Iran Just Closed The Strait Of Hormuz Again

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
When you finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing. So you use a thing called Canva to make it an even bigger and better thing.
Whether you want to create flyers for that thing, make presentations for that thing, or design merch for that thing, you can do anything. So people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing.

**Mike Baker** (0:42)
It's Monday, the 22nd of June. Now, for all you dads listening and watching the PDB in the US, I hope you had a most excellent Father's Day. And here's a course to all the amazing moms who tolerate the dads. Welcome to The President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Iran. It says the Strait of Hormuz is closed again. Uh-oh, just days after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the US. And the key flashpoint continues to be Lebanon and Hezbollah, which is exactly what the Iranian regime intended when they insisted that Hezbollah be included as part of the MOU. We'll look at why the fighting in Lebanon is threatening to derail the deal. Later in the show, after more than 50 days of disruptive roadblocks and protests, Bolivia's president is escalating the government's response against deadly anti-government protests, deploying the military, and declaring emergency powers to restore order. Plus, Ukraine continues turning the screws on occupied Crimea, forcing Russian authorities to suspend civilian gasoline sales after a series of strikes targeting the fuel supplies across the peninsula. And in today's Back of the Brief, relations between Poland and Ukraine hit another rough patch after President Zelenskyy returned the country's highest Polish honor in a dispute rooted all the way back in World War II.
But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
The U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is barely a week old, and it's already a Memorandum of Misunderstanding. You see what I did there? That's a little bit of wordplay. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland this weekend for a round of talks with Iranian negotiators aimed at building on the much touted MOU, signed just last week by President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Buzeshkin. The negotiations, supposedly with a 60-day time frame, are reportedly to focus on the host of unresolved issues, including Iran's nuclear program, sanctions relief and the future of Tehran's uranium stockpile. But before those talks could even begin, Iran once again reverted to form. On Saturday, Iranian military officials announced that they were closing the Strait of Hormuz. According to Tehran, the closure is a response to the continued fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed and led Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iranian officials argued that the US has failed to uphold its commitments under the memorandum by allowing the conflict to continue. Now, American officials dispute Iran's claim about the Strait. US. Central Command, CENTCOM, says commercial traffic is still moving through the Strait. And Vice President JD. Vance said before departing for Switzerland that he had seen no evidence that the waterway had actually been closed. Still, commercial tripping data suggests the traffic has slowed significantly. And Iranian officials insist that new transit permits are not being issued. Whether the Strait is completely closed or simply difficult and risky to navigate, may ultimately be beside the point. The larger issue is that Iran is once again using the world's most important energy choke point as leverage, and that brings us to what is clearly the biggest weakness in this entire Memorandum of Understanding.
From the moment the details of the MOU emerged, the issue of Lebanon, especially, specifically, Hezbollah, looked like a poison pill. The agreement links progress between Washington and Tehran to a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. And the insistence by Iran that Lebanon be included in the MOU and the US administration's willingness to agree has created a major problem. President Trump can negotiate with Iran. He can offer sanctions relief. He can release frozen assets. He can provide economic incentives. What he can't do is order Israel to stop fighting or stop responding to attacks from Hezbollah. The only entity that can prevent Hezbollah from attacking Israel is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC.
Now, as a reminder, Israel was never a participant in these negotiations. Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that Israeli forces will continue operations against Hezbollah until Israel's security objectives are met. Even over the weekend, Israeli officials reiterated that they intend to maintain military pressure on Hezbollah and maintain control of key territory in southern Lebanon. In other words, one of the central conditions of this agreement depends on decisions being made by a government that never signed the agreement in the first place. Iran, meanwhile, well, the regime occupies a very different position. Hezbollah is not simply another actor in this conflict. It's Iran's most powerful regional proxy. While Hezbollah maintains its own leadership structure, Tehran possesses significant influence over the group and its strategic decisions. IRGC commanders are embedded with Hezbollah. And that creates an obvious problem. If Hezbollah launches attacks against Israeli forces, Israel is almost certain to respond. Iran can then point to the resulting violence, as it has done, and claim that the US has failed to uphold its side of the bargain. In effect, Tehran possesses the ability to help trigger the very crisis it's now citing as justification for withholding its own concessions.