's the purpose of this deal is to provide uh interim relief to the US economy uh at least up until the midterms after which all bets are off. Uh but let's come back to that in a moment. So uh much more revealing excerpts uh will follow here.

[00:18:09]Let's uh let's look at this one. the peace plan. The part of thisouou that I think have been most misrepresented by certain parts of the media is the idea that the Iranians get all these benefits. You will hear things about $300 billion or $24 billion or this or that number of money or amount of money.

[00:18:24]And the simple fact is that the only way the Iranians get any of those resources, not a single penny by the way, from the United States of America under any circumstances, but the only way that they would ever get any benefit of the bargain is if they comply fully and change their behavior.

[00:18:44]Now, later in this press conference, JD Vance says that the Iranians are going to have to agree to no enrichment. No enrichment. and uh they've been very clear that they will never agree to that. Uh although they may be prepared to accept uh significant constraints on the enrichment of their uranium. Uh there's absolutely no reason to believe that they're going to agree uh consensually to no enrichment at all.

[00:19:09]And JD Vance knows that perfectly well.

[00:19:11]So when he says they're not going to get anything unless they perform, uh what he's basically saying is they're not going to get anything because they're not going to perform. and he knows they're not going to perform. They're not going to agree to no enrichment. So, uh what is basically happened here is that uh Iran for reasons that may be valid uh and we'll come back to that later has uh agreed to open up the straight of Hormuz uh at least provisionally in exchange for one benefit and one benefit only.

[00:19:44]It's not the unfreezing of assets because I don't think that's ever going to come. Certainly hasn't happened till now. There's no reason to believe it has. no credible reason. You know, the lifting of sanctions that's not happening until there's, you know, agreement on on demands that uh is that Iran is not going to accept from the White House. Uh you know, there's this $300 billion reconstruction fund. Well, that ain't going to happen until there's a final deal. And if you know, a key element from the US perspective of the final deal is a US the Iranian agreement not to enrich uranium at all, there ain't going to be no final deal. And so there won't be any $300 billion reconstruction fund. And frankly, I think it's so ridiculous the idea that the US is going to allow $300 billion of capital but to be invested in Iran by anybody. Uh that I laugh. I when I saw this provision of the MAU, I I quite quite frankly I just broke out laughing.

[00:20:39]Uh ain't a ain't going to happen. Now uh let's look at uh something I think that is even more uh telling about the reality of US uh the US government's attitude towards Israel >> regional peace right this is about regional peace and what that means is we expect Hezbollah is not going to be firing rockets and firing drones at the Israelis and we also expect that the Israelis are not going to be going wild in Lebanon right both sides have to honor their end of the deal >> let's just pause there going wild in Lebanon.

[00:21:14]So if it's military operations that don't rise to the level of going wild, apparently that's okay with the White House. That's what a ceasefire means to the White House. It means you're not going wild. Yeah, you can kill people, but only within reason. And here's what he says next.

[00:21:33]>> Now, as you guys know, sometimes these ceasefires are a little messy. The president of United States said this a couple of weeks ago that a ceasefire in that region of the world just means they're shooting a little bit less at each other than they were >> in that region of the world. Like they're like inherently violent. They're savages. You know, you can't actually expect anybody to uh, you know, respect a true ceasefire like we civilized people, we white people in the west do.

[00:21:56]Oh no, over there those, you know, brown savages, ceasefire means we're going to kill people. We're going to kill each other, but we're just going to do it with uh without going wild. were before.

[00:22:06]What you've seen is radical progress in Lebanon. Less shooting, less firing, but you're still going to have these little flare-ups from time to time. And that's just the sort of thing that we're going to have to manage through the diplomatic process. Secretary Rubio's been sort of the person on point. It it's actually worked out extraordinarily well because we do have substantially less shooting, but it's going to be something we have to manage.

[00:22:30]>> It's worked out extraordinarily well and you have little flare-ups. That's what he says. Well, here's a report uh from Al Jazida today which has been uh corroborated by numerous other media outlets. Uh latest Israeli attack on Lebanon appears to be one of the most serious since the agreement came into force.

