Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...

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Trump freaks out as US General refuses orders after Iran hit F-35 jets over Tehran
OPTM
Mar 19, 2026



It has finally happened. The unthinkable, the thing that Washington insiders whispered about behind closed doors but never dared say out loud, has
0:099 secondsnow exploded into the open. A full-blown mutiny is brewing within the highest echelons of the American military, and
0:1717 secondsit is aimed directly at Donald Trump. We are witnessing an unprecedented rift between the White House and the Pentagon as senior army generals are outright
0:2626 secondsrefusing to follow orders. Top counterterrorism official Joe Kent announced he is resigning as a director
0:3333 secondsof the National Counterterrorism Center in a post.
0:3636 secondsHis resignation letter read, "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation and it's clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel."
0:4444 secondsKent resigned on Tuesday and when he resigned, he said he disagreed with the administration's handling of the war.
0:5050 secondsThis isn't a disagreement over policy or a memo of concern. This is a direct challenge to the commander-in-chief's authority in the middle of a catastrophic war. The breaking point,
1:011 minute, 1 secondTrump's reckless, ill-conceived drive to plunge America into a ground war with Iran. After weeks of air strikes that have done little but inflame the region,
1:111 minute, 11 secondsthe president wanted to double down. He wanted troops on the ground. He wanted to seize Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf. And according to sources inside
1:191 minute, 19 secondsthe Department of War, the generals looked him in the eye and said, "No, we are getting reports of a near total breakdown of the chain of command. It's
1:271 minute, 27 secondsnot just about ground troops refusing to deploy. It's even worse at sea.
1:321 minute, 32 secondsCommanders of American warships are refusing to sail their vessels into the straight of Hormuz or anywhere near the Iranian coastline. And why? Because they
1:421 minute, 42 secondsare terrified. They have seen the intelligence. They know that the Iranian military has developed underwater drone technology that is essentially
1:501 minute, 50 secondsinvisible, silent, and absolutely lethal. The Pentagon brass has looked at what happened to the radar systems
1:571 minute, 57 secondscompletely destroyed by Iranian strikes and realized that their multi-billion dollar ships are sitting ducks. They are
2:042 minutes, 4 secondsnot willing to sacrifice American lives and the entire Pacific fleet for a war that serves no American interest. This
2:122 minutes, 12 secondsis the level of fear and respect that Iran's asymmetrical warfare has instilled in the most powerful military
2:192 minutes, 19 secondson Earth. These generals warned Trump before he launched this folly. They sat in the situation room and told him flat
2:262 minutes, 26 secondsout that bombing Iran would not be a quick, clean victory. They told him there is no such thing as a surgical
2:342 minutes, 34 secondsstrike against a nation with this much depth and this much strategic patience.
2:382 minutes, 38 secondsThey told him that Iran's military does not fight by the old rules. They fight with proxies, with drones, with sea
2:462 minutes, 46 secondsmines, and with a population that, while critical of their own government, will unite against an invader. Trump ignored
2:532 minutes, 53 secondsthem. He listened to the sirens singing from Tel Aviv. And now he is facing the consequences of his own hubris. The
3:003 minutesprotests outside Mara Lago are growing louder by the day. What was once a fortress of wealth and power is now a flash point for public fury. American
3:103 minutes, 10 secondscitizens, many with children and grandchildren in the military, are gathering in the Florida heat, holding signs that call this what it is, a war
3:193 minutes, 19 secondsfor Israel, not for America. They are screaming at the gates, demanding to know why their sons and daughters are being turned into cannon fodder to
3:273 minutes, 27 secondssecure Benjamin Netanyahu's regional dominance. And inside, Trump is reportedly fuming, delusional, still
3:343 minutes, 34 secondsrepeating the fantasy that Iran is about to call and surrender unconditionally. That surrender, of course, is a mirage.
3:433 minutes, 43 secondsIt was always a mirage. It's vanishing in the heat of Iranian missiles and the smoke rising from US bases across the
3:503 minutes, 50 secondsMiddle East. If you are just now joining us, I need you to do something for me. I need you to hit that like button and share this video right now. We are
3:593 minutes, 59 secondsbringing you the truth that the corporate media is too scared to print.
4:034 minutes, 3 secondsThey are still pushing the narrative of a strong America. But what we are seeing is a crumbling administration and a military in open revolt. Drop a comment,
4:124 minutes, 12 secondseven if it's just a dot to tell the algorithm that you want real news. And if you haven't already, subscribe and
4:204 minutes, 20 secondsturn on that notification bell. We are the only ones holding the line for honest journalism, and we need you with us. Now, let's peel back the layers of
4:294 minutes, 29 secondsthis rotten onion because the stench coming from Washington is the smell of treason and corruption. To understand why the army generals are running away
4:384 minutes, 38 secondsfrom a direct assault on Iran, you have to understand the genius of the Iranian defensive doctrine. This isn't Iraq in
4:454 minutes, 45 seconds2003. This isn't a conventional army that lines up on a desert and waits to be destroyed by air power. The Iranian
4:534 minutes, 53 secondsmilitary has spent decades preparing for exactly this scenario. They have built a layered, smart, and devastatingly
5:005 minuteseffective network of coastal defense missiles, fast attack boats, and crucially, the unmanned underwater vehicles I mentioned earlier. The
5:095 minutes, 9 secondsPentagon knows that sending a surface fleet into the narrow confines of the Straight of Hormuz is suicide. These new Iranian sea drones are almost impossible
5:185 minutes, 18 secondsto detect. They can swim alongside a destroyer and detonate at will. The radar systems that were destroyed in the
5:255 minutes, 25 secondsopening days of this war weren't just old hardware. They were the eyes of the fleet. Blinding those eyes was a
5:325 minutes, 32 secondscalculated move by Thrron. They are daring the US Navy to come closer to sail into the killing zone. But the refusal to engage goes beyond just
5:415 minutes, 41 secondstactical fear. It is rooted in a deep strategic and moral objection to the entire premise of the war. These
5:485 minutes, 48 secondsgenerals, many of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan, know of forever war when they see one. They know that occupying Iranian territory or trying to
5:585 minutes, 58 secondsseize their islands like Abu Musa or the greater and lesser Tums would be a quagmire that makes Vietnam look like a skirmish. The Iranians have a saying.
6:096 minutes, 9 secondsYou have the watches, but we have the time. They will bleed the American occupation dry day by day, dollar by
6:166 minutes, 16 secondsdollar, body by body. The generals read the intelligence that says the Iranian people are resilient. They saw how quickly the new supreme leader
6:256 minutes, 25 secondsconsolidated power after the assassination of Ayatollah Kam.
6:306 minutes, 30 secondsInstead of collapsing, the regime hardened. They warned Trump that if you kill the leader, you don't kill the
6:376 minutes, 37 secondsrevolution. You give it a martyr and a reason to fight harder. And who was the loudest voice pushing for this carnage?
6:446 minutes, 44 secondsWho was whispering in Trump's ear that the Iranian people would greet American troops with flowers and sweets? It was the same cabal that has been pushing for
6:526 minutes, 52 secondsthis war for 20 years. The Israeli lobby, specifically IPAC, and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. Let's
7:007 minutesbe brutally honest here. This is not America's war. This is a subcontracted war for Israel. There is an overwhelming
7:087 minutes, 8 secondsamount of evidence now that the strategic objectives of this conflict are being dictated not from the White House situation room but from
7:157 minutes, 15 secondsNetanyahu's office in occupied Jerusalem. The goal was never to neutralize a threat to the United States
7:227 minutes, 22 secondsbecause Iran posed none. The goal was to destroy Iran's ability to act as a counterweight to Israeli power in the
7:297 minutes, 29 secondsregion. The goal was to drag America into a war of chaos that keeps the Middle East fragmented, weak, and unable
7:377 minutes, 37 secondsto challenge Israeli expansionism. And the American political system, soaked in IPAC money, went along with it. The extent to which the Trump administration
7:467 minutes, 46 secondshas been compromised on this issue is now coming to light in the most dramatic fashion possible, and it centers on a man named Joe Kent. Joe Kent is not a
7:557 minutes, 55 secondsfaceless bureaucrat. He is a patriot, a man who served his country in uniform.
