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Political Commentator (2:46)

The Trump regime's negotiating ploy in Islamabad, Pakistan with Iran was a complete disaster. The Trump regime showed up and they tried to change the 10 point negotiating framework that they previously agreed to with Iran. Iran said, no, we're sticking with the framework you previously agreed to. And then the Trump regime basically said, if you don't agree to our demands, we're going to kill all of your negotiators. And how do they do that? During the mediation in Islamabad, they planted a story in the Washington Post which basically suggested killing the negotiators. Also, Donald Trump made a social media post saying, the only reason we're keeping these negotiators alive is so that they can negotiate and give up. And the Iranian negotiators, who were the top leaders within Iran said, well, your threats don't intimidate us. We showed what we can do during this war and we could strangle the global economy if we want to and especially the United States economy and will help our allies and destroy the United States and their allies or former allies. So Iran then stood up and said, agree to the negotiating framework or else there's not going to be a resolution. Stop with your excessive demands and trying to defraud fraud this entire mediation process. And then there was a stalemate that was reached. It cannot be brokered in terms of any deal. And so it ended. You see J.D. vance leaving Islamabad. You see him going up the stairs of the airplane and going on Air Force Two and leaving. And then Donald Trump started posting additional threats saying that he was going to now start a blockade of the Persian Gulf generally and that the ultimate trump card is using the USS Jericho Ford to run a blockade of Iran. And I guess the thinking is you will use the United States military to what, Attack the allies of Iran that are being given permission to utilize the Strait of Hormuz. So think about the plan. Here is the plan to what, Donald? Cause World War 3? So you have your blockade that you claim now you're going to institute after these negotiations failed because you refused to stick with the 10 point negotiating framework you previously previously agreed to. So what happens when an Indian flag tanker shows up to the Strait of Hormuz and you have your blockade? You're going to interdict it? You're going to blow up the Indian tanker? What happens when the Russian tanker goes by? Forget the Russian tanker. What happens when the Chinese tanker goes by and starts to be able to utilize these straight up Hormuz because they're allied with Iran. Also, there were reports now that China's involvement in helping Iran build up its military arsenal is even bigger than previously expected and was previously expected. Expect it to be pretty big. Think about it from the perspective of China. China through Iran right now basically is the most influential player in the Middle East. It used to be the United States, but now Iran can basically say, well, we're going to only use currency like crypto and the yuan, China's currency, in order to devalue the United States dollar, you know, all those petro dollars. Well, we're going to screw that up too right now because we have a stranglehold over the Straight of Hormuz. And now Iran will be negotiating b with all nations throughout the world and moving them further away from the United States as China now gets the biggest footprint and foothold in the Middle East. Great work, Donald. You have just destroyed America's post World War II kind of power structure that existed. And you've also made us just weaker at home and abroad and crashed and basically are crashing our, our economy. So you have in Iraq, in Pakistan, you have these disastrous negotiations that are taking place because Trump change the framework after they fail. Donald Trump threatens this blockade. I mean, here's the post, just so you can see it for yourself, the trump card the President holds. If Iran won't bend a naval blockade, what, over the entire Persian Gulf. You're going to blow up every ship that goes to the Strait of Hormuz that gets access. What if France by France did this? What if France does a bilateral negotiation, Donald, with Iran and they have sent one of their tankers in? You're going to blow that up. What if other countries do, I mean, are you going to think this thing through? So, you know, just to remind you, basically the 10 point framework, Donald Trump previously agreed to a framework that we've been talking about a lot that says Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and they can charge a $2 million fee per tanker that goes through the Strait of Hormuz, that the United States will give Iran full reparations, that the United States will leave its military bases in the Middle east, it will provide permanent security guarantees for Iran, the Houthis, Hezbollah, the Iranian Shiite militia groups in ir, that Iran could keep its ballistic missile shahi drones and FPV drones, that Iran will be permitted to enrich uranium. The Trump regime agreed to all of that. And then they showed up at the Islamabad, in Pakistan negotiating room. And the US like, yeah, we're not going to agree to any of that. Sorry, yeah, Donald Trump may have said that, but you need to agree to our demands or we're going to kill you and we're gonna blockade you. And Iran's like, good luck, see you later then. And so the question right now is, you know, where are we? I mean, you know, Iran says there's not going to be any further talks. They have no desire to go back and have these future futile negotiations where the US now has these maximalist demands. And you may say, well, Ben, what's maximalist about the US demands? The only aspect that makes it maximalist is when you agree to one thing publicly and then you change the terms on that, you lose credibility. And when you do that over and over and over again and just make up fake things that aren't real, you have zero credibility in an international affairs as well as domestic affairs, as well as life in general. The ultimate form of capitalist trust is good faith and fair dealing. And Donald Trump, his entire life has been a fraud. He's been a criminal, he's a sexual predator. He speaks, he's been found civilly liable and he's made disgusting statements. He's part of the Epstein class and the lead, basically, in my opinion, a leader of the Epstein class. He's bankrupted things over and over again, and he's doing it to the United States right now. I mean, there was also this incident yesterday. You want to talk about the height of bad faith combined with fraud and deranged behavior. So during the negotiations, the US and Iran, they're in Pakistan, they're in Islamabad, right? They're having these negotiations. Then it's reported that the United States is sending, sending two destroyers into the Strait of Hormuz to sweep mines during the negotiations when there's supposed to be a ceasefire and there's supposed to be nothing like that happening during the negotiations. So Iran sends a naval vessel, identifies these destroyers and says, turn around, turn around. Also, the Iranian negotiating team brings it up to Prime Minister Sharif, who's the main negotiator, the middleman, if you will, from Pakistan, who then tells the US, yeah, you've got to turn your destroyers around. Not engaging in, like, furtive war acts right now. I mean, if there's a deal, we can deal with them removing the mines in these straight of Hormuz, but right now, we're in a negotiation. So the US removes its destroyers and never really gets into the Strait of Hormuz, but Then the Trump regime and CENTCOM pretend it happened. They're like, we successfully sent two destroyers that went east and west and they fixed all of the mines and they did a mine sweeping operation. It's like, that didn't happen. Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, others, you know, reporting, yeah, that, that didn't happen. What happened was the destroyer showed up, they were confronted by Iranian ships, the naval, the US Destroyers turn around and they head back. First off, how embarrassing is that, number one? Number two, then the Trump regime lies about it. Number three, that happens during the height of a negotiation right there. So let me just remind you what JD Van said before he left these negotiations. You know, he kind of stor and he's like, we just couldn't get to a situation where Iranians were willing to accept our terms. So when you show up with the mindset that Iran is not accepting our terms, when the idea of this whole mediation is that you and Trump begged for this thing to happen and begged Pakistan to broker it because the American markets were crashing with Iran's control of these Strait of Hormuz and how disastrous this war has become, this unlawful war was and was escalating and getting worse. And then you go in and say, well, why aren't you agreeing to our terms? You agreed to their negotiating framework and then you tried to change it up on them. That's like the height of bad faith. Here's what JD Van says. Play this clip.