[00:22:52]This latest Israeli attack on Lebanon, which took place just after midnight local time, so that would be uh today uh in the early hours uh local time, seems to be one of the most serious and concerted by the Israeli military since the interimm agreement came into force nearly a week ago. The reports of artillery and drone attacks in several locations in the Nabatia district where different villages and buildings were hit. The Israeli air attacks seem to continue until daybreak. So they went on for what, six, seven hours. This is a little flare up. It seems as though the largest death toll came from an attack on a residential building in the village of Karu. There are reports that as many as 16 people could have been killed in these attacks.

[00:23:34]Again, this is a little flare up. How would the the families of these 16 victims of Israel's genocidal rampage feel feel about that uh description of this atrocity?

[00:23:46]Then Al Jazza continues, "The Israeli military has also released a statement confirming that these attacks have been carried out because of what it says have been breaches of the ceasefire agreement by Hezbollah and that these attacks will continue." No, no, Hezbollah did not breach the ceasefire. Hezbollah responded to Israeli breaches of the ceasefire. And the key thing is here that the attacks will continue. There have been sporadic attacks during the week with more deaths reported yesterday from separate attacks in the south.

[00:24:12]Lebanese authorities are reporting that the death toll among civilians since this fighting began is now at 3,912.

[00:24:19]Nearly 4,000 people have been murdered by these sadistic maniacs uh since uh Hezbollah uh began responding to Israeli attacks on Lebanon uh in early March after having done virtually nothing during the entirety of 2025 uh in response to thousands of Israeli violations of the November 2024 ceasefire.

[00:24:47]Now, uh here is a uh a statement put out by uh the Lebanese resistance today describing from his perspective what is happening.

[00:24:58]uh in the name of Allah the most gracious in defense of Lebanon and his people based on the legitimate right to resist the occupation and liberate the land and in response to the Israeli enemy's violation of the ceasefire after monitoring a force belonging to the Israeli enemy army consisting of an armored platoon and an infantry platoon attempting to infiltrate toward the northern side of Ali Ali uh aler hill the Islamic resistance fighters lured it into a kill zone and engaged it with various weapons targeting three marava tanks with guided missiles resulting in their destruction in ignition. The fighters continue confronting the enemy force with intensive rocket barges near Shelling. So here you have the Israelis doing exactly what they did in Gaza when there's a ceasefire. Uh they take advantage of the situation by trying to advance and to confiscate and occupy even more land. And then a little later uh today uh the Islamic Resistance of Lebanon put out another statement saying uh following the deadly ambush laid by the Islamic resistance fighters against a force from the Israeli enemy army as it attempted to maneuver and infiltrate toward the northern side of Ali Alah Hill through an unseen route. A second Israeli force attempted to advance to evacuate the killed and wounded under the cover of a dense smoke screen while simultaneously launching dozens of illumination flares toward the area. The Islamic resistance fighters targeted with a rocket barrage and mortar shells, achieving confirmed hits. And indeed, there was a report today that four uh uh Israeli terrorists have been killed, including a tank uh uh battalion commander, a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli genocide forces. And uh within the past 24 to 48 hours, there have been quite literally dozens of these Israeli terrorists have been wounded because the Israeli military continues to occupy illegally Lebanon Lebanese land. All of these attacks on these genocidal maniacs occurred on Lebanese land that they are either occupying or trying to occupy and did not occur uh on uh Israeli territory. Uh so uh to characterize uh the Islamic resistance as the aggressor is absurd. They are responding to ceasefire violations by the genocidal uh entity and JD Vance is excusing all of this as uh you know little flare-ups and this is a reduction in the level of violence and it's all going extraordinarily well uh according to the US vice president.

[00:27:33]And finally uh here you have a report uh or this is the military media resistance channel uh describing reports in the Israeli media uh in the past 24 hours.