8:008 minutesHe spent decades in the military, in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan,
8:058 minutes, 5 secondsand the dangerous streets of Iraq. He bled for his country. After his military service, he continued to serve his
8:128 minutes, 12 secondsnation as a senior counterterrorism official. He was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He was inside the room. He was the one reading
8:218 minutes, 21 secondsthe raw intelligence. And Joe Kent looked at the evidence and saw that there was absolutely zero, let me
8:288 minutes, 28 secondsrepeat, zero credible intelligence suggesting Iran was planning an imminent attack on the United States. He saw the
8:378 minutes, 37 secondsintelligence being twisted. He saw the assessments being cooked to fit a political narrative demanded by Israel.
8:448 minutes, 44 secondsSo Joe Kent did something that should shake this nation to its core. He resigned. He walked away from power,
8:528 minutes, 52 secondsfrom prestige, from a paycheck because he could not in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. In his
8:598 minutes, 59 secondsresignation letter, he didn't mince words. He said, and I quote, "It is clear that we started this war due to
9:069 minutes, 6 secondspressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby." Let that sink in. The top counterterrorism official in the
9:139 minutes, 13 secondsUnited States is telling you that we are at war because of foreign pressure. He went on to say that a misinformation campaign orchestrated by highranking
9:229 minutes, 22 secondsIsraeli officials and influential members of the American media was used to deceive the president into believing Iran posed an imminent threat. It was a
9:329 minutes, 32 secondslie to draw us into a disastrous war just like the lies that drew us into Iraq in 2003. Joe Kent recently sat down
9:399 minutes, 39 secondsfor an interview with Tucker Carlson and it is a mustwatch for every American who pays taxes. He laid out the argument
9:479 minutes, 47 secondsagainst this war with the clarity of a man who has nothing left to lose and everything to tell. He explained that in the leadup to this war, robust debate
9:569 minutes, 56 secondswas stifled. Key decision makers, people like him, were literally not allowed into the room to brief the president.
10:0410 minutes, 4 secondsThe sanity check that the intelligence community is supposed to provide was completely blocked. He pointed out the insane logic being used by war hawks
10:1210 minutes, 12 secondslike Secretary of State Marco Rubio who argued that Iran was a threat because Israel was about to attack them and therefore Iran might retaliate. That
10:2210 minutes, 22 secondscircular logic means that Israel can create a threat whenever they want simply by preparing to attack and the US
10:2910 minutes, 29 secondsis duty bound to jump in. Kent exposed this for what it is, a complete abdication of American sovereignty. He
10:3610 minutes, 36 secondsconfirmed that the only imminent threat was the one coming from Israel, not from Iran. He spoke of how the late Ayatollah
10:4410 minutes, 44 secondsKam was actually moderating Iran's nuclear program, acting as a break on proliferation. By assassinating him, the
10:5210 minutes, 52 secondsUS and Israel guaranteed that Iran will now more than ever seek the ultimate deterrent. This brings us to the wave of resignations that is hitting the administration. It's not just Joe Kent.
11:0311 minutes, 3 secondsThe exits are starting to pile up as people realize they are attached to a sinking ship steered by a captain taking orders from a foreign shore. They see
11:1211 minutes, 12 secondsthat the America first promise has been completely hollowed out. Trump ran on a platform of ending the endless wars. He
11:1911 minutes, 19 secondsmocked his predecessors for getting stuck in the Middle East quicksand. He said the US should not be the world's policeman. But what happened along the
11:2711 minutes, 27 secondsline? He got into office and suddenly the pressure became unbearable. He was surrounded by people like Jared Kushner,
11:3511 minutes, 35 secondswho according to allegations in the recently unsealed Epstein documents may have been influenced by forces far beyond the realm of normal diplomacy. We
11:4411 minutes, 44 secondshave to talk about the elephant in the room, the Epstein files. Recent releases have included explosive allegations from a credible intelligence source that
11:5311 minutes, 53 secondsDonald Trump himself may have been compromised by Israel. The documents alleged that Jeffrey Epstein was not just a pedophile, he was an intelligence
12:0212 minutes, 2 secondsasset linked to MSAD. The file suggests that Trump was compromised and that Jared Kushner was essentially running a
12:0912 minutes, 9 secondsshadow government heavily influenced by Israeli intelligence priorities. While these are allegations, they fit perfectly into the pattern of behavior
12:1712 minutes, 17 secondswe are witnessing. Why else would a president flip so completely on his core promise? Why else would he ignore the unanimous advice of his military
12:2612 minutes, 26 secondsgenerals? Why else would he attack a country that by every official intelligence estimate was not an
12:3312 minutes, 33 secondsimminent threat? The Mossad is famous for using compromat for finding leverage. If they had something on Trump, whether related to financial
12:4212 minutes, 42 secondsdealings with Russian oligarchs or the Epstein swamp, it would explain why the US Middle East policy is now simply a
12:5012 minutes, 50 secondsphotocopy of Netanyahu's liquid party platform. So, as we close this update,
12:5412 minutes, 54 secondslook at the picture forming. A president isolated and possibly compromised. A military leadership refusing to
13:0113 minutes, 1 secondsacrifice itself for a foreign agenda. A Pentagon in chaos. A patriot like Joe Kent raising the alarm about the Israeli
13:0913 minutes, 9 secondsstrangle hold on our foreign policy. And an enemy that is not only unbowed, but is hitting back harder than anyone predicted. The unthinkable has indeed
13:1813 minutes, 18 secondshappened. The generals have turned. The mutiny is real. And the Empire, drunk on its own arrogance, is realizing that it
13:2613 minutes, 26 secondspicked a fight it cannot win. Keep watching. Keep fighting. And remember,
13:3113 minutes, 31 secondsthe only way out of this mess is to tell the truth, no matter how ugly it gets.

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Russia ‘DARES’ US After Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Plant Attack; ‘Dangerous Consequences…’ | Watch
Times Of India
Mar 19, 2026 #iran #bushehrnuclearplant #russia

High-resolution imagery has revealed the chilling aftermath of a projectile striking dangerously close to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power reactor built by Russia. The images, reportedly taken on March 18, show the devastating impact just 350 meters from the facility’s heart. Experts say the debris points north—far from the Persian Gulf—raising urgent questions about the origin of the weapon. Meanwhile, the CEO of Rosatom, a Russian state nuclear energy corporation, slammed what he called “the first instance of a direct shelling of the station's territory” by the US and Israel, warning that it set a “dangerous precedent”.



Transcript

0:033 secondsA flash of destruction, a near miss that could have changed everything.
0:099 secondsHighresolution imagery now reveals the chilling aftermath of a projectile striking dangerously close to Iran's Busher nuclear power reactor.
0:2323 secondsThe images reportedly taken on March 18th show the devastating impact just
0:2929 seconds350 m from the facility's heart. Experts say the debris points north, far from
0:3636 secondsthe Persian Gulf, raising urgent questions about the origin of the weapon.
0:4242 secondsDavid Albbright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, added Iran to a growing list
0:4949 secondsof potential actors alongside Israel and the United States, though he cautioned an Iranian strike may have been inadvertent.
0:5858 secondsMeanwhile, calls grow louder from global authorities, including IAEA Chief Rafael Graci, urging restraint, open
1:071 minute, 7 secondscommunication with Russia, and careful avoidance of nuclear targets. The world watches and waits as tensions teeter on the edge of escalation.
1:251 minute, 25 secondsThe Busher nuclear power plant built by Russia's Rosatam has been operational since 2011. It is a 1,000 megawatt
1:341 minute, 34 secondsRussian-designed pressurized water reactor with expansion projects already underway. Following the March 18th
1:411 minute, 41 secondsincident, Russia called for a safety zone to prevent catastrophe, citing significant nuclear materials on site.
1:541 minute, 54 secondsEarlier on March 18th, the CEO of Rosatom, a Russian state nuclear energy corporation, slammed what he called the
2:022 minutes, 2 secondsfirst instance of a direct shelling of the station's territory, warning that it set a dangerous precedent. Uh this marks
2:102 minutes, 10 secondsthe first instance of direct shelling of the station's territory. Uh the projectile exploded causing damage to one of the buildings. It has no relation
2:192 minutes, 19 secondsto uh the nuclear cycle. Uh it's part of the methological complex. But a dangerous precedent has been set. Uh in
2:282 minutes, 28 secondsfact uh probably the first uh well certainly the first uh in this conflict
2:362 minutes, 36 secondsuh and probably the first direct shelling of a nuclear power plants territory in literally at a distance of
2:422 minutes, 42 secondsabout 150 to 200 m from of the reactor hall uh of an active nuclear reactor that is currently operating at full
2:512 minutes, 51 secondspower. Um this is unacceptable. uh and of course we appeal to uh all sides to all parties involved in the conflict to
2:592 minutes, 59 secondsprevent anything like this from happening again in the future. Well,
3:033 minutes, 3 secondsfirst uh to ensure the equipment is supervised because the the second unit is uh in
3:103 minutes, 10 secondssuch an active construction phase and much has been done on the third. So the equipment already on site must be supervised.
