LAST WARNING: Trump warns Iran after Strait of Hormuz strike

So, we have what could be another. possible attack on a ship in the Strait. of Hormuz today. A quote unknown. projectile reportedly hit an engine room. and a fire broke out. The crew abandoned. the Liberian flag ship, but one member. is reported missing and that comes to us. from Reuters reporting this afternoon. Chief International Correspondent Steve. Harrigan reporting live from the region. in Tel Aviv. Hi, Steve. >> Martha, despite this continued violence. and continued reports of attacks against.

commercial shipping in the Strait of. Hormuz, administration officials. continue to be confident that a deal for. free passage of all commercial shipping. through that Strait is really on the. horizon. That such a deal could be. signed as early as tomorrow. In the. meantime, CENTCOM continues its tough. blockade of Iran and all of its ports. CENTCOM released some video of that. blockade of Iran in action. >> Captain, you are requested to alter. course to 190. If you do not comply, we.

will compel compliance with force. This. is warship 45. We will monitor your. course for compliance at this time. Warship 45 stand by on 160. >> Now, since that blockade began, CENTCOM. has said it has diverted more than 45. commercial ships. It's disabled two. ships. Iran, in the meantime, continues. to insist it is not negotiating directly. with the US, but Iranian officials say. they are negotiating with Oman. Martha, back to you. >> Steve Harrigan in Tel Aviv. Thank you.

very much, Steve. >> We are talking right now. We're talking. and we're talking at the request of. Iran. Backed by Saudi Arabia. Backed by UAE. And backed by Qatar in particular, but. others also. Many Many countries called. and they all. wanted to give this a last chance. This. is the last chance. >> This is the last chance. Do you think. Iran believes that? >> John, the challenge in any of these. types of situations is it's all based on. the credibility of you in the mind of an.

adversary. And I think these constant. threats, and we find off-ramps to not. enact those threats, are causing our. credibility to drive to zero in the mind. of the adversary. And our strongest. bargaining position vis-a-vis Iran was. at the end of active combat operations. now 4 months ago. And the further we get. away from that moment, the less strength. we have in the mind of our adversary. >> You you had a good analogy about culture. about where we are with this, right? >> I said that from the movie Mall Cops, we'll yell stop, and if you don't stop,

we'll yell stop again. And I think we're. in that cycle where now the more cycles. we have of this, the less likely it is. to deter, the less likely it is to. compel. And now I think we're less. likely to get a good deal even if Iran. decides to give us a deal. >> They're talking to us is just they're. they talk to us and then they deny. they're talking to us cuz they don't. want they want to save face. Look, here's the way I look at it, Martha. Iran has been waging war in the United. States for 47 years under nine different. presidents. Donald Trump is the first. president who ever fought back. And he.

accomplished enormous amount of. enormous amount of accomplishments. He. he entombed their nuclear program. He. destroyed 85% of their defense. industrial base. He sunk their navy, grounded their air force, decimated. their ballistic missiles. These are huge. accomplishments, but we have to. acknowledge that when we had the. ceasefire in April, we stopped at the. 20-yard line. We we were not done with. the military campaign. And there's. there's about you know, 14 days of. bombing to go to really finish the job. militarily. Now, if if it turns out that.

we're we're only going to go to the. 20-yard line, I'm I'm willing to live. with that. You know, it's 80 yards better than any. president before him. And it's a huge accomplishment, but we. have this opportunity here to. irreversibly change the course of the. Middle East that's sitting right here. for the president to seize. And for. whatever reason, I don't know if it's. concerned about the markets, it's. concerned about gas prices, concerned. about the midterms. The The administration is hesitating to. seize that opportunity. Maybe it'll come. after Maybe they'll take it after the.

midterms. I don't know, but right now we. seem to be in this pattern where we're. in this cul-de-sac since April of, you. know, we we negotiate, then the Iranians. violate, then we retaliate, then we. negotiate again, and we threaten, and it. just seems to be never-ending. Um and so, you know, if if that's where. we're going to be, if this is the most. we can achieve, uh it's more than any. president in my lifetime has done to set. back the Iranian nuclear program. >> Breaking today, Qatar says mediators are. making progress to help reach a deal. between the United States and Iran.

President Trump has called it the. regime's {quote} last chance. Our next. guest is calling for tough action. against Tehran, writing in the. Washington Post that Iran's missile. attack was a surprise it should not have. been. Years of muted US response taught. Tehran what it could get away with. Behnam Ben Taleblu is the senior. director for the Foundation for Defense. of Democracies Iran program and joins us. now. Iran learned under previous presidents. that it could basically continue its. malign activities with impunity, but.

it's ramped that up even further in the. last few months. >> Absolutely. Great to be with you. Despite a ceasefire allegedly being in. place for the past few months and even a. deal, uh this is a regime that continues. to fire ballistic missiles and drones at. countries that house uh US bases and. military infrastructure, as well as. threaten shipping in the Persian Gulf. and Strait of Hormuz. So, this regime. continues to act and speak as the. world's foremost state sponsor of. terrorism. >> So, it it learned this under the Carter. administration, it learned under the. Clinton administration, Bush. administration, Obama, uh as well as as.