[00:27:44]Uh they uh say the Israeli media that uh in addition to the four soldiers who were killed. Approximately 17 soldiers were wounded during the night including two in critical condition. And then uh Mariv Hebrew newspaper Hezbollah targeted the tank of the commander of battalion 52 causing a fire to erupt inside and killing all aboard including the battalion commander. And uh predictably after this happened uh the uh the most sadistic members of the Israeli cabinet, they're all you know uh psychopathic mass murderers, but uh Ben Gver, I believe it was, was saying uh that we basically have to lay waste to the whole of Lebanon uh because they killed uh these Israeli terrorists on their soil.

[00:28:32]Now let's return to uh the more revealing aspects of uh JD Vance's press conference yesterday was in tatters. How is that this not essentially giving a lifeline to Iran economically? And what's to prevent Iran from using all of that money, all of those millions of dollars to prop up its proxies in the region? Well, the number one thing is that we actually see where the money moves now because of what we've done with the financial sanctions.

[00:29:02]We actually know where the money is going to move and so we have great confidence that we're going to be able to see if they try to fund terrorist organizations, we're going to be able to see that. But you said that millions of dollars is a lifeline. Right now, the Iranian nation is a nation of 94 million people. Their economy is in a freefall.

[00:29:20]They have sky-high inflation and fundamentally about a trillion dollars of damage to their industrial base was caused.

[00:29:29]>> You heard that right, folks. He said $1 trillion of damage was caused to their industrial base over the last 3 months.

[00:29:38]$1 trillion. Now, thisou uh has, you know, not even clear what the hell it means, but some kind of a reconstruction fund, which the US says isn't going to be funded. one iota by uh by the US government and uh apparently it's going to be private investors or perhaps Gulf autotocracies but even that that $300 billion fund is not going to be available unless Iran capitulates to the demands of the United States which include no nuclear enrichment which they have consistently rejected for decades.

[00:30:11]Okay. Now, um, even if this all somehow magically materialized, this $300 billion reconstruction fund, according to JD Vance, that would be less than onethird of the damage that these maniacs have done to the industrial base of Iran. $1 trillion. And the thing that is so sick and deranged about this exchange that you just saw is that both the corporate media hack who put the question to Vance and Vance himself think it's perfectly legitimate to destroy an entire economy. Okay? Like he Vance talked about, you know, the the extraordinarily high degree of inflation in Iran. You know who who's most harmed by inflation? The poor. People who have no control, no power whatsoever. They're the ones who are most and the working class and these are the people that we're told that the United States government is trying to protect and that Israel, the genocidal maniac, is trying to protect inad. They just assume that it's a legitimate objective to destroy an economy in order to achieve their foreign policy priorities. In any case, I want that number. I'm going to remember that number and I will repeat that number until the cows come home. $1 trillion worth of damage they say was done to the industrial base of Iran.

[00:31:30]They should pay back every goddamn cent of that money plus interest. Okay. Now, let's move on and see what uh this uh psychopath had to say in this press conference other than what we've heard thus far.

[00:31:44]>> Withdraw troops to the preconlict level.

[00:31:47]Meaning, we're not going to keep a couple of extra aircraft carrier groups over there. The Iranians don't want that. Frankly, we don't want that either.

[00:31:55]>> Okay, so this is very important. This just shows you how the United States is the the Trump regime is basically rewriting uh this agreement. Listen to this again.

[00:32:05]>> What we're saying is that we will withdraw troops to the preconlict level, meaning we're not going to keep a couple of extra aircraft carrier groups over there. The Iranians don't want that.

[00:32:14]Frankly, we don't want that either.

[00:32:17]>> Okay. So let me uh read to you the provision which relates to uh the uh presence of US forces in the region and what the United States is supposed to do uh with those forces uh if the parties manage to resolve the outstanding issues between them.

[00:32:44]I'm reading here article 4 of what we're told is the official version of theou.