3:203 minutes, 20 secondsThe International Atomic Energy Agency on March 18th said it had been informed by Iranian authorities about the
3:283 minutes, 28 secondsincident at the country's only operational nuclear facility. The Vienna based agency stated on social media that
3:353 minutes, 35 secondsthere was no damage to the plant or injuries to staff reported. Earlier on March 18th, the Russian foreign ministry
3:443 minutes, 44 secondsblamed the US and Israel for the incident. We unequivocally condemn the irresponsible
3:513 minutes, 51 secondsutterly unacceptable missile attack carried out against the inner perimeter of the Busher nuclear power station mere meters from an operational power unit.
3:593 minutes, 59 secondsWe have repeatedly warned Israel and the United States of America who continue their aggressive military campaign against the Islamic Republic about the categorical unacceptability of creating
4:074 minutes, 7 secondsthreats to the life and health of numerous Russian citizens remaining on siteista to constitute the personnel of the
4:144 minutes, 14 secondsnuclear power plant. Despite multiple claims and conflicting accounts from Thran and Moscow, neither Iran nor
4:224 minutes, 22 secondsRussia has released any images of the damage. And crucially, both have stopped short of reporting any release of
4:294 minutes, 29 secondsnuclear material from the incident near the Busher facility, underscoring the uncertainty and the stakes at play.
4:504 minutes, 50 secondsIran allegedly targeted Deona and Negev nuclear research center as a tit fortat to an earlier attack near Busher nuclear
4:584 minutes, 58 secondspower plant. The claim was made by pro-IRRGC accounts after a projectile targeted an area near Iran's Busher
5:065 minutes, 6 secondsnuclear power plant. However, it caused no damage or injuries. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
5:175 minutes, 17 secondsThe IAEA has been informed by Iran that a projectile hit the premises of the Busher NP on Tuesday evening. No damage
5:255 minutes, 25 secondsto the plant or injuries to staff reported. The UN nuclear watchdog said on X. The strike came in the third week
5:345 minutes, 34 secondsof the USIsraeli war on Iran.
5:395 minutes, 39 secondsIAEA Chief Raphael Gross reiterated his call for maximum restraint during the conflict to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.
5:525 minutes, 52 secondsIran's atomic energy organization confirmed the strike earlier in the day with the country's Tashnim news agency
6:006 minutessaying the projectile hit the vicinity of the nuclear power plant in the port city of Bucher at around 700 p.m. local time Tuesday.
6:126 minutes, 12 secondsRosatam, Russia's state nuclear energy corporation, condemned the strike on Tuesday, adding that radiation levels
6:196 minutes, 19 secondsaround the plant, whose construction was started by a German company in the 1970s and later completed by Russia, were normal.
6:306 minutes, 30 secondsInitially, this was not part of the plans for the United States and its allies. They intentionally raised the stakes, fueling hysteria regarding alleged Iranian nuclear weapon plans,
6:386 minutes, 38 secondswhich were never supported by IAEA reports, contrary to what we heard today from the US representative. This was done to implement their agenda and
6:456 minutes, 45 secondsbeyond. The Iran nuclear issue must ultimately return to the track of political and diplomatic resolution. I
6:526 minutes, 52 secondswant to emphasize that the Chinese side strongly condemns any actions that violate international law and the fundamental purposes and principles of
7:017 minutes, 1 secondthe United Nations Charter. The Chinese side strongly condemns this.
7:057 minutes, 5 secondsSo what this means in plain language is that all member states of the United Nations should be implementing an arms
7:137 minutes, 13 secondsembargo against Iran, banning the transfer and trade of missile technology and freezing relevant financial assets
7:227 minutes, 22 secondsin line with the robust UN sanctions that had been in place before 2015 and have now been snapped back into place.
7:317 minutes, 31 secondsThe UN provisions to be reimposed are not arbitrary, but instead narrowly scoped to address the threat posed by
7:407 minutes, 40 secondsIran's nuclear, missile, and conventional arms programs and Iran's
7:467 minutes, 46 secondsongoing support for terrorism. Iran had ample opportunity to prevent this
7:537 minutes, 53 secondsoutcome. France, the United Kingdom, and Germany offered to extend the so-called snapback mechanism if Iran were to
8:038 minutes, 3 secondsaccount for its highlyenriched uranium stockpile if Iran would comply with IAEA
8:118 minutes, 11 secondsobligations that were already mandatory under the NPT and
8:198 minutes, 19 secondsif Iran would resume direct diplomacy with the United states. All of those options were put on the table in good
8:288 minutes, 28 secondsfaith for Iran and all of them were rejected. It also confirmed, this is the IAEA director general's report, that for
8:378 minutes, 37 secondsover eight months now, Iran has refused to provide the IAEA with updated information
8:448 minutes, 44 secondson with updated information on or access to this highlyenriched uranium stockpile
8:518 minutes, 51 secondsor other previously declared lowenriched uranium stocks at facilities affected by military strikes in June 2025. The truth
9:009 minutesof the matter is that Russia and China do not want a functional committee, not out of some type of legal objection, but
9:109 minutes, 10 secondsbecause they want to protect their partner Iran and can continue to maintain defense cooperation
9:179 minutes, 17 secondsthat is now once again prohibited. All of this while Iran continues to evade sanctions, fire ballistic missiles and
9:259 minutes, 25 secondsdrones at civilian uh at civilians in the region and attack shipping civilian
9:329 minutes, 32 secondsshipping in the Gulf and wreak havoc in the Strait of Hormuz.
9:409 minutes, 40 secondsSo colleagues, let's let's end, you know, uh enough of the performative hand ringing over supposedly over process.
9:519 minutes, 51 secondsThe reality is Russia and China do not want this committee because it will continue to protect their partner Iran.
10:0110 minutes, 1 secondIn light of that, the United States will continue to work to ensure Iran can no
10:0810 minutes, 8 secondslonger hold the world hostage with its missile drone and certainly not a
10:1510 minutes, 15 secondsnuclear program. The UK has been clear all that time that we favored negotiation and diplomacy,
10:2310 minutes, 23 secondsbut we have repeatedly seen Iran not act in good faith to address international concerns.
10:3110 minutes, 31 secondsSo I want to start by expressing solidarity with our partners in the Gulf and the wider region who took no part in the military action launched on 28th
10:3910 minutes, 39 secondsFebru February but who have been been the target of waves of repeated and unprovoked Iranian missile and drone attacks over the last weekend over the
10:4810 minutes, 48 secondslast week. We strongly condemn these attacks. They are endangering civilians,
10:5510 minutes, 55 secondsdestabilizing the region and threatening the global economy. they must stop.
11:0111 minutes, 1 secondWe pay tribute to the swift actions taken by those partners to protect civilians, including UK nationals.
11:0911 minutes, 9 secondsWe will not overlook actions that undermine international security or the global non-prololiferation regime.
11:1911 minutes, 19 secondsIran's reckless and repeated use of ballistic missiles,
11:2311 minutes, 23 secondsincluding against its neighbors without provocation,
11:2611 minutes, 26 secondshas intensified regional insecurity and heightened the risk to civilians.
11:3411 minutes, 34 secondsOur concerns about its nuclear program remain serious and long-standing.
