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We return now to our top story. The president met with top advisers in the situation room today to discuss the latest proposal with the Iranian regime and whether he's satisfied enough to extend the ceasefire and move forward with negotiations. His stated priorities are ensuring Iran is never has a nuclear weapon, opening the Strait of Hormuz without any tolls or restrictions, and getting Iran to unearth and destroy its stockpile of enriched uranium. CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd joins me now. So, Iranians are still not budging on the president's red lines. The strait is still blocked. The enriched uranium is still buried. If those issues aren't resolved, are we making any real progress?
Lindsey, it is unlikely we're going to see any progress until the Strait of Hormuz reopens. The question is, what's that going to take? For the Iranians, that is likely going to take really two things. One is some sort of financial incentive to play ball with the United States, whether that's the unfreezing of assets or some promise of sanctions relief, uh particularly multilateral sanctions via the United Nations. It is also going to take the Iranian regime trusting the Trump regime enough to understand that this isn't just Trump trying to take away Iran's trump card, pun intended, but and that he's not just going to attack again once the strait reopens. So, I do think the Strait of
Hormuz is a sticking point and it can be viewed as a confidence-building measure for what will ultimately be negotiations, we hope, on Iran's nuclear program. The last thing I'll say is it is not unusual for there to be phases in the negotiating process. It is unlikely that any administration would solve for the Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear program, and more in just one fell swoop. All right, I spoke with CBS News contributor Elliot Ackerman about possible long-term tensions with Iran. Let's watch. The American people should probably be prepared for the fact that there's not going to be a definitive peace and that
it's going to be unsatisfying for us. The regime is obviously, I mean, they're weakened and they've paid a price for this war, but they are still in control in Iran. They are still exercising points of leverage. The greatest point of leverage being the Strait of Hormuz. And whatever this deal is, it's going to be, you know, be unsatisfying for the United States. I don't know if you can hear me. Do you agree? I agree that an MOU what's being negotiated right now is certainly going to be unsatisfactory. It's just a framework and a deal to talk about a deal. If ultimately the Trump administration does get some sort of
agreement on the Iran nuclear program, it will certainly be unsatisfactory to individuals that are assessing that the only way to keep the United States and its allies safe from Iran is to destroy the regime. That is certainly Israel's assessment, uh, as well as for example, individuals here in this country like Lindsey Graham and others. So, yes, I do think it'll be unsatisfactory, but removing the nuclear threat alone will certainly take away one of Iran's, um, key, uh, key tools here, but certainly not all. Their ballistic missile program and their support for proxies are likely to remain for some time, which is why the United States, even if we get the best deal possible on the nuclear
program, needs to remain on not just the defensive, but the offensive when it comes to degrading Iran's ballistic missile and terrorist, uh, capabilities. All right. Somaya Vinograd, thank you.