[00:32:50]Uh this is the last sentence. The United States of America further undertakes to remove its forces from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran within 30 days after the final deal. I repeat, from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran. That is clearly uh a a an agreement that um the US forces will be removed from a geographical area. Now the boundaries of that geographical area and this is one of the criticisms I have of this agreement are not defined. Does this mean the Persian Gulf? Does it mean uh the territorial waters or the airspace of Iran? Does it mean uh the entirety of West Asia? We don't know. And that is a very important issue which uh they would have to negotiate if they ever got to that point. Uh but I don't think they're going to get to that point of negotiation. Uh in any case, the key thing here is the language of this agreement is uh is unambiguously requiring US troop withdrawal from some geographical area. What Vance is saying, he's rewriting the agreement. He is saying, "Oh, no, no, no, no. We can keep our troops exactly where they are. We don't have to remove any military bases.

[00:34:09]We don't have to remove them from any areas where they were uh where they currently are. We just have to reduce the number of our troops to the levels that they were at before we launched this war of aggression on Iran. So this is I I can't say stress it enough just the United States unilaterally rewriting a key clause of the agreement. The level of US troops in the region before the war began was a dire threat to the Islamic Republic. Uh and what the Islamic Republic needs and wants and what it negotiated for was uh the US commitment to move those forces further away from Iran geographically speaking so that they would pose less of a threat. Now, uh JD Vance is signaling very clearly uh that the Trump regime doesn't intend to withdraw uh from any of the military bases uh it occupied uh prior to the commencement of this war.

[00:35:11]Uh that is not what uh Iran bargained for and that is not what we were told the uh US government had agreed to.

[00:35:20]Now, uh, one last, uh, clip I want to show you from this press conference, and frankly, I think it is the most important clip of all in light of the interpretation that people have been placing on the closing remarks of Vance in the press conference where he seemed to be issuing a veiled threat that the United States would with would withdraw its support for Israel if the Israeli uh uh, lunatics uh, stop didn't stop criticizing Donald Trump. Uh now here's what uh Vance had to say in another part of the press conference about uh the future of US support for Israel.

[00:35:58]>> The major differences between this deal and President Obama's deal in 2015 and why the administration believes that this deal is superior. And second, uh Mr. Vice President, President Trump has been vocal lately about uh his disapproval for BB Netanyahu's attacks on Lebanon. Has the administration spoken to BB Netanyahu directly about the president's concerns recently and what is the feedback from Israel?

[00:36:22]>> Yeah, so we we we speak to BB or speak to some body in the Israeli government just as we speak to the Gulf Coast coalition, our regional partners pretty much every day, at least at some high level of our government. Look, the president has been very clear. He he does not withdraw from Israel. No one could.

[00:36:39]>> He does not withdraw from Israel. No one could okay no one could >> withdraw from another country the right of self-defense. Israel has the right to defend itself. But fundamentally the the Israelis just like everybody else have to respect this peace process that is fundamentally good for them and good for the entire region.

[00:37:02]Now, I just don't know how uh those comments could be reconciled with a claim that Vance at the end of the press conference was issuing a veiled threat that the US would withdraw support from Israel. This seems to me a clear commitment that the United States will continue to support Israel. And in fact, if the United States was serious about thisou, it would have already this week issued a clear and unambiguous warning to Israel that if it didn't stop bombing uh Lebanon and withdraw its forces from Lebanon as the Iranians demanded as a condition of entering into this agreement, then the US would end its support for Israel or at least suspend its support for Israel. But Vance is telling you straight up, no, no, we're not doing that. No one could. Uh so uh you know this I think is sort of you know basic uh journalistic professionalism. If you're going to uh you know make a claim that something that Vance said in this press conference signals a profound change in USIsrael relations. I think you have a journalistic obligation to actually listen to the whole press conference and uh and analyze the totality of the man's commentary. uh picking out a minute or two at the very end of it and saying that this marks some kind of historic change in the relationship. I don't think that that is uh frankly responsible journalism.