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Was there a framework on anything?

GoFundMe Advertiser (12:00)

And also, did the Iranian frozen assets

Political Commentator (12:03)

come up and did you reach any conclusions on those closing assets?

J.D. Vance (12:06)

We talked about all those issues, Jen, and we talked about a number of issues beyond that. And so certainly those things came up. But again, we just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms. I think that we were quite flexible, we were quite accommodating. The President told us, you need to come here in good faith and make your best effort to get a deal. We did that, and unfortunately, we weren't able to make any headway. PRESTON.

Political Commentator (12:34)

And then J.D. van says the thing that we need to see with Iran is affirmative commitments by them that they will stop enriching uranium. Well, first off, Donald Trump agreed that they can enrich uranium in the ten point framework. That was very clearly in the framework. But from everything that I hear from all my sources and from all the people who were around both sides of the negotiations, the enriching uranium part was actually the part that had a workable solution because previously, you know, Iran said that it was agreeable to not enriching uranium, to make weapons grade uranium. The main sticking points from all of what I hear are two main sticking points, right? Number one was the straight of her moves. Iran is controlling it. When J.D. vance was like, well, Donald Trump wants a joint venture with you. We're not doing a joint venture. We're not doing what a JV LLC with Donald Trump. Get the hell out of here. We're controlling the Strait of the Hormuz. That's an important sticking point. And the other thing is you gotta get Netanyahu to stop blowing up Lebanon and Beirut and killing all the people in Lebanon and Beirut. You promised security guarantees in Lebanon and all these areas and you continue to engage in a massacre in Lebanon. I mean, earlier this week or last week, when there were over 250 people who were killed in one bombing run by Israel. I mean, innocent children, mothers, fathers, civilians, hospitals, schools being blown up in Beirut and in other areas of Lebanon. Those were the two main areas. But J.D. vance, I mean, you saw the clip I showed, right? I played it.

J.D. Vance (14:09)

Marshal Munir, who were both incredible hosts, and whatever shortcomings of the negotiation, it wasn't because of the Pakistanis who did an amazing job and really tried to help us and the Iranians bridge the gap and get to a deal. We have been at it now for 21 hours and we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America. So we go back to the United States, having not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on and what things we're not willing to accommodate them on. And we've made that as clear as we possibly could, and they have chosen not to accept our terms.

Political Commentator (14:58)

Was, you know, J.D. vance's sticking point was it's all about the uranium. It's all about this. That was an issue. That was actually a workable issue. But that's how the Trump regime tried to, like in a sociopathic way, you know, distract from what the real, you know, what the real issues I think were. Hormuz and Lebanon were the two main issues. So here's how Iran's state media, Tasnim a correspondent, talked about what went down at the these negotiations. The Iranian team, with attendance of its top leaders, Golubov, Iraqi, Bagheri, alongside Other committees succeeded in preventing the United States from achieving its demands by defending the fundamental rights of the Iranian people in various political and military fields and in the field of peaceful nuclear technology. During approximately 21 hours of intensive negotiations and consultations in Islamabad, Pakistan, the Americans aim to achieve concessions they cannot extract during the war, including the issue of the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of nuclear materials from the country during the negotiation sessions. But the Iranian delegation rejected that. The Iranian team tried through various initiatives to push the American side toward reaching a joint framework, but American intransigence prevented this due to their irrationality and lack of realism. Also, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baque says, we have not forgotten and will not forget the experience of America's breach of promises and malicious acts. Diplomacy for us is the continuation of the sacred jihad of the defenders of the Iranian land. He goes on to say, just as we will not forgive the heinous crimes committed by them and the Zionist regime during the course of the second and third imposed wars. Today was a busy and long day for the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Islamabad. The intensive negotiations that began from the morning of Saturday with Pakistan. Iran's benevolent efforts in mediation have continued without interruption until now, and numerous messages and texts have been exchanged between the two sides. The Iranian negotiators are employing all their capabilities, experience and knowledge to safeguards Iran's rights and interests. The heavy loss of our great elders, dear ones and fellow countrymen has made our resolve to pursue the Iranian nation's interests and rights firmer than ever before. Nothing can, or should deny deter us from pursuing our great historical mission toward our beloved homeland and noble Iranian civilization. The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to utilize all tools, including diplomacy, to secure national interests and to protect the country's well being. And then it talks about how the success of the diplomatic process depends on the seriousness and good faith of the opposing side, refraining from excessive demands, unlawful requests and the acceptance of Iran's legitimate rights and interests. Meanwhile, you had Professor Morandi who was with the Iranian delegation. His takeaway was obviously the Trump regime wasn't seriously negotiating at all. Iran also put out the following message through their Navy spokesperson. Any attempt by military vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz will face a firm response. The IRGC navy has full authority and maintains intelligent control over the Strait of Hormuz. Finally, you have Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posting the following message. Under my leadership, Israel will continue to fight against Iran's terrorist regime and its proxies. In contrast to Erdogan, the leader of Turkey, who aids them and even slaughters his Kurdish citizens. Also, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel also said that they're not agreeable to any ceasefire with Lebanon or Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that the war continues. We will be also covering, of course, this morning and throughout the day, the big election in Hungary. And so stay tuned for more reports there. Everybody hit subscribe, help us get to 7 million subscribers and thanks everybody for watching. Thanks for watching. Be sure to add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast for new updates every single day.

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