Ret. Vice Adm. and former deputy commander of U.S. CENTCOM Robert Harward discusses the effectiveness of the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on ‘Hannity.’
Hannity: Admiral, let me ask you, I think a lot of people were caught a little bit off guard by the little change of strategy today. My only guess can be — and it is only a guess — is that there must have been some movement on some level today to convince the president that maybe a deal is possible. Thoughts?
Vice Admiral: You're watching both the strategies play out and both of those strategies are focused on the Straits of Hormuz. The president believes the blockade will create the pressure and the problems for the regime to force them to the negotiation tables. The regime believes their ultimate control of the straits will allow them to influence negotiations at the table.
So, we're going to have to see what this deal presents. But I think predicated on the fact that very few ships were moving through the straits. They both doubled down on their own strategies with time being the main determinant now.
So we'll have to see what comes out of these negotiations, what the offer is. And as Secretary Rubio said, first and foremost, no nuclear weapon. But I believe at the end of the day the real center of gravity remains the leadership in Iran. The IRGC and their ability to control the people leveraging these elements of power — be the straits of Hormuz, the nuclear weapons, the funding of surrogates.
So unless we address all those issues it's just as Secretary Rubio said — we'll be back at dealing with this later. So again, we'll have to see what the negotiations present, but any control of the straits by either side seems unacceptable to the other at this point.
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