[00:38:29]Uh in any case, I am absolutely not convinced and I don't think you should be either uh that Donald Trump or any other member of his administration or anybody in the elite of the Democratic party either is prepared to end its support for Israel because ultimately they want Israel to destroy any and all he hijgemony I'm sorry any and all ris resistance to US hijgemony in the region. That's the very reason for which they created Israel and supported Israel all these decades. Israel is the rabbid dog through which they impose their will brutally upon this extraordinarily important region of the world. Okay, that's what this is all about. They want to exterminate all resistance to the domination of the region by the United States and its Israeli proxy and they remain committed to that task and uh ain't nothing other than severe damage to the United States economy going to change that and frankly we have not yet seen that. Now, um uh I'm not the only person obviously who uh has reservations about this agreement and who's convinced the United States has no intention of uh respecting it. There are a lot of people out there who figured this out by now.

[00:39:40]And it's in that context that uh the Supreme Leader of Iran put out a uh a quite important statement I think within the past 24 hours. And I'm going to show you uh the translation of that statement which was uh issued in Fari. This is from the Resistance News Network, a telegram uh resistance channel that I've been following for several years. I've always found them to be reliable. On June 18th, 2026, yesterday, Sed Maba Husseini Kamini put out the following statement. Oh passionate and loyal Iranian people, as you are aware, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the presidents of Iran and America. In the path to reaching the stage, the concerned officials made tireless efforts driven by care and good faith, even if the American president was the one who resorted to various types of pressure cards stemming from a state of helplessness to accomplish this matter.

[00:40:35]Naturally, I had a different opinion, but I issued the permission for this based on the commitment made by the esteemed president of the republic in his capacity as the president of the Supreme National Security Council on behalf of himself and the other members to safeguard the rights of the Iranian people and the resistance front and his explicit announcement of assuming responsibility as he stated that they will not bow to the American side if it wishes to impose expansionist dictates or demand more. From this moment, we, meaning you, the lofty people, and this humble servant, will be waiting for the realization of the mentioned conditions.

[00:41:11]However, it is self-evident that the direct negotiations that will be held in the future will not, under any circumstances, mean submission to the opinion of the enemy. We are hopeful that the prayers of our master, may Allah, hasten his noble reappearance, will surround the honorable people of Iran with all forms of victory and conqu conquests. So the supreme leader is saying that he had reservations uh but that he nonetheless uh consented to uh the government of Iran entering into this agreement uh because he was given strong assurances by the president of the republic uh Mr. Peskin uh that there would be no capitulation that the rights of the Iranian people would be uh scrupulously safeguarded in any subsequent agreement.

[00:41:57]Uh it is quite remarkable that this is being put out now. Uh uh why did he do it? I I suspect he did it because first of all there are people in the uh public discourse Nidan who have been saying without mentioning the reservations of the supreme leader uh that he had uh thrown his full support behind this agreement. We now see that that's not quite true. Uh and also I would imagine that uh the supreme leader is even more aware and more attentive to the kinds of comments that I just showed you coming from the mouths of senior US officials which uh really amount to a rewriting of the agreement or uh an implicit admission that they have no intention of uh developing a final peace deal with Iran. And this is all just about relieving the pressure on the US economy in advance of the uh the midterms. Now I don't think it's only the supreme leader who knows that. I don't think it's only the critics of this agreement who know that. I suspect even those in the Iranian government who supported the agreement uh at some level understand uh that the United States is almost certainly not going to deliver on its uh end of this bargain. Uh so then the question arises, why did they do it?

[00:43:21]Well, I'm going to address that in just a second, but before I do, I want to show you a comment from a friend of mine. She's uh appeared on uh this program before. Her name is Sarah. She is an Iranian Canadian who has who now lives in Iran, returned to Iran after living for many years in Canada. And uh she stayed in Idan throughout the war admirably and has become a prolific uh uh analyst uh on social media of uh contemporary Iranian affairs. And she put out this statement in response to this uh letter from the Supreme Leader.

