Good morning and thank you, Dana. The US taking the fight to Iran again, striking deeper into the country. US forces carried out a sixth consecutive night attacks on military targets as President Trump turns up the heat on Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. Good morning, I’m John Roberts in for Harris. This is The Faulkner Focus.
Brand new CENTCOM video shows forces destroying a port surveillance tower along Iran’s Gulf of Oman. The agency says it is part of a network used for decades by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to track and target commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. US forces continue to monitor that crucial waterway. CENTCOM redirected three commercial ships, disabling one and boarding another to enforce the US blockade of Iranian ports. Here’s General Jack Keane.
>> For Iran, the Strait of Hormuz is is a strategic asset. No matter what happens here, they will continue to want to take it back from us because it’s number one. They don’t have a nuclear power capability. They don’t They’re not even close to developing a weapon now. This is their number one strategic asset.
It gives them leverage over the Gulf states in the region and they truly want to have an element of control here. And they are willing to fight us for it and we have got to take it away from them and prevent them from ever getting it back under their control again. >> Retired Navy Captain Brent Sadler is with me in moments to discuss potential next steps in Iran, but first to the White House and correspondent Peter Doocy. He’s on the North Lawn. Good morning, Peter.
>> And John, we are finally seeing in real time what President Trump was briefed about in the situation room a couple days ago when he had the national security team there to try to figure out next steps to deal with the Iranians. The next step here is bombing bridges and roads hoping to isolate the IRGC from resupplying the key to the Strait of Hormuz, Bandar Abbas. >> We are likewise winning big in Iran and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly. >> And it’s true that the Iranians have had their hands full with American attacks. So they are now trying to enlist one of their terror group proxies, the Houthis, to shut down a pinch point of the Red Sea called the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Experts say even a few small attacks can be severely disruptive to global shipping and activating a terror group represents another way the Iranians are violating that memorandum of understanding. >> Iran violated the memorandum of understanding that we struck with them. Specifically, in the memorandum of understanding that they signed, they were not to fire on commercial vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz. And unfortunately, they have made the tragic decision for them to do that. >> And when you look at the decisions the Iranians are making, they had the opportunity to unfreeze accounts and lose sanctions if they just left things alone in the Strait of Hormuz.
They decided that it was not worth it to them, that controlling the Strait of Hormuz is basically priceless and that is why they are now trying to get one of their terror proxies to control another strait, John. >> In terms of being priceless, they are discovering now just how expensive it is to try to close the Strait of Hormuz. Peter Doocy for us at 1600 Pennsylvania. Peter, thank you. >> Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now on Fox 1.
