How Iran Secretly Planned the Next Phase of the War & Trump Hits Pause In Iran Strikes

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**Mike Baker** (0:42)
It's Monday, the 3rd of August. Welcome to The President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Still bringing you the news from somewhere on the road. Possibly an airport lounge somewhere. All right, let's get briefed.
First up, new reporting reveals it. While publicly observing a ceasefire, at least publicly sort of, Iran was quietly preparing a far wider regional war through its proxy network. We'll examine the Iranian regime's plan to strike American bases, Gulf energy facilities and critical global shipping routes. Later in the show, President Trump pulls back from another major attack on Iran, saying the outlines of a potential agreement have been reached. Well, you look at that, it really is Groundhog Day with this conflict. Drop some munitions, deal with some retaliatory strikes, threaten a major offensive, and then pull back because we're having some very good negotiations. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Doing the same thing over and over again with this Iranian regime and somehow expecting a different result.
But we'll examine the details of this latest development. Plus, President Zelensky says Ukraine has run out of critical air defense receptors as Russia continues its assault on Kiev and other cities. And in today's Back of the Brief, a deadly bombing outside a Moscow restaurant kills at least three people and leaves more than 20 injured in what authorities are calling a terrorist attack. But first, today's PDB spotlight.
According to new reporting from the New York Times, Iran used the brief ceasefire this spring to prepare for a wider regional war.
Two senior Iranian officials told the paper that commanders from the Quds Force, that's the Foreign Operations Arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, secretly coordinated with Hezbollah, the Houthis and Shiite militias in Iraq on a step-by-step plan to escalate the conflict if American attacks resumed. And based on what we've seen over the past several days, parts of that plan have been unfolding. Over the past days, Iranian-backed forces fired missiles toward a base housing American personnel in Jordan. A drone attack set a major Saudi oil facility ablaze. And tankers have been struck in an Egyptian port near the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping lanes. According to The Times, the goal was to make the war as costly as possible for President Trump, not by confronting the US directly, but by spreading pressure across the region. And that's exactly what Iran's proxy network was built to do over all these years. Iran knows that it can't match the US in a conventional fight. Its military sites and air defenses have been battered. Its Navy has been massively degraded. And a direct attack that kills large numbers of American troops, that could bring an overwhelming response. So instead, Tehran relies on Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and a network of Shia militias in Iraq, groups that it's spent years funding and training and arming. Hezbollah has long been Iran's closest and most disciplined partner. The Houthis, well, they have their own priorities in Yemen, and Iraqi militias fall somewhere in between. But they all share common enemies, the United States, Israel, and the Gulf Arab states aligned with Washington. Iran's strategy is to align those interests into one coordinated campaign. The idea is relatively simple. Don't give the US one target, give it several. Threaten American troops in Jordan and Iraq. Threaten Saudi oil infrastructure. Threaten shipping in the Red Sea and near the Suez Canal. Create enough instability that insurance costs rise, shipping routes change, and energy markets continue to panic.
And do it through proxies. That gives Tehran room to deny responsibility. Okay, well, marginally, or at least muddy the waters. Even as Iranian commanders on the ground with these various proxies, help coordinate the attacks. The Times reports that Quds Force commanders held virtual meetings with Hezbollah, Houthi and Iraqi militia leaders during the ceasefire. Iranian advisors have also been working alongside some of these groups on the ground. In fact, four men killed in recent US-Saudi strikes on militia sites in Iraq were identified by Iranian media as members of the Quds Force.