Biden. But you see, it's even learned. under the Trump administration because. after Trump took out Soleimani in 2020, Iran fired missiles at the Al Asad. airbase, injuring a number of soldiers, gave some of them traumatic brain. injury. But Trump didn't respond to. that. Basically said, "Okay, so they. responded. We're all good." And then, after midnight hammer, uh Iran fired missiles at the Al Udeid. airbase. Didn't do any Didn't cause any. injuries, but did a lot of damage. But, President Trump didn't respond to that.

So, you write, as a result of that, quote, "In each instance, Washington. took solace that the pain it had. inflicted on Tehran was worth any damage. it incurred. This flawed arithmetic. allowed Iran to close each round having. saved face, and it drew lessons about. what it could get away with." Put a. little more meat on that bone. >> Precisely. And you know, we call this in. policy world mirror imaging, where we. think that the adversary thinks and. talks and acts like us. And. fundamentally, that's not true. Just. because there was no loss of life uh. doesn't mean that what they haven't done.

wasn't damaging. This is a regime that. knows it cannot win an outright battle. of conventional capability, therefore. it's trying to win a battle of wills. And they're even fighting a battle of. wills right now against the Trump. administration, both on the battlefield. and diplomatically. >> that point, let me pull the quote uh. from your iPad, because you suggest that. the IRGC has determined that there's a. limit to how far Donald Trump is going. to go. You write this, quote, "Tehran. has come to believe it can prevail in a. battle of wills, despite being. militarily outclassed by a nuclear-armed. global superpower. Washington's.

unwillingness to engage in a protracted. war that would further spook oil. markets, negatively impact midterms, and. expend precious munitions like. interceptors is by now obvious." You. know, the president was hoping that Iran. would fold in the first few weeks of. this confrontation. But, clearly the. IRGC's got a little more steel. uh than the president thought they did. >> Well, clearly they have some steel, but. clearly this is a regime that has shown. us in word and indeed again over 47. years that they will play to the edge, that they will gamble. And.

unfortunately, we're in a very tough. situation right now, where on the one. hand, no president has done more damage. to this regime more than President. Donald Trump, but in the short term, Trump has backed away from a whole host. of threats. I think eight or nine, and. even a newspaper from Tehran's. municipality basically said that all of. Trump's threats are watered down and. that the US is a paper tiger. So, this. is a tough position for US deterrence to. be in right now, despite the good track. record that the president has had. >> And and and I don't know how much this. is taken in into account in terms of.

the administration's dealings with Iran. or how much people at home really know. about this, but over 3,000 years, Iran. has been invaded by everybody. Alexander. the Great, Roman legions, Arab armies, Genghis Khan, the Ottomans, Russia, the. British Empire, and yet it survives. And yet it. >> one thing I would say though, as a first. generation Iranian American, is I would. not grant this terrorist regime the. weight and the historical legacy of two. and a half, three millennia of Persian. or Iranian history. But what I would say. is that this regime is playing to the.

edge because it believes it's found the. soft underbelly of the West. At sea, that's currently the Strait of Hormuz. That's why the focus of the Trump. administration, nuclear issue is. secondary. The first one is the strait. And on land, that soft underbelly is our. Arab partners, our Arab partners in the. Persian Gulf, as well as Jordan. The. strikes against their critical. infrastructure, their civilian. facilities. By striking those, they are. forcing a global superpower to have to. act like the supplicants. >> Yeah. And and Saudi Arabia, I think four. times now, has asked President Trump to. stop the attacks. Ben, it's always great.

to talk to you. You've got such a. terrific perspective on things. >> Pleasure. >> Uh everybody should read your op-ed. >> Thank you. Means a lot. >> All right. Thanks very much for being. with us. >> Martha, despite this continued violence. and continued reports of attacks against. commercial shipping in the Strait of. Hormuz, administration officials. continue to be confident that a deal for. free passage of all commercial shipping. through that strait is really on. horizon, that such a deal could be. signed as early as tomorrow. In the. meantime, CENTCOM continues its tough. blockade of Iran and all of its ports.

CENTCOM released some video of that. blockade of Iran in action. >> Captain, your requested to alter course. to 190. If you do not comply, we will. compel compliance with force. This is. warship 45. We will monitor your course. for compliance at this time. Warship 45. standing by on 160. >> Now, since that blockade began, CENTCOM. has said it has diverted more than 45. commercial ships. It's disabled two. ships. Iran, in the meantime, continues.

to insist it is not negotiating directly. with the US, but Iranian officials say. they are negotiating with Oman. >> Hey everyone, I'm Emily Compagno. Catch. me and my co-host Harris Faulkner and. Kayleigh McEnany on Outnumbered every. weekday at 12:00 p.m. Eastern, or set. your DVR. Also, don't forget to. subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page. for daily highlights.