Is the ceasefire still in effect? Hegseth says yes despite Iran firing missiles at U.S. Navy

0:02 and co-host of The Weekend here on MSNOW, Jackie Alemany at the White House.

0:06 Our senior national security reporter David Rode is with us,

0:10 along with MSNOW military analyst,

0:12 retired Army Colonel Jack Jacobs and former deputy

0:14 national security advisor in the Biden administration, Jonathan Feiner.

0:19 Jackie, we learned Iran targeted those U S Navy vessels yesterday,

0:22 which appears to be a clear violation of the ceasefire.

0:25 Yet it did not trigger any offensive U .S.

0:28 retaliation.

0:29 What's the administration's thinking right now?

0:30 And does this all align with what they've told Congress?

0:35 Yeah, Ana, that distinction that's being made between offensive

0:38 and defensive is a strategy that the administration is

0:41 trying to employ here to continue the argument

0:43 that the administration is not in violation of the 60

0:48 day war powers resolution deadline and that they

0:51 are still technically in a ceasefire despite simultaneously continuing

0:55 to outline military operations and a current naval

0:59 blockade that is in ongoing by the U .S.

1:02 with 50 ,000 U .S.

1:04 troops still in the region.

1:07 have actually the latest administration official this was General Cain laying

1:11 out what seems to be very clear violations of the ceasefire,

1:15 yet trying unsuccessfully to continue to propagate the idea

1:19 that the president is not in violation of the War Powers Resolution.

1:22 Let's take a quick listen.

1:25 Since the ceasefire was announced,

1:27 Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships.

1:32 And they've attacked U .S.

1:34 forces more than 10 times,

1:36 all below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point.

1:45 Yeah, Ana and what legal experts,

1:48 Democratic lawmakers and increasingly Republican

1:51 lawmakers are continuing to say is

1:54 that what we are seeing right now is not a ceasefire.

1:57 It is maybe a cessation of active hostilities,

2:00 of offensive operations, but at the 60-day clock has not stopped,

2:05 despite President Trump writing to Congress last

2:08 week that the war was, quote, terminated.

2:11 And now the 1973 resolution does allow the president to seek a 30-day extension,

2:16 which would allow him ostensibly time to withdraw U .S.

2:20 troops.

2:21 But Republican lawmakers are getting increasingly noisy

2:24 about trying to hold the president accountable

2:27 for continuing to be in a war that has not been authorized by Congress.

2:31 You have almost now five Republican senators who want

2:35 to put war powers resolution on the Senate floor.

2:39 We'll see if that actually happens.

2:41 There are a lot of other Republicans who do not want

2:44 to take ownership of what the president is doing in Iran right now.

2:47 Let's highlight some more from Secretary Hegseth on the status of the strait.

2:55 Two U .S.

2:56 commercial ships, along with American destroyers

2:58 have already safely transited the strait.

3:01 Showing the lane is clear.

3:03 We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact.

3:07 They said they control the strait.

3:09 They do not.

3:13 David, there was that flurry of Iranian activity striking out at U .S.

3:18 vessels, at commercial vessels, at the UAE yesterday.

3:21 And the U .S., though, saying that doesn't trigger new operations.

3:26 What's the takeaway?

3:27 In my view, and I defer to the colonel,

3:30 but this is a violation of the ceasefire.

3:33 This is combat.

3:34 These were major efforts by the The Iranians,

3:36 I had congressional officials calling me yesterday saying

3:39 these were very serious attacks on U .S.

3:42 warships.

3:43 There were cruise missiles fired at these U .S.

3:46 warships, drones.

3:47 There were these six smaller boats that came out.

3:49 and they targeted the cargo ships, but also U .S.

3:52 forces.

3:53 So I was very surprised after so much talk from Defense Secretary Hegseth about

3:57 being so tough and strong and the importance

3:59 of showing strength that he talked about,

4:01 that he said there would be some churn.

4:03 This was not some churns.

4:05 This was an effort by Iranians to kill American service members.

4:08 So they were able to shoot down these missiles and destroy these boats.

4:13 BUT THIS, IT'S JUST INTERESTING.

4:15 AND THE LAST THING IS THAT THE DEFENSE

4:17 ARE JUST SAID THIS WAS GOING TO BE TEMPORARY.

4:19 THIS IS A MASSIVE AMERICAN MILITARY EFFORT TO REOPEN THE STRAIGHT.

4:23 THIS IS A GOOD THING.

4:25 IT'S BEEN TWO MONTHS.

4:26 since the U .S.

4:27 has addressed this problem, which was predicted for decades.

4:29 It's 100 aircraft, it's 100 ,000 U .S.

4:32 military personnel and multiple ships.

4:35 They won't say how many are involved.

4:36 We can't just walk away from this and sort of hand it

4:39 over to the Europeans because they don't have this kind of capability.

4:43 So there was just some of the statements that I

4:45 questioned and some of the claims that Secretary Hegseth made.

4:48 And there certainly doesn't seem to be enough confidence among

4:52 many of these private shipping companies to just go for it.