11:3911 minutes, 39 secondsIran has persistently failed to fulfill its safeguard obligations and fully cooperate with the IAEA. In fact, the subsequent events and most especially
11:4811 minutes, 48 secondsthose we've been compelled to observe during the course of the past week and a half have clearly demonstrated that diplomatic initially this was not part
11:5611 minutes, 56 secondsof the plans for the United States and its allies. They intentionally raised the stakes fueling hysteria regarding alleged Iranian nuclear weapon plans which were never supported by IAA
12:0412 minutes, 4 secondsreports contrary to what we heard today from the US representative. This was done to implement their agenda and beyond. Within this specific context, we wish to emphatically remind all present
12:1312 minutes, 13 secondsthat the Russian Federation, with the utmost clarity and conviction,
12:1612 minutes, 16 secondsunequivocally condemns the recent act of armed aggression perpetrated against the sovereign nation of Iran by the forces of the United States and Israel. This
12:2312 minutes, 23 secondsaction stands in direct and undeniable violation of the established principles of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental norms of international law. Such actions are unjustifiable,
12:3212 minutes, 32 secondsespecially by groundless claims regarding Iran's peaceful nuclear program should be respected. The United States
12:3912 minutes, 39 secondsand Israel should immediately stop military action and not attack facilities in Iran that are subject to safeguards the
12:4712 minutes, 47 secondsinternational atomic energy agency. It is imperative to prevent any further escalation of the current volatile tensions and to ensure that the conflict
12:5412 minutes, 54 secondsdoes not spread across the broader Middle East region.
12:5912 minutes, 59 secondsAll parties should remain calm and exercise restraint, fulfill their obligations under international law, and effectively ensure the safety of
13:0713 minutes, 7 secondscivilians and civilian facilities. The international community should send a clear and unequivocal message opposing the world's regression to the law of the jungle.
13:1713 minutes, 17 secondsSecondly, the Iran nuclear issue must ultimately return to the track of political and diplomatic resolution.
13:2713 minutes, 27 secondsI want to emphasize that the Chinese side strongly condemns any actions that violate international law and the
13:3413 minutes, 34 secondsfundamental purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.
13:4013 minutes, 40 secondsThe Chinese side strongly condemns this.
13:4713 minutes, 47 secondsWe strongly urge the United States to immediately change its current course,
13:5213 minutes, 52 secondsreturn to genuine diplomatic negotiations, and unequivocally commit to never again resorting to military force,
14:0214 minutes, 2 secondsengage in genuine and frank discussions with Iran in order to achieve a comprehensive solution that fully aligns with the expectations of the international community.
14:1214 minutes, 12 secondsIt is important that European nations cease adding fuel to the fire and instead contribute constructively to
14:2014 minutes, 20 secondsdeescalating the situation. The proper resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue is vital for the authority and
14:2714 minutes, 27 secondseffectiveness of the international non-prololiferation system and is crucial for peace and stability in the Middle East.
14:3614 minutes, 36 secondsAs a permanent member of the Security Council and a participant in the JCPO8,
14:4114 minutes, 41 secondsChina will continue to uphold an objective and impartial stance,
14:4414 minutes, 44 secondsstrengthen communication and coordination with all parties, forge a collective force, and champion fairness.

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Iran Just Nuked the Global Gas Market: The $20B Ras Laffan Strike That Set Qatar on Fire
Warfare Meet History
Mar 19, 2026

On March 19, 2026, the "Doomsday Scenario" for global energy became a reality as Iranian ballistic missiles successfully bypassed regional defenses to strike Ras Laffan Industrial City, the crown jewel of Qatar’s energy sector. The $20 billion impact of this strike has effectively "nuked" the global gas market, sending European and Asian prices into a vertical surge.The Scale of the "Ras Laffan Inferno":17% of Global Capacity Gone: QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi confirmed that the strikes knocked out two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and a major gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility.
This represents a loss of 12.8 million tons of LNG per year—a deficit that will take three to five years to repair.The "Force Majeure" Wave: For the first time in its history, Qatar has been forced to declare long-term force majeure on contracts to Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China. With no strategic reserve for LNG equivalent to the Global Oil Reserve, these nations are now facing an immediate, unpluggable supply gap.
Market Explosion: Natural gas futures in the EU (Dutch TTF) skyrocketed by 35% in a single morning, hitting €74/MWh. In the UK, prices doubled as traders realized the "Siren Economy" has lost its most reliable supplier. Brent crude also receded only slightly after briefly touching $119 per barrel.
The Geopolitical Fallout:Trump’s "South Pars" Ultimatum: Following the strike, President Trump posted a "Red Line" warning on Truth Social, threatening to "massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field"—the Iranian side of the shared reservoir—if Qatar is targeted again.
This marks the closest the world has come to a total "Energy War" where both sides' production is systematically leveled.The "Ramadan" Breach: Minister Al-Kaabi expressed profound shock that the attack occurred during the holy month of Ramadan, labeling it an "irresponsible approach" by a "brotherly Muslim country."
In response, Qatar has ordered all Iranian military and security attaches to leave the country within 24 hours.The Global "Demand Destruction": Energy analysts warn that prices have now reached "unbearable levels" that will force mandatory industrial shutdowns across Europe and Asia.
South Korea’s chipmakers and India’s fertilizer producers are already reporting critical shortages of helium and LPG feedstocks.With the Strait of Hormuz still effectively closed by "Kinetic Mining," the physical destruction of the Ras Laffan infrastructure means that even if the waterway reopens tomorrow, the global gas market will remain in a state of structural deficit until nearly 2030.



Transcript

0:006:17 a.m. Eastern Standard Time,
0:022 secondsThursday, March 19th, 2026. A trader on the floor of the Intercontinental Exchange in London is staring at a screen that 48 hours ago he would have
0:1111 secondsdescribed as impossible. Natural gas futures. The benchmark Dutch TTF contract, the number that heats homes in Amsterdam, powers factories in
0:1919 secondsStuttgart, and sets electricity bills from Lisbon to Warsaw, have just printed a number that hasn't been seen since January of 2023. €74 per megawatt hour.
0:2929 secondsand it's still climbing. He picks up a phone. He does not say hello. He says simply, "How bad is Ross Laughen?"
0:3636 secondsBecause somewhere in the back of every energy trader's mind for the past 3 weeks, that has been the question. Not if, how bad. Now, they have an answer.
0:4444 secondsAnd the answer is very, very bad. Let's back up because this story doesn't start at Ross Lafen. It doesn't even start in Qatar. It starts 17 hours earlier in the
0:5353 secondsdark above the Persian Gulf where an Israeli Air Force strike package. The exact composition of which has not been officially confirmed, but which
1:001 minutesatellite analysts and open source intelligence accounts identified as including F-35I, a dear multi-roll fighters operating under a tight
1:081 minute, 8 secondselectronic warfare umbrella, crossed into Iranian airspace, and made a decision that has now set the entire global energy market on fire. The target
1:151 minute, 15 secondswas South Pars, the world's largest natural gas field. And here's the thing.
1:201 minute, 20 secondsNobody was saying out loud until this morning. Trump didn't know it was happening. Trump admitted in what can only be described as a stunning
1:271 minute, 27 secondsdiplomatic rupture with his own ally that Qatar was in no way, shape, or form involved with it. Nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.
1:361 minute, 36 secondsUnfortunately, Iran did not know this.
1:391 minute, 39 secondsThat is the American president on the record telling the world that Israel launched a strike on the single most consequential piece of energy
1:461 minute, 46 secondsinfrastructure in the Middle East. our infrastructure that sits directly next to Qatar's own gas reserves without telling Washington. Let that sentence
1:551 minute, 55 secondssit for a moment and then ask yourself if Trump didn't know, who did? There's a third person in this story, someone who knew exactly what was going to happen at South Pars before the first bomb fell.
2:052 minutes, 5 secondsWe'll get to that, but first you need to understand what was destroyed, why it matters, and why the ripple effects of what happened last night will be felt in your electricity bill at your gas pump,
2:152 minutes, 15 secondsand potentially in the foreign policy of every major economy on Earth for the next decade. South Pars is not just a gas field. It is, in geological terms, a
2:242 minutes, 24 secondsshared formation that straddles the maritime border between Iran and Qatar and the Persian Gulf. on the Iranian side, south pars on the Qatari side, the
2:322 minutes, 32 secondsnorth field. Together, they constitute the single largest natural gas deposit ever discovered on the surface of this planet. Iran section alone provides
2:402 minutes, 40 secondsroughly 80% of Iran's domestic natural gas supply. It is the arterial blood of the Iranian economy. It supplies Turkey
2:472 minutes, 47 secondsvia pipeline. It is quite literally the lungs of the regime. The attacks on Roslafen were a retaliation for Israeli attacks this week on South Pars, part of the world's largest natural gas field.
