Iran Just Targeted U.S. Bases In The Gulf & Hezbollah Rejects Deal

**Mike Baker** (0:00)
And we're live on match day, as Doug reaches for a Buffalo wing.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
He's got it!

**Mike Baker** (0:05)
Oh, and he's gone for a can of Pepsi too!

**SPEAKER_3** (0:07)
What a finish!

**Mike Baker** (0:09)
There's no doubt about it, it just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi.
It's Monday, the 29th of June. We are almost finished with this month. 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, the US and Iran are trading strikes once again with the regime now targeting American bases in the Gulf. We'll have the latest, and we'll ask the obvious question, why is anyone still pretending that there's a ceasefire? Later in the show, Israel agrees to withdraw from two positions in southern Lebanon under a new US-brokered framework agreement. But Hezbollah is already rejecting the deal as a surrender of Lebanese sovereignty. Apparently, the Iranian-controlled Hezbollah is under the impression that they are the Lebanese government. Plus, we'll have the latest on the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela, where the death toll continues to climb as rescue efforts continue. And in today's Back of the Brief, we'll tell you how Somali Intelligence helped US authorities arrest the alleged ringleader or one of the ringleaders of a massive Minnesota fraud case after locating him in Mogadishu.
But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
If you had any doubt that there was a serious lack of understanding in the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran, well, the past few days should have cleared that up. For several days now, the US and Iran exchanged military strikes across the Persian Gulf, with Tehran expanding its retaliation beyond commercial shipping, directly targeting US military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait. Both countries reported intercepting incoming Iranian missiles and drones. There were no reported casualties or significant damage. Even so, the attacks represent yet another dangerous escalation in what was supposed to be a period of de-escalation. The latest round of fighting traces back to Thursday, when US officials say Iran attacked a commercial vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran was upset because the Singapore registered vessel wasn't following the regime's instructions for how they insist the traffic move through the Strait. So, the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, they threw their teddy out of the crib by launching several one-way attack drones at the Singapore vessel and others. Washington responded Friday with strikes against Iranian military infrastructure along the Strait, including air defense systems, communication sites, drone storage facilities, and assets associated with laying naval mines. On Saturday, according to US military officials, Iran struck another commercial tanker near the Strait with a drone, prompting yet another wave of American air strikes against targets along Iran's southern coast. Now the conflict has widened again. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced Sunday that it had launched attacks against the US naval headquarters in Bahrain and Ali al-Salam airbase in Kuwait. Gulf officials say they intercepted the incoming projectiles before they could inflict significant damage, but the message from Tehran was unmistakable. They are not interested in a free and open Strait of Hormuz and will continue attempting to exert control over the waterway.
President Trump responded with some of his strongest rhetoric since the ceasefire began to unravel. Writing on Truth Social after Saturday strikes, the president said that American aircraft had hit Iranian missile and drone facilities for violating the ceasefire again, before warning that there may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, he said, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist. End quote.
Despite the increasingly heated rhetoric, neither side appears eager to abandon diplomacy altogether. Let me rephrase that. Neither side wants to abandon the appearance of engaging in diplomacy. Instead, what we're witnessing looks increasingly like a familiar pattern, limited military confrontation designed to establish leverage ahead of possible next rounds of negotiations. The central dispute, of course, still remains the Strait of Hormuz. Under this month's Memorandum of Understanding, Iran agreed to facilitate the safe passage of commercial shipping through the waterway, ending the blockade that had severely disrupted global energy markets. But the regime has interpreted that language very differently than Washington. Iran now argues that it has the sole authority to direct maritime traffic through the Strait, ordering ships to transit Iranian waters rather than alternative routes closer to Oman and the UAE. As mentioned, when some vessels ignored those instructions, Iran responded by firing on them with drones. The United States, in turn, has answered each attack with increasingly expansive military strikes, intended to degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping. Unfortunately for the Trump administration, the Strait isn't the only point of friction here. Iran continues to insist that any final agreement must preserve its nuclear program and eventually allow Tehran to generate revenue from commercial traffic moving through the Hormuz Strait. At the same time, fighting has continued in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has already rejected a new U.S.-broken framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon that was signed just two days ago, and we'll have more details on that a little later in the show. Taken together, those disputes illustrate a broader reality. The Memorandum of Understanding, or whatever we're calling it, signed earlier this month, might have suspended the war to a degree, but it has not resolved any of the underlying disagreements that caused the conflict in the first place. Questions surrounding freedom of navigation, Iran's nuclear ambitions, Hezbollah, sanctions relief, and regional security remain unanswered.