4:56 At this point, Colonel Jack,

4:58 the Pentagon saying that this posture in the strait from the U .S.

5:02 and Project Freedom is sort of a defensive umbrella,

5:04 and that actually they've been reaching out to private shipping companies

5:09 to try to convince them that it is safe to pass.

5:12 Is that unusual, that direct outreach to private companies?

5:16 And at what point would you say that this new posture and effort is effective?

5:22 Well, just about everything about this is unusual.

5:25 The defense secretary touting that two ships have gone through is really quite

5:35 astonishing━apologize━becaus e two ships does not

5:38 sound like a lot of commercial traffic,

5:40 and in fact the Iranians commandeered a couple of ships just the other day.

5:47 It doesn't seem like anybody is in control of the strait except the Iranians,

5:52 and the Iranians are doing something very interesting indeed.

5:57 They have the capability of conducting really large scale attacks on shipping,

6:02 on American and allied military installations.

6:07 They could swarm these areas, but they're not doing it.

6:10 They're having, they're launching very targeted,

6:13 a very small number of very targeted attacks.

6:16 And one can conclude from that, that they're just pushing the envelope.

6:20 They want to see how far they can push the United States

6:24 before the United States decides it's got to do something in response.

6:28 And so far, we've done nothing in response.

6:31 John, I want you to pick up on that.

6:33 Does Iran actually want the ceasefire to end?

6:37 What do you make of their new attacks that we've seen them carry out.

6:42 It sure doesn't seem like they're ready to have the U .S.

6:44 have its way or to, you know, sign off on any kind of U .S.

6:47 deal.

6:51 So I think I THINK WHAT IRAN HAS DECIDED AT THIS POINT

6:54 IS THEY ARE NOT GOING TO SIMPLY ALLOW THE OTHER SIDE,

7:21 I'M SORRY JOHN WE ARE LOSING YOUR SIGNAL

7:23 CUTTING IN AND OUT LET'S TRY TO RE-ESTABLISH

7:26 A BETTER SIGNAL GUYS MEANTIME DAVID IRAN WAS

7:30 FIRING AT GULF STATES YESTERDAY AS WE DISCUSSED BRIEFLY,

7:35 IN FACT THE UAE SAYS THEY ENGAGED MORE THAN A DOZEN IRANIAN MISSILES YESTERDAY

7:41 AND NOW ARE PROMISING HARSH REVENGE ANY EXPECTATION

7:45 OF WHAT THAT HARSH REVENGE COULD LOOK LIKE?

7:48 IT'S THE EMIRADIS ARE CAPABLE MILITARILY BUT THEY

7:51 AGAIN DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE NEAR THE CAPABILITY

7:54 WE HAVE AND I DON'T THINK THE EMIRADIS

7:56 WILL FIRE ON Iran without American approval.

7:59 They're a very close ally.

8:00 But it's great you mentioned this, because

8:02 it wasn't just that they carried out attacks.

8:04 The Iranians attacked U .S.

8:05 forces.

8:06 They attacked a refinery in the United Arab Emirates.

8:09 One missile hit and caused a fire.

8:11 And this is the big fear.

8:13 This is the biggest card Iran has, that they can, again,

8:16 use these missiles and drones to hit refineries in the Emirates,

8:20 in Kuwait, in Saudi Arabia.

8:22 And once you destroy these, its ports, its natural gas facilities also,

8:26 that is a months-long global energy

8:29 crisis because you're simply destroying the structure,

8:33 the infrastructure that supplies the world with energy.

8:36 And so that hasn't happened yet, but it was again,

8:39 for the beginning of what John Feiner was saying, the Iranians are pushing back.

8:43 They're not just accepting this.

8:44 And the administration wants to keep saying everything's going well.

8:48 It'll be over soon.

8:49 I'm sorry to make the joke, but you know,

8:50 there are two weeks and the war will be over.

8:54 The administration wants to maintain the polite fiction that there is

8:58 a ceasefire and that the Iranians are on their back leg.

9:03 And of course, that's clearly not the case.

9:05 Colonel, why target the UAE, though?

9:09 Why is the Iran wanting to poke UAE?

9:14 They're an ally for one thing.

9:17 They know, as David was saying,

9:19 they're not going to respond directly without American participation.

9:24 The United States is probably not going to let

9:28 the UAE counter any strikes on its own.

9:32 And I go back to what I mentioned earlier,

9:35 it's just continuing to prod the United States because Iran perceives

9:38 that it has the upper hand and so far that it actually does.

9:44 It is completely restricted, transit through the strait.

9:48 The United States cannot do anything further to open it up unless

9:53 it subjects American forces to direct attack from Iran and from its allies.

9:58 And the United States does not want to do that for a wide variety of reasons,

10:02 not the least significant of which is

10:05 that it's a politically untenable thing to do,

10:08 to extend the war further into the future.

10:13 The midterms are coming up.

10:15 The president has said we're totally in control, and we're clearly not.

10:19 He would like to get this ended sooner than the Iranians would.

10:24 And at the moment, the Iranians hold the cards.