Shadowing Practice: US strikes southern Iran claiming self defense - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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U.S. Central Command says that the U.S.
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U.S. Central Command says that the U.S.
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military conducted self-defense strikes targeting Iranian missile launch sites, as well as boats around the Strait of Hormuz.
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The attacks come as Washington and Tehran continue negotiating, and as they may be closer than ever to ending the war.
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But disputes remain over Iran's nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions.
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President Trump laying out his plans for destroying Iran's enriched uranium or nuclear dust, as he often refers to it, as saying that it will be either transported to the US, dealt with on site, or taken to another acceptable location.
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I want to go now to CNN's Salma Abdulaziz.
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Joining me from London.
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Some of you're also closely following the current and ongoing trip of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Is he offering any insight into into where the US and Iran are running into issues right now?
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Well, it seems like by the hour, America is either on the precipice of a full blown war with Iran or about to get a peace deal, depending on who you're speaking to and what's just happened that hour.
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You mentioned the strikes, of course, around the Strait of Hormuz.
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There was just happened a few hours ago.
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We do have more information on where those occurred with Centcom saying that they targeted missile launch sites in Iranian boats attempting to place mines.
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The statement went on to say that the U.S.
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is working to defend its forces while using restraint.
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Now, a note here.
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Of course, there is a cease fire that is in place now.
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Violations have happened in the past, and the cease fire has carried on.
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So unclear how this will impact that at this point.
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But we do now have a statement from Iran's Supreme leader.
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Before I read it out to you, I want to make clear that this is a written statement from the Supreme Leader, and it could have been written before these strikes occurred.
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Let me read out that statement to you.
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The United States not only will no longer have a safe haven for its mischief, mischief, and for establishing military bases in the region.
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But day by day it is growing more distant from its former status again an indication there of the type of military actions that Iran has taken in the region.
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Striking at military bases.
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Of course, in neighboring countries across the Gulf, it seems a hardening of position.
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But you mentioned, of course, there was talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Those concluded in Qatar a short time ago with the secretary of state saying, look, it's a matter of wording, a matter of a few sentences that we're negotiating over now.
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But if you ask Iranian negotiators, they seem to indicate that the United States and Iran are still very far from a deal.
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The key issue, of course, is enriched uranium, as you mentioned, that no dust, no dollars, a statement that we keep hearing from U.S.
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officials over the weekend indicating that that 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium that the United States and President Donald Trump, of course, wants to see destroyed.
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Iran, on the other hand, says that a conclusion to the war must be finalized before it speaks about how to handle that enriched uranium.
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And again, hearing about those strikes around the Strait of Hormuz that just occurred in the last few hours, we're hearing from Iranian state media that there was the sound of at least three explosions around the key port, Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran.
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It says Iran's government says and Iran's state media says that air defenses were activated.
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Again, we do not know if this statement that we've just heard from the Supreme Leader in written statement that was put out to mark the Hajj pilgrimage, whether that was written beforehand or after hand.
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But the key question here will be, will those U.S.
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strikes affect those negotiations?
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And how far are they from the deal now that we're seeing those attacks again around the Strait of Hormuz by the U.S.
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forces? Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim they have shot down an MQ nine Reaper drone and opened fire on an F-35 jet and another drone that they say entered its airspace, presumably somewhere around that region.
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Iran says it will retaliate over ceasefire violations.
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Now, overnight, the United States launched new strikes on southern Iran.
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You can see right here hitting these sites that the USA or missile targets the US claims it was in self-defense.
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And yet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the two sides could be just days from some kind of an agreement.
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Well, this now is CNN global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh.
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Sabrina, great to see you here.
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So we have these U.S.
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strikes overnight on Iran.
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And we just learned seconds ago that Iranians claim there they shot down a U.S. drone.
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So where does that leave things as these negotiations continue?
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What you're seeing is both sides claiming defensive strikes.
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They're both protecting their, you know, air assets, defense assets on the ground.
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And so the U.S.
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took defensive strikes yesterday Iran just this morning as we're seeing coming in is also taking defensive measures.
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Now the very tentative cease fire according to the U.S., is still holding.
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And even though it is still holding, I mean, we're still in the middle of a war.
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I mean, there's a naval blockade that is an act of war.
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So even though that you have this cease fire, they're still exchanging fire.
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So it's now what happens next.
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And I think that's what's really to watch.
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What does the president say about this?
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And what does the Supreme Leader say now?
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And of course, then there's Israel two, right.
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Because Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, says that his war against Hezbollah and Lebanon is very much continuing.
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So what does that do to the negotiations?
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And you've seen Israel actually intensify their own strikes overnight on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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I mean, basically what this administration has done is the house is on fire, and they're trying to put it out with a bucket of water.
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And this is a deal to get a deal.
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A lot of the issues, the thorny issues, whether it's nuclear enrichment or ballistic missile capabilities, are being pushed further down the line.
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And meanwhile, you have Israel still conducting strikes in Lebanon, even though part of this so-called deal was that that would stop.
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So again, it's more about what does this administration do?
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What is the messaging that comes from Donald Trump today?
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I think there is not a world in which this administration wants to start back up on kinetic strikes, which is why they keep pushing this ball down the line.
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But we are where we are intensifying strikes in Lebanon.
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And of course, you're seeing an exchange of fire, in Iran as well.
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The Iranians know what the U.S.
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wants and doesn't want, presumably, which may be why the United States seems to have.
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All right, I don't know if budged or moved a little bit on the language on the nuclear talks.
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This is a, a statement from the president yesterday.
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The uranium will either be immediately turned over to the U.S.
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to be brought home destroyed, or preferably in conjunction, coordinated, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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Destroyed in place.