2:582 minutes, 58 secondsSouthpar is not only critical to Iran's domestic electricity supply, it also supplies Turkey via pipeline. So when Israeli munitions began impacting
3:073 minutes, 7 secondsSouthpar's extraction platforms and processing hubs in the early hours of Wednesday, March 18th, and when Iranian state media began confirming significant
3:163 minutes, 16 secondsstructural damage to the Asaluya oil facility on the same coastline, the retaliation was not a question. It was a countdown. The IRGC, the Islamic
3:253 minutes, 25 secondsRevolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's most powerful military institution, and the organization that has been running Iran's retaliatory strategy since the
3:333 minutes, 33 secondsassassination of Supreme Leader Ali Kamune does not do proportionality. It does escalation. And within hours of the
3:403 minutes, 40 secondsSouthpar strikes, the countdown hit zero. Iran threatened to attack oil and gas facilities across the Gulf region in
3:473 minutes, 47 secondsretaliation for an Israeli attack on its South Pars gas field. Iran's warning of attacks was directed at Qatar's Misaid
3:543 minutes, 54 secondspetrochemical complex. Mised Holding Company and Raz Lefan refinery, Saudi Arabia's Samrif refinery and Jubel
4:014 minutes, 1 secondpetrochemical complex and the United Arab Emirates Alhausen gas field. That was the warning. Thran gave a list, a
4:084 minutes, 8 secondsshopping list of targets. And then methodically, precisely, and with terrifying operational competence, it began working through that list. Here's
4:164 minutes, 16 secondswhat nobody is telling you. Before a single Iranian missile left its launch pad, before the first plume of smoke rose above Roslafen, there were already
4:244 minutes, 24 seconds22 fully loaded LNG tankers sitting in the Persian Gulf, unable to move. Tanker movement through the straight of Hormuz that was handling about 20% of global
4:324 minutes, 32 secondsoil supplies is largely blocked. Randere Jiswall, India's external ministry of affairs, told CNBC on the phone the
4:404 minutes, 40 secondscountry was in ongoing discussions with Iran to get 22 ships through the straight. Two ships have already reached India via the passageway. two out of 22.
4:484 minutes, 48 secondsThe world's most critical maritime choke point is functionally closed. And into that already catastrophic situation,
4:534 minutes, 53 secondsIran just dropped a match. Razaf, an industrial city, 80 km northeast of Doha, home to the single largest concentration of liqufied natural gas production capacity on the planet,
5:045 minutes, 4 secondsoperated by Qar Energy, the same Qar Energy whose CEO, Sad Alkabi, has spent the past three weeks telling European
5:115 minutes, 11 secondsand Asian buyers that production would restart soon. It will not restart soon.
5:175 minutes, 17 secondsThe Raz Lafan industrial city, home to the LNG plant that accounted for about a fifth of global supply before production was halted earlier this month, was hit
5:255 minutes, 25 secondsby an Iranian missile after four others were intercepted, authorities said late Wednesday. Four missiles intercepted.
5:325 minutes, 32 secondsOne got through, one was enough. Because Ros Lafen is not a single building. It is a 200 km complex of liquefaction
5:405 minutes, 40 secondstrains, cryogenic storage tanks, loading arms, jetties, and pipeline infrastructure. Much of it built over two decades at a cost that analysts at
5:485 minutes, 48 secondsWood McKenzie now estimate represents somewhere north of 20 billion in total capital investment. And parts of it are
5:545 minutes, 54 secondsnow on fire. Qatar Energy CEO Sad Alabi said the Iran attack took out 17% of the country's liqufied natural gas export
6:036 minutes, 3 secondscapacity. 17%. That is not a rounding error. Qatar produces 77 million metric tonses of LNG annually. Qatar's state
6:116 minutes, 11 secondsoil company Qatar Energy, the world's second largest LG exporter, said on Wednesday that Iranian missile attacks on Roslafen caused extensive damage,
6:206 minutes, 20 secondswhile the UAE shut gas facilities after intercepting missiles early on Thursday.
6:246 minutes, 24 secondsBut the headline number, 17% actually understates the problem. Because Qatar had already on March 2nd halted all LG
6:326 minutes, 32 secondsproduction after the first wave of Iranian drone strikes. Qatar halted LG production on March 2nd due to Iranian drone strikes at Ross Laughen and Mised
6:406 minutes, 40 secondsIndustrial City. The Gulf state is the second largest LNG exporter in the world after the U. Essar accounts for nearly 20% of global LG exports. So the 17%
6:516 minutes, 51 secondscapacity damage from Wednesday's missile strike is damage to a facility that is already offline. The question is no longer when Qar restarts. The question
6:596 minutes, 59 secondsis whether the physical infrastructure can ever be restored on a timeline that is measured in months rather than years.
7:057 minutes, 5 secondsQatar Energy says damage at LG facilities could take years to repair,
7:097 minutes, 9 secondsupending the supply outlook. Years, not months. Years. The global LG market is now looking at a structural supply hole
7:167 minutes, 16 secondsthat no amount of spot cargos from the United States, Australia, or Canada fill on short notice. Existing LG plants globally are running at or near
7:257 minutes, 25 secondscapacity. And new LG supply that is expected this year, including from the United States, Canada, and Australia,
7:327 minutes, 32 secondsmay not come in time to help with the current shock. There is, in the blunt assessment of an Sophie Corbo, a researcher at the Center on Global
7:407 minutes, 40 secondsEnergy Policy at Columbia University, no immediate answer to this crisis on the gas side. And this is where the domino effect becomes almost incomprehensible
7:487 minutes, 48 secondsin its scale. The front month gas price at the Dutch title transfer facility hub, a European benchmark for natural gas trading, traded up over 16, 5% at
7:587 minutes, 58 seconds63, €7 per megawatt hour. But that was the morning number. By midm morning in London, benchmark Dutch gas prices hit
8:068 minutes, 6 seconds74 per megawatt hour, their highest level since January 2023. And here is the critical context. Gas prices in
8:148 minutes, 14 secondsEurope have now since the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28th doubled, not risen, doubled. As of
8:228 minutes, 22 secondsThursday, Dutch natural gas futures, the European benchmark, have doubled.
8:268 minutes, 26 secondsSpeaking on the sidelines of an EU summit Thursday, Belgian Prime Minister Bart Dewaver said EU officials were very worried about the energy crisis. The
8:348 minutes, 34 secondsEuropean Union is now in real time debating emergency price caps. The European Union was weighing capping natural gas prices to curb a jump in
8:428 minutes, 42 secondselectricity costs. In Asia, it is even more acute. The supply shock has triggered widespread gas rationing across the economy, according to Wood
8:498 minutes, 49 secondsMcKenzie, with clothing manufacturers facing significant production curtailment.
8:548 minutes, 54 secondsBangladesh, where half of all electricity generation is gas fired, is rationing power across entire sectors of its economy. The garment factories that
9:039 minutes, 3 secondsproduce fast fashion for Western consumers are running on reduced hours.
9:069 minutes, 6 seconds11 tankers originally bound for Europe have rerouted to Asia since the war began. According to Gillian Bakra,
9:129 minutes, 12 secondssenior director of gas and power at commodities intelligence provider Capler. That rerouting is now putting upward pressure on European prices in a
9:209 minutes, 20 secondsfeedback loop that has no natural ceiling. And oil, let's talk about oil.
9:259 minutes, 25 secondsBrent futures were up $7 39 or 6 9% at 114
9:319 minutes, 31 seconds77s a barrel by 1026 GMT. Earlier in the session, Brent had climbed more than $10 to a high of $119.
9:399 minutes, 39 seconds13, close to the three and a halfyear peak touched on March 9th. A gallon of gas at American pumps is now frequently crossing $4 in the use. A gallon of gas
9:489 minutes, 48 secondsis now frequently above $4. The Federal Reserve, which held interest rates steady on Wednesday, is already projecting higher inflation. The US
9:569 minutes, 56 secondsCentral Bank held interest rates steady on Wednesday, projecting higher inflation as policy makers take stock of the impact of the war. That means the
10:0310 minutes, 3 secondsFed is trapped. If they raise rates to fight energy inflation, they risk triggering a recession in an economy already absorbing a supply shock. If
10:1110 minutes, 11 secondsthey do nothing, gas hits $500 by Memorial Day. There is no good option.
10:1610 minutes, 16 secondsDan Pickering, founder and CIO of Pickering Energy Partners, captured it best. We're moving from a supply chain problem to potentially a supply problem.
10:2410 minutes, 24 secondsThere's a big difference. You fix supply chain problems quickly. If you start changing the ability to produce, whether it's LNG or oil, then all of a sudden
10:3210 minutes, 32 secondsyou can't move the same amount of volumes because the volumes aren't there. This is an escalation.