[00:43:56]Uh Sarah wrote, "This is for everyone who propagated the lie for years that nothing happens in Iran unless the leader wants it to happen. What his message exposes is clearly a more deliberative approach than a top- down dictating and also that there are disagreements. He clearly says he is only approving because Pzeskan has accepted responsibility for the consequences. I'm glad that the young Kamei has a different approach and doesn't fear openly expressing his lack of approval even as he signs on. Uh I would agree with those sentiments. It is uh contrary what we've just learned from the Supreme Leader to the narrative uh that the Supreme Leader acts as a dictator. uh and in fact Sarah would have liked to have seen his father uh be more uh forthcoming in uh expressing publicly his disagreements uh with the elected government of the Islamic Republic.

[00:44:56]Now I want to come back then to the question of why uh to close out my report uh the government of Iran entered into this agreement even though it is almost certainly understood by people like uh the president Mr. Peskian the foreign minister Abbas Aaraki the lead uh negotiator the speaker of the Iranian parliament uh Mr. Galibbah. Why would they enter into this agreement under these circumstances? Well, I think it's becoming increasingly apparent that they did that because they needed relief from the blockade even if it was only going to be temporary. Uh the relief from the blockade uh is first of all generating uh already significant revenue for Iran at a time when uh the United States has brought to bear every weapon economically speaking at its disposal to destroy the economy of Iran. Uh here is a post by uh a uh an exac account tanker trackers.com widely followed by maritime insurers, oil producers and traders saying that uh Iran has exported nearly 18 million barrels or $1.44 billion of crude oil over the past 5 days. So since thisou was entered into undoubtedly this is uh money uh that the Iranian uh Republican put to good use after having been subjected to this vicious economic warfare including the blockade of its ports uh for so long. Uh so um uh I think uh that the uh generation of additional billions of dollars of revenue is a strong motivation for the government, but also the more oil that the Iranian uh government can ship out to uh export destinations for whatever period of time this blockade has been lifted. uh the uh greater the storage capacity they will be able to free up.

[00:46:58]Uh they were there were reports and uh undoubtedly there was a lot of truth to them that Iran was nearing its maximum storage capacity for its uh oil and once that happened it would have to begin shutting down wells and that is uh a difficult thing to do. It can it takes quite some time to reopen those wells.

[00:47:17]I'm not an expert in this area, but I've uh read and reported on commentary from people who are experts, and they say not only does it take time to reopen the wells, restart the wells, but in addition, when you shut them down, that can do lasting damage to the wells, and it might not be economic to try to repair that damage. So, uh they are achieving two benefits to the Iranians by uh getting the blockade lifted. they can generate a lot of billions of dollars of muchneeded revenue for the country but also free up storage capacity so they're they're not forced to shut down oil wells or at least uh the degree to which they're required to do that is minimized uh so uh on the other side of the flip side of course uh the uh agreement theou is relieving pressure on the US economy okay because and this is something which Vance and Trump are bragging uh because they're very concerned about their ability to retain control of the Senate and the Congress in uh the upcoming midterms. But just how much relief are they actually getting from the uh quote unquote reopening of the Strait of Hormuz? Now, the price of oil has gone down dramatically. It actually fell below $80 for the first time in months.

[00:48:33]It's still well above the $61 a barrel or so that it was trading at at the beginning of this year. Uh but it went down below $80. Today it climbed up above the $80 threshold uh because I think of what is going on, the uh the uh the the the brutalization of Lebanon ongoing uh and Iran becoming increasingly discontented by uh the uh the daily multiple violations of the ceasefire by the is by Israel with US support uh and the refusal of Israel the explicit refusal of Israel to withdraw its forces. So the price of oil has creep crept back up, but it's still way down, you know, a little bit north of $80 from where it was at its high point during this war of aggression, which was well over $110. So on the surface, it appears if you look at the price of oil that uh the uh United States economy is benefiting considerably from this. And you heard JD Vance say at the outset of his press conference, you know, that the price of gas has fallen to below $4. It was what it was up around 455 uh or so just a couple a few weeks ago.

[00:49:41]Uh but again uh if you look at the actual numbers of what is going through the straight of Hormuz, it isn't nearly as uh dramatic a change as one would expect based on the rhetoric of the United States.