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Right. Destroyed in place or at another acceptable location.
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This means the uranium stays in the Iranians destroy there, presumably, but this was sort of a no go area before.
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This is much more lenient language than we've seen from the president than we've ever seen before.
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I mean, at the beginning of this war, February 28th, it was that Iran would never get access to a nuclear weapon, would not be able to keep its enriched uranium.
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This is signaling, a bit of a gray area.
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And I think that this administration is hedging that they're going to need some type of third party to come in here.
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I mean, I don't think it will be acceptable under any terms that Iran keeps some of its enriched uranium.
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But we've never seen language like this.
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And it does lean more towards Iran and its favor.
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So these are the nuclear sites inside Iran.
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The uranium buried presumably underneath some of these facilities right now.
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When we say destroyed, it's again murky.
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What exactly that means?
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That means you could degrade the uranium from 60% enrichment to what, like 5 or 10%.
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But that's still potentially useful down the line. Right.
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And that's why the deal to get a deal does not address any of these issues.
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And you remember the Iran deal that was negotiated under the Obama administration that took almost two years to get to.
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And there were many mechanisms in place to monitor some of these sites.
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We're not seeing any of that being negotiated out in the public.
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What does monitoring look like?
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What actually happens to the enriched uranium?
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And they haven't even addressed their ballistic missile program, which is one of the capabilities that we know Iran still retains.
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So even though this administration has said they've destroyed Iran's navy, destroyer air force, those were never the programs of record that Iran touted.
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It was always its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and those still very much remain in the status quo before the war started.
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So again, watch what's happening very much in the air and on the ground.
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Continue strikes, and we'll listen for what they have to say about the negotiations.
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Sabrina, saying, thank you very much for being here.
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President Trump hosted this meme shortly after those strikes.
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Obama's Iran policy.
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He shows piles of cash, Trump's Iran policy, missiles flying.
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So bringing in now CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier, thank you so much for being here.
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Needless to say, these presidents do have very different approaches to Iran.
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But I want to start with, this attempt to get to an agreement, this attempt in the talks, because we are really hearing from a wild mix of politicians who are upset with the white House.
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I'm going to give you an example.
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Here is John Bolton, former national security adviser, giving this, as usual sort of counter textual take.
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I hope that negotiations break down, because every day that goes by is a gift to Iran.
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I think these negotiations are a mistake.
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I think we're on the verge of something that ultimately history will decide was a catastrophic loss for the United States.
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We have we have done significant damage to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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And right now we're letting them undo the damage.
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This is what Iran wants.
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They want more time.
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60 days turns into six months, and then it turns into more than that.
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You and I have talked about Iran wanting more time, but can you help me understand what he's saying about this is somehow catastrophic, a loss, the dangers that some people are seeing in the white House approach.
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U.S. intelligence has already detected that Iran is using this time to access its nuclear sites, rebuild and rearm.
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It has built drones at an amazingly fast pace.
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So every single day it gets a reprieve from bombing means it's more ready to attack again.
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Also, Iran has talked about now lifting the ban on the internet.
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The interesting thing about that is they don't want to foment dissent, but they're willing to take the risk because the Iranian economy is under such strain.
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And a lot of the economy runs on businesses that use the internet.
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So that shows that the stress is hitting Iran, but it is getting a relief by these days without attacks.
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It's interesting because we've talked so much about what the president is dealing with here domestically, but in Iran they have an incentive, right?
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You have a supreme leader who is relatively new.
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You have people who have been under this bombardment.
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Is there any incentive for them to move forward, or is it, as Bolten says, waiting is all that matters if it means claiming victory over the US.
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There is incentive to draw out the talks as there always has been.
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This has been their, M.O.
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in previous negotiations.
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And remember, what they're being asked to do is, a sacrifice of what they see as legitimacy, give up their refined nuclear material and all of it.
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Not just like some in rich parts.
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It's just like everything goes.
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And, they will pledge never to make a bomb again.
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But my question is, will these talks produce what the Obama deal did?
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Intrusive international nuclear inspections, intrusive inspections, if it doesn't happen again?
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So what Iran is being asked is really hard to say yes to, especially when you've got so many hardliners now empowered by the U.S. attacks.
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So look, what this shows is that President Trump knows going back to just hammering Iran won't open the Strait of Hormuz.
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He's feeling the economic pressure.
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So he wants some sort of delay, to open the Straits if he can get that.
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I think we could see talks returning to the JCPoA, sort of, it will take weeks.
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It will take months to get some sort of resolution and either way, get the sense both sides will be spinning it into a win, even though we're looking at a stalemate and John Bolton will not be happy, nor will any of the hard line GOP members who wanted to see Iran truly decimated by these attacks.
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Context & Background
The latest military actions involving the U.S. and Iran highlight a complex geopolitical landscape fraught with tension. As the U.S. Central Command announced self-defense strikes targeting Iranian missile sites and boats near the Strait of Hormuz, discussions around negotiating peace and addressing Iran's nuclear program continue to unfold. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio reported that the two countries may be on the verge of a significant agreement, the strikes have cast uncertainty on those negotiations. This fluid situation makes it vital for English learners to engage with current events to enhance their language skills while staying informed.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "Self-defense strikes" - Conversations surrounding military actions often use this term to justify defensive measures.
- "Negotiating a deal" - Useful when discussing the process of reaching an agreement, especially in diplomatic contexts.
- "Ceasefire violations" - Important when talking about temporary halts in conflict, and the challenges that can arise.
- "Highly enriched uranium" - A critical term in discussions about nuclear energy and weapons, significant in international relations.
- "Retaliate over" - This phrase is used to indicate a response to an aggressive act, often seen in conflict discussions.
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