10:3810 minutes, 38 secondsBut here's the catch. The thing that nobody in the cable news cycle is talking about this morning because they're too busy showing satellite
10:4610 minutes, 46 secondsimagery of burning infrastructure. The man who may have the most to gain from $119 oil, economically speaking, is the man currently sitting in the Oval
10:5410 minutes, 54 secondsOffice. Saul Kavanich, head of research at Australia's MST Marquee, said attacks on Roslafen could cause a lasting global gas shortage, but this won't pressure
11:0211 minutes, 2 secondsthe Trump administration because the US benefits economically from high global gas prices. Read that again slowly. The United States, now the world's largest
11:1111 minutes, 11 secondsLNG exporter, makes more money when global gas prices are higher. American LG producers, the companies operating the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana,
11:1911 minutes, 19 secondsthe Corpus Christi facility in Texas,
11:2111 minutes, 21 secondsthe Freeport LNG complex are tonight looking at cargo contracts that are suddenly worth considerably more than they were 48 hours ago. There is a
11:3011 minutes, 30 secondsstructural economic incentive baked into American energy dominance that make sustained high prices not entirely unwelcome in certain Washington corridors. That is not speculation. That is what analysts are saying privately.
11:4111 minutes, 41 secondsNow, the third person in the room,
11:4311 minutes, 43 secondsremember I told you there was someone who knew what was going to happen at South Par before the bombs fell. Someone who knew that an Israeli strike on
11:5011 minutes, 50 secondsIranian gas infrastructure would trigger an Iranian retaliation against Ross Laughen. Someone who knew that the cascading effect of that retaliation
11:5911 minutes, 59 secondswould be a price spike that benefits one country's export sector enormously.
12:0312 minutes, 3 secondsWe're not going to name this person because the intelligence community is still working through the chain of authorization. What we can tell you is this. Trump appears to be trying to dial
12:1212 minutes, 12 secondsdown the intensity of the attacks. He said there would be no more attacks on South Pars unless Iran attacked Qatar first. Trump is publicly distancing
12:2012 minutes, 20 secondshimself from the Southpar strike. He's telling the world he didn't authorize it. He is in effect throwing Israel under the bus diplomatically. Even as
12:2812 minutes, 28 secondshis own defense secretary stands at a Pentagon podium and frames it as a strategic success. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsath calls Israel's
12:3512 minutes, 35 secondsstrike on Iran's South Pars gas field a warning, urging Iran against continuing its retaliatory strikes on energy sites across the Gulf. So the defense
12:4412 minutes, 44 secondssecretary calls it a warning. The president calls it unauthorized. And in between those two statements, in the gap between what Hexath says at the Pentagon
12:5112 minutes, 51 secondsand what Trump posts on social media, is where the real policy is being made, or rather unmade. Let's go deeper into the diplomatic wreckage because it tells you
13:0013 minuteseverything about why this war is so hard to stop. On February 6th, Steve Witoff,
13:0513 minutes, 5 secondsTrump's special envoy to the Middle East, a real estate developer from New York with no prior diplomatic experience and a now legendary inability to master
13:1313 minutes, 13 secondsthe technical details of nuclear physics, sat in a room in Moscat, Oman.
13:1813 minutes, 18 secondsHe was not in the same room as Iranian foreign minister Abasaragi. The first round of talks held on February 6 in Moscat, Oman, was primarily conducted
13:2613 minutes, 26 secondsindirectly, according to a Persian Gulf diplomat. Omani intermediaries held separate meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi and then with
13:3413 minutes, 34 secondsWitkoff and Jared Kushner. Messages were carried down a hallway by Omani diplomats. That was the architecture of peace. A hallway and envelopes and
13:4213 minutes, 42 secondsintermediaries against the backdrop of 460 kg of 60% enriched uranium and an Israeli air force that was even then
13:5113 minutes, 51 secondsapparently drawing up target packages for South Pars. Whitov says Iran's top negotiators boasted in the first round of negotiations of having enough
13:5913 minutes, 59 secondshighlyenriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs. In that first meeting,
14:0414 minutes, 4 secondsboth the Iranian negotiators said to us directly with no shame that they controlled 460 kg of 60% enriched uranium and that they're aware that could make 11 nuclear bombs.
14:1514 minutes, 15 secondsThe Iranians were proud of it. Witoff and Kushner, by his own account, looked at each other flumxed. Here is the problem with that account. A Persian
14:2214 minutes, 22 secondsGulf diplomat with direct knowledge of those same talks told NBC News categorically that Wititov's description of the conversation was false. The
14:3014 minutes, 30 secondsIranians told Witoff that Iran was willing to give up the enriched uranium as part of a new agreement with Trump.
14:3514 minutes, 35 secondsAccording to the Persian Gulf diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, two wildly different versions of the same conversation, two wildly different
14:4314 minutes, 43 secondsrealities. And the disconnect between those two realities is part of why Operation Epic Fury launched on February 28th. Three rounds of talks, a hallway
14:5114 minutes, 51 secondsin Muscat, and then bombs. There were three rounds of nuclear talks total before the war started. Less than 48 hours before the US and Israeli
15:0015 minutescoordinated strikes on Iran began on Febir 28. US special envoy, Steve Wickoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with
15:0915 minutes, 9 secondsIranian foreign minister Abbas Aragshi in Geneva for a third round of Omani mediated talks aimed at reaching a nuclear agreement. Despite Omani for
15:1715 minutes, 17 secondsForeign Minister Bad Bin Hammed al-Busidi's assessment that the United States and Iran made substantial progress toward a nuclear deal during
15:2415 minutes, 24 secondsthe Febru March 2nd for technical talks, Trump said he was not happy with the progress
15:3115 minutes, 31 secondsor the way they're negotiating. And then the next day, the bombs fell. The Omani foreign minister assessed substantial progress. Trump said not happy. And less
15:4115 minutes, 41 secondsthan 48 hours after that final meeting in a Geneva conference room, FA18 Super Hornets launched from the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in an
15:4815 minutes, 48 secondsundisclosed location in the Gulf. An operation epic fury began. Now 3 weeks into this war, the question is whether
15:5615 minutes, 56 secondsany diplomatic architecture survives at all. And here is where it gets extraordinarily complicated. Ali Kam is dead. The supreme leader of the Islamic
16:0516 minutes, 5 secondsRepublic, the man who had final authority over every nuclear decision,
16:0916 minutes, 9 secondsevery proxy decision, every missile decision, was killed in the opening strikes of this war. In his absence, a man named Ali Larajani has emerged as
16:1716 minutes, 17 secondsIran's deacto civilian leader. Larajani is not a hotthead. He is a pragmatist.
16:2216 minutes, 22 secondsHe has served in senior security roles for decades. He is by the assessment of US intelligence officials, someone who understands what a deal would look like.
16:3016 minutes, 30 secondsAnd it is Larjani who is now coordinating with Araji. The Iranian foreign minister seems to be coordinating with the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council
16:3916 minutes, 39 secondsAli Larijani who has been Iran's deacto civilian leader since the assassination of former Supreme Leader Ali Kam.
16:4616 minutes, 46 secondsSources say US officials see Arachi as the go-to interlocutor because they have a pre-existing relationship with him and
16:5316 minutes, 53 secondshe's still alive. He's still alive. that phrase in a sentence about diplomatic relations. That is the world we are now
17:0117 minutes, 1 secondliving in. And yet, signal number one, a direct communications channel was reactivated just 3 days ago. A direct communications channel between US envoy
17:0917 minutes, 9 secondsSteve Witoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi has been reactivated in recent days. According to a US official and a source with
17:1717 minutes, 17 secondsknowledge, it's the first known direct communication between the parties since the war started more than two weeks ago.
17:2317 minutes, 23 secondstext messages sent between a man representing a government that has been bombing Iran for three weeks and a foreign minister who immediately denied
17:3017 minutes, 30 secondsthe contact existed. Aragchi issued a denial after this story published writing on X. My last contact with Mr.
17:3817 minutes, 38 secondsWitoff was prior to his employer's decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran. Any claim to the contrary appears geared
17:4517 minutes, 45 secondssolely to mislead oil traders and the public. He's denying talking to the Americans in public, but he's texting them in private. That gap between the
17:5417 minutes, 54 secondspublic denial and the private text message is where every possible diplomatic off-ramp currently lives. It is the most important gap in geopolitics
18:0218 minutes, 2 secondsright now, and it is razor thin. Trump acknowledged it himself in the most Trump way imaginable. Trump said Iran
18:0918 minutes, 9 secondshad communicated with the US, but that it was unclear if the Iranian officials involved were authorized to make a deal.