[00:49:55]So here is a report published by Al Jazida today and uh quoting a uh a an industry expert a global energy industry excerpt u expert by the name of Rahul Kapor uh from S&P he says there has been a sense of relief in the market after the US Adam deal which stipulates that the street of Hormuz be reopened quote over the last couple of days we've started to see traffic pickup in the critical Gulf waterway through which about 20% of the global global oil and gas supplies normally transit. Yesterday we observed around 25 vessels inbound as well as outbound. But you have to put that in perspective, he said, noting that typically about 130 ships pass through the straight daily. So it's a slow recovery which is happening from a very low pace, he said, warning that it could take weeks to months to see a normalization happening. Now, we've been reporting this for weeks that even if there was an agreement to open up the Strait of Hormuz, they would not return uh to pre-war levels of traffic for uh weeks and possibly months and they may never return to the level of uh pre-war traffic that we saw before because the whole risk profile of the region has changed. This was uh perceived I think by the global shipping and uh oil industry and gas industry to be a relatively stable low-risk environment in which to operate. Uh that has all changed and everybody with a functioning brain knows that uh anything put in writing by the US government uh really has no more value than toilet paper and so the war may uh reerupt at any day particularly with the way Israel is behaving in Lebanon. So, are they really going to, you know, these maritime shipping companies, are they really going to be in a rush to send their vessels through the straight of Hormuz until they see uh, you know, sustained uh, convincing evidence that the hostilities in the straight of Hormuz have really come to an end and that it's safe to uh, travel through the straight.

[00:52:04]And in that regard, I want to show you an article published today by the Guardian.

[00:52:10]And uh according to the Guardian, norming normal shipping will not resume in the straight of Hormuz until 80 mines have been cleared. The center of the straight of Hormuz they report is blocked with about 80 mines that will need clearing for normal shipping to resume. The independent tanker owner trade body has said uh and uh several vessels began to exit the Gulf through the key maritime choke point on Thursday. Uh so and and after the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran.

[00:52:38]However, shipping is not expected to return to normal for some time even if the ceasefire lasts which is a big if because of the mines and other obstacles underlying underlining the continuing challenges facing global trade. The main route through the middle of the street of Hormuz that's closed that's dangerous said Phil Belchure marine director at Intertanko the association of independent tanker owners. You know the market, the oil market has reacted very positively uh to thisou and the price of gas has gone down significantly. The price of oil has gone down significantly. The reality is that not much has changed in the straight of Hormos and we have not even come remotely close to seeing a restoration of the pre-war levels of maritime traffic through the straight. Uh and sooner or later this is going to be reflected if the situation persists in uh the price of oil uh and in the availability of oil. Not to mention all of the other critically important commodities that come out of the Persian Gulf including sulfur including uh fertilizer, aluminum uh and uh helium.

[00:53:47]Uh so we are a long way away from uh a reprieve from the global economy including the US economy. In the meantime, Iran is generating much needed revenue uh increasing its storage capacity by shipping oil out of storage uh to export destinations. I think basically that's really what this deal is going to end up being all about is who can make the most use of the reopening of the straight of Hodus and the lifting of the blockade on Iranian ports. Who will be the greatest beneficiary of all of that? I would be astonished if uh any part of this deal ultimately becomes uh permanent and uh becomes embodied in a lasting peace deal. I I think that Trump would like nothing more than to rearm uh replenish the heavily depleted oil inventories in the United States and uh uh wait for cooler weather to return, wait for the allimportant uh midterms uh to be conducted where he hopes to retain control of the House of the Senate and then I would imagine we are going to see a revival of this uh war of aggress.

[00:55:04]ression by the United States and Israel in all its brutality. Again, I can't say this enough. I really very much want to be wrong about this. I will happily cork open a bottle of champagne if I am, but uh all of the evidence points uh to uh a skeptical conclusion. With that, uh I'll be signing off for today. This is Dimmitri Lceris coming to you from Kamata, Greece on June 19th, 2026.