Iran Tensions Expected to Dominate NATO Summit

Ryan talks with ABC News Correspondent Jordana Miller about growing tensions with Iran ahead of the NATO summit. She discusses Iran's continued attacks on tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and why the conflict is expected to be a major focus for world leaders.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by Verah and Farah
Accident attorneys from Tampa.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's bring in ABC News correspondent Jordana Miller coming to
us live from Israel this morning. So, Jordana, you're back,
and so are the attacks on commercial ships in the
Strait of hor Moves. What is Iran up to now?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
That's right, the Iranians appear to have attacked two cargo
vessels near the that we're in the Sea of Oman
at the opening of the street and it comes as
the Iranians are marking that week long funeral procession for

(00:43):
the Supreme Leader i Ha Tola Homina. Excuse me who
in the United States and Israel killed as you know,
Ryan in the opening day of Operation Epic Fury. And
you know, it's hard to tell what exactly the Iranians
are doing. It could be that they are angry by

(01:04):
the remarks of President Trump, who said, hey, you know,
we could just wipe out some of the leaders who
are going to attend the funeral. Right, the President continues
to make threats, and according to the MoU that was
signed between the United States and Iran, the threats are
supposed to stop during this sixty day period of negotiations,

(01:26):
and we saw the Foreign Minister A Gracchi put out
an email a post this morning saying, you know that
the United States needs to honor its commitments and its
signature and saying basically that threats are not supposed to
be happening or that the Iranians may stop the talks.

(01:47):
It's worth noting that during these funeral processions Ryan this week,
there will be no negotiations between the United States and Israel,
and the United States in Iran.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
We're also not seeing the new Supreme leader, still not
showing his face in public, correct.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Correct, And I think this is really interesting. We have
not seen Mushtavakomine at any of the funeral ceremonies to
mark his father's killing or by the way, his wife
and his son who were also killed. And I think
there's a lot of reasons that we're not seeing seeing

(02:33):
Mushtava A number one, I mean, one of the key
concerns is that if he shows up, there's a fear
in Iran that the United States and Israel will be
able to track where he's coming from and detect his
hiding place, and possibly that he could be even assassinated.
That's one concern. The second concern is that he's so

(02:56):
disfigured still. Yeah, that is, his actual presence may shock
the people of Iran and may shake their faith and
his ability to leave the country. But I think the
third part of this, or another layer of it, which
I think is the most interesting, is that there is

(03:16):
a kind of power. There is a power struggle going
on inside Iran between the hardliners and the moderates. They're
both vying for Moshtaba's support. And when I say moderates,
that's in quotes, right. The pragmatis people like people like
the Foreign Minister Agracci, and the head of the Parliament

(03:39):
Khalibaff and the President Possesskin, right, these are all part
of the moderate camp and they are at times fighting
a battle within Iran against the hardliners led by the
Revolutionary Guard Vahidi, who is you know, the most military

(04:00):
leader in Iran today and in many ways is determining
a lot of Iran's military strategy and doctrine. One of
the reasons, yeah, one of the reasons that Mushtava may
not be there is to it may be an effort
in a sense to kind of Sideline him as well.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
We're joined by ABC News correspondent Jordana Miller, coming to
us live from Israel. I think what most people here
are focused on at the moment is the Strait and
the flow of oil. What have we seen leading up to,
of course, this latest incident with Iran firing on commercial

(04:42):
ships in the Strait. What have we been seeing in
terms of the movement of ships and the flow of oil.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
What we have seen traffic increase through the Strait. The
average now is somewhere around fifty to seventy vessel a day,
still below pre war levels of one hundred, one hundred
and fifteen one hundred and twenty. We're not back to
where we were before February twenty eighth, but there has

(05:11):
been an increase, no doubt, And I think part of
the reason that the Iranians are still firing on cargo
vessels is because there is a fight going on ryan
on the high Seas for who is going to control
the Strait. The US and some of its allies have
cleared at least one path through the Strait near the

(05:35):
Sea of Oman, what's now being called the Omani Route,
and the Iranians are trying to stop the US from
helping ships go through this route because the Iranians want
to control the straight as you know, they want to
charge money, right, and so part of what's happening is

(05:57):
an attempt to fire on vessels that are going through
the Omani route to try to hold up and dissuaded
vessels from going through there. And in that way, de
Facto asserts their control over the Strait of Horror Moves.
And I anticipate Ryan that we're going to continue to

(06:18):
see intermittent attacks on vessels that are trying to cross
the Straight of Horn Moves until this issue of this
strait and its control is really solved, and it is
one of the sticking points in this agreement. The MoU
focuses almost entirely on the Straight of Horror Mooves reopening it,

(06:38):
but there's still fights about its control, and we see
that it's not totally reopened, and there are lanes that
still have the minds have not been cleared. And it's
also worth pointing out that the Iranians by not clearing
those lanes, right, that is another way that they are
asserting their control over the straight up for Moves.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
ABC News correspondent Jordana Miller coming to us live from
Israel this morning with all the latest. Jordana, really appreciate
your time and update. Thanks so much, Tucson, Ryan, make.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast up. We set on iHeartRadio,
presented by VERA and VERA Accident Attorneys, Tampa,