18:1518 minutes, 15 secondsThey want to make a deal. They are talking to our people. We have no idea who they are, Trump told reporters. The president of the United States does not
18:2218 minutes, 22 secondsknow who he is negotiating with. The people reaching out from Iran, he cannot confirm whether they have the authority to bind the regime. That is not a
18:3018 minutes, 30 secondsnegotiation. That is a mystery wrapped inside a war. But here's the catch. And this one is the pivot that changes everything you thought you understood about who has leverage here. The IRGC,
18:4218 minutes, 42 secondsthe Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
18:4418 minutes, 44 secondsthe people who fired the missiles that hit Ross Laughen last night. They are not Larajani. They are not Arachi. They are not texting Witoff. The IRGC has its
18:5318 minutes, 53 secondsown command structure, its own intelligence apparatus, its own political objectives. And the IRGC's objectives are not necessarily aligned
19:0019 minuteswith what Larajani wants. The IRGC has spent the last three weeks executing a retaliatory strategy that is calibrated not just to inflict economic pain on
19:0919 minutes, 9 secondsIsrael and the Gulf states, but to demonstrate to Iran's domestic population, to the millions of Iranians living through power cuts because
19:1619 minutes, 16 secondsSouthpars is now damaged, that the regime can strike back, that it is not broken, that it matters. Rob Gist Pinfold, lecturer in defense studies at
19:2419 minutes, 24 secondsKing's College London, told Al Jazera that Iran knows exactly what it's doing by attacking the Gulf countries. These countries have less of an appetite for a fight because at the end of the day,
19:3519 minutes, 35 secondsthis is not their war. So Iran is banking that they will want a ceasefire as soon as possible. That they will be pressuring the Trump administration.
19:4319 minutes, 43 secondsThat is the IRGC's strategic bet. Hit Qatar, hit Saudi Arabia, hit Kuwait, hit the UAE, force the Gulf States, the
19:5019 minutes, 50 secondscountries that have been quietly hosting American military infrastructure, the countries that need peace more than they need a proxy war, to pressure Washington
19:5819 minutes, 58 secondsinto pulling back. And so far, that strategy is working. Qatar expelled Iran's military and security attaches within 24 hours of the strike. Qatar's
20:0720 minutes, 7 secondsforeign ministry declared the Iranian embassy's military and security attaches as persona nongrada along with their staff, demanding that they leave Qatar
20:1520 minutes, 15 secondswithin 24 hours. But Qatar is also the country that was until last night the most important diplomatic back channel
20:2220 minutes, 22 secondsbetween Washington and Thran. Qatar mediated the Gaza ceasefire. Qatar hosted American bases. Qatar was the
20:2920 minutes, 29 secondscountry where Witkoff and Kushner were supposed to travel on Thursday to hold preliminary talks before heading to Oman. That trip is now in serious
20:3620 minutes, 36 secondsquestion and Saudi Arabia is on the knife's edge. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed four ballistic missiles launched toward Riyad. Saudi
20:4420 minutes, 44 secondsAramco's Samref refinery in which Exxon holds a stake in the Red Sea port of Yanbu was also targeted in an aerial attack on Thursday. Oil loadings at the
20:5320 minutes, 53 secondsport were briefly halted. Yanboo is Saudi Arabia's only remaining outlet for crude exports. Let that fact register.
20:5920 minutes, 59 secondsIf Iranian strikes disable the Yamu terminal, if the port that carries Saudi crude to the world market is taken offline for any sustained period, you're
21:0721 minutes, 7 secondsno longer talking about $119 oil. You're talking about price levels that make $19 look like a rounding error. Tom Cloa, G
21:1521 minutes, 15 secondsOil's senior energy adviser, described this scenario as an all bets are off moment. Gulf Oil's senior energy adviser Tom Cloa warned that markets could enter
21:2421 minutes, 24 secondsan all bets are off scenario if the conflict spills beyond the Gulf and begins targeting energy infrastructure.
21:2921 minutes, 29 secondsWe are already there. We have already entered that scenario. Kuwait's Mina Almadi refinery, a facility that sits on the northern shore of the Gulf and has
21:3721 minutes, 37 secondsbeen processing Kuwaiti crude for 70 years, was hit by Iranian drones Thursday morning. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said an operational unit at
21:4521 minutes, 45 secondsits MINA Al- Amadi refinery was hit by a drone, igniting a limited fire. Abu Dhabi was forced to shut down its Hobshin gas facilities entirely after
21:5321 minutes, 53 secondsfalling debris from intercepted Iranian missiles caused structural damage. Hours later, Abu Dhabi shut its Hobshin gas facilities after they were hit by
22:0122 minutes, 1 secondfalling debris from an intercepted strike. The UAE, a country that has prided itself on remaining above the fray, on maintaining diplomatic channels
22:1022 minutes, 10 secondsto everyone, is now absorbing collateral damage from a war it wanted no part of.
22:1422 minutes, 14 secondsHere is the geopolitical domino effect in its full terrifying clarity. Qatar,
22:1922 minutes, 19 seconds20% of global LNG offline, straight of Hormuz, 20% of global oil functionally blocked. Yamu, Saudi crude export capacity temporarily disrupted. Havshan,
22:3022 minutes, 30 secondsUAE gas production shut down. Kuwait,
22:3322 minutes, 33 secondstwo refineries on fire. European gas prices doubled since February 28th.
22:3822 minutes, 38 secondsAsian gas prices in crisis rationing territory. Brent crude $119 before the trading day was an hour old. American gas pumps above $4 a gallon and rising.
22:4922 minutes, 49 secondsFederal Reserve trapped between inflation and recession. Bangladesh rationing electricity. Turkey potentially losing its Southpar's
22:5722 minutes, 57 secondspipeline supply. There could also be competition incoming from Turkey following the South Pars attack. If Turkeykey's supply is compromised, the
23:0523 minutes, 5 secondscountry might try to buy LG from elsewhere, potentially putting further upward pressure on prices around the world. And Shell, the world's largest LG
23:1323 minutes, 13 secondstrader, which has facilities inside the Ros Lafen complex, is currently assessing any potential impact. Ros Lafen is an energy industry hub and hosts several international companies,
23:2323 minutes, 23 secondsincluding Shell, the world's biggest LG trader. Shell is currently assessing any potential impact. A spokesperson said
23:3023 minutes, 30 secondsthat sentence currently assessing is corporate speak for we have no idea how bad this is yet but it's very bad. Now
23:3923 minutes, 39 secondsthe nuclear question because underneath all of this u underneath the gas prices and the oil prices and the diplomatic
23:4623 minutes, 46 secondstext messages there is the question that started this entire chain of events. Iran's nuclear program. In June 2025,
23:5423 minutes, 54 secondsIsrael and the US destroyed Iran's entire fleet of around 20,000 nuclear centrifuges, its entire multiaceted weaponization program, most of its three
24:0324 minutes, 3 secondsmajor nuclear sites, and dozens of minor nuclear sites. It also killed most of its leading nuclear scientists. That was the first wave, June 2025. And then nine
24:1324 minutes, 13 secondsmonths later, despite all of that destruction, despite the dead scientists, despite the crushed centrifuges, Iran's negotiators sat
24:2024 minutes, 20 secondsacross a table from Steve Witoff and told him they still had 460 kg of 60%
24:2624 minutes, 26 secondsenriched uranium. Wickoff maintained that the country's three main enrichment and conversion centers were in fact destroyed, but Tran has not publicly
24:3424 minutes, 34 secondsacknowledged such destruction. US and Israeli intelligence currently believe Iran is at least 2 years from producing a functional nuclear weapon given
24:4224 minutes, 42 secondseverything that's been destroyed. But the enriched uranium stockpile, the feed stock, may still exist somewhere,
24:4824 minutes, 48 secondshidden, dispersed, hardened. Wickoff said they're probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb- making material, and that's really dangerous. A
24:5724 minutes, 57 secondsweek if they rebuild. But rebuilding requires the centrifuges they no longer have. This is the paradox at the center of the entire conflict. The bombs
25:0625 minutes, 6 secondsdestroyed the factories. The uranium survived. And as long as the uranium survives, as long as those 460 kg of 60%
25:1425 minutes, 14 secondsenriched material are unaccounted for and distributed to locations, US and Israeli intelligence cannot fully map.
25:2025 minutes, 20 secondsThe war has no clean ending. You can bomb the infrastructure. You cannot bomb the knowledge. And you cannot bomb the materials you cannot find. Pete Hexith
25:2925 minutes, 29 secondsstanding at a Pentagon podium this morning, March 19th, was asked whether yesterday's Southpar strike brought Iran closer to a deal or further from one.
25:3725 minutes, 37 secondsHexath says Iran has weaponized energy for decades. Israel clearly sent a warning and Trump has made it clear,
25:4325 minutes, 43 secondsvery clear. Iran knows when you hit Car Island and you hit military capabilities on Carg Island, which is the only thing we hit. We can hold anything at issue.
25:5225 minutes, 52 secondsThe United States military controls the fate of that country. The United States military controls the fate of that country. That is the message and it is
26:0026 minutesthe message the IRGC is answering tonight with drones over Kuwait and missiles at Yamboo and the burning infrastructure of Ros Leafon. Trump's
26:0826 minutes, 8 secondsdissatisfaction and impatience with the negotiating process appear to have been fed in part by Witoff and Kushner's accounts of the US Iran talks. Comments
26:1626 minutes, 16 secondsmade by Witco in two background briefings with reporters on February 28 and March 3rd made clear that Witoff did not have sufficient technical expertise
26:2426 minutes, 24 secondsor diplomatic experience to engage in effective diplomacy. His lack of knowledge and mischaracterization of Iran's positions and nuclear program throughout the process likely informed
26:3326 minutes, 33 secondsTrump's assessment that talks were not progressing and Iran was not negotiating seriously. In other words, the war that is now costing the global economy
26:4026 minutes, 40 secondshundreds of billions of dollars in energy disruption may have been at least in part a product of a misreading of bad information flowing upward to a
26:4826 minutes, 48 secondspresident who trusted the reading. That is the most chilling sentence in this entire story. The attacks on southpars in Iran and Qatar's Ross Laughen plant
26:5626 minutes, 56 secondsrepresent a sharp escalation not just in the conflict itself but in its implications for energy markets. Major infrastructure damage means facilities could take months or years, not weeks,
27:0627 minutes, 6 secondsto restart. The head of energy price risk solutions at Heartree Partners said it plainly. And Wood McKenzie, the firm that has been tracking global LG flows
27:1527 minutes, 15 secondsfor three decades, said the Rosen strikes fundamentally alter the global natural gas market outlook. The latest
27:2227 minutes, 22 secondsstrikes on Roslafen fundamentally alter the global natural gas market outlook according to Wood McKenzie, a data and analytics company. fundamentally, not significantly, not materially,
27:3327 minutes, 33 secondsfundamentally. Right now, as this script is being written, Wickoff's phone is presumably still active. Aragchi is publicly denying he's talking to anyone.
27:4127 minutes, 41 secondsLarijani is coordinating from somewhere in Iran. The IRGC is deciding whether to fire another missile at Yanbu. Trump is on social media threatening to massively
27:5027 minutes, 50 secondsblow up the entirety of the Southpar's gas field if Qatar is attacked again.
27:5427 minutes, 54 secondsTrump earlier warned Iran in a statement on social media not to retaliate by attacking Qatari LNG facilities again and threatened to massively blow up the
28:0328 minutes, 3 secondsentirety of the South Pars gas field if it did so. That threat was issued after Qatar was attacked. Qatar has already been attacked which means that threat
28:1128 minutes, 11 secondshas either already failed as a deterrent or the next strike triggers a response of overwhelming force that sets the entire South Pars formation shared between Iran and Qatar permanently
28:2028 minutes, 20 secondsablaze. France's Emanuel Mcronone issued a call from the sidelines of the EU summit this morning for an immediate moratorium on strikes targeting energy
28:2828 minutes, 28 secondsinfrastructure. It is in our common interest to implement without delay a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure, particularly energy and
28:3628 minutes, 36 secondswater supply facilities. Civilian populations and their essential needs as well as the security of energy supplies must be protected from military
28:4328 minutes, 43 secondsescalation. Macron said it is a moral statement and a correct one. It is also a statement made by a leader who has no aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf
28:5128 minutes, 51 secondsand no leverage in either Thran or Tel Aviv. India is trying to thread the needle. India continues to increase energy purchases from Russia. Randere
28:5928 minutes, 59 secondsJiswal, India's external ministry of affairs told CNBC the country was in ongoing discussions with Iran to get 22 ships through the strait. Two ships have
29:0829 minutes, 8 secondsalready reached India via the passageway. Russia is watching all of this with the quiet satisfaction of a country whose main export product just
29:1529 minutes, 15 secondsbecame the most sought-after commodity on Earth. Moscow is not interested in this war ending quickly. So, where does this leave us? Right here, March 19th,
29:2429 minutes, 24 seconds2026. Brent crude sitting above 11 and threatening to push back toward $119.
29:3129 minutes, 31 secondsEuropean gas doubled. Ross Lafen offline damaged for potentially years. The straight of Hormuz functionally closed.
29:3729 minutes, 37 seconds22 tankers stranded. The IRGC still firing. Laurani and Witoff exchanging text messages through a channel that both sides deny exists publicly.
29:4629 minutes, 46 secondsNetanyahu and the Israeli military drawing target packages for facilities that if struck will push global energy prices to levels that destabilize governments across the developing world.
29:5629 minutes, 56 secondsAnd Trump caught between a defense secretary who calls a unilateral Israeli strike a warning, an ally who didn't tell him what it was planning, and a gas
30:0330 minutes, 3 secondspump back home crossing $4 that will show up in his approval ratings before the month is out. In the next 24 to 72 hours, the world will find out which version of this story we are living in.
30:1330 minutes, 13 secondsVersion one, the text messages between RXG and Witco turn into something real.
30:1830 minutes, 18 secondsLarijani calculating that the IRGC's energy war has achieved its strategic purpose, that the Gulf States are now screaming at Washington for restraint,
30:2530 minutes, 25 secondsthat the economic pressure on Europe and Asia is enough to force American action,
30:2930 minutes, 29 secondssignals through back channels that Iran is willing to discuss a pause. Trump looking at a gas price that is damaging his political standing agrees to a
30:3730 minutes, 37 secondstemporary halt in strikes. A ceasefire framework emerges through Qatar, through Oman, through whoever still has working diplomatic channels and functional
30:4430 minutes, 44 secondsembassies. The liquefaction trains at Ross Lafen begin damage assessments. Markets stabilize. The world exhales.
30:5130 minutes, 51 secondsVersion two, the IRGC fires again at Yanbu or at a Kuwait oil terminal or at something that crosses whatever threshold Trump has drawn. The threshold
30:5930 minutes, 59 secondsthat as of this morning has already been crossed with Ross Laughen and was answered not with overwhelming force but with a social media post. Iran reads that response as weakness. It escalates.
31:1031 minutes, 10 secondsTrump boxed in by his own public threat to destroy South Pars completely is forced to authorize strikes that permanently damage shared Iranian Qatari
31:1831 minutes, 18 secondsgeological infrastructure. Brent crude breaks $150. Europe enters recession.
31:2431 minutes, 24 secondsThe straight of Hormuz becomes a minefield. a US Navy vessel, possibly the USS Gerald R. Ford strike group operating in the region comes into
31:3231 minutes, 32 secondsdirect kinetic contact with IRGC naval assets and the war that started as a nuclear standoff between Israel and Iran becomes something that no architecture
31:4131 minutes, 41 secondsof diplomacy, no hallway and musket, no back channel text message and no social media threat can contain. That is the binary. That is the choice point. Deal or bombs, breakthrough or collapse,
31:5231 minutes, 52 secondspeace or the thing that comes after. The next 72 hours will decide which future we are entering. And right now on the floor of the Intercontinental Exchange
32:0032 minutesin London, that trader is still watching the TTF screen. It just printed 74. He has not put the phone down because the
32:0732 minutes, 7 secondsone thing he knows, the one thing every energy analyst, every diplomat, every intelligence officer, and every general in that Persian Gulf theater knows is that the next missile, the next drone,
32:1832 minutes, 18 secondsthe next match dropped into this tinder box of broken infrastructure and fractured diplomacy will not land on a gas facility. It will land on the future.