Sean Hannity details the collapse of Iran talks in Islamabad, where a 71-person delegation demanded impossible concessions like full Strait of Hormuz sovereignty and war reparations. He contrasts these with President Trump's red lines: ending uranium enrichment, dismantling facilities, retrieving enriched uranium, cutting terror proxy funding, and opening the stratum toll-free. Hannity enforces a naval blockade starting at 10 a.m. to bankrupt Iran via oil export cuts while criticizing the UN's Terrorism Prevention Group nomination and Pope Leo's peace calls as unjustified, citing biblical warfare precedents. Ultimately, the segment frames diplomacy with this "radicalized theocracy" as futile, advocating instead for economic strangulation and military victory. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Why The Deal Never Happened00:03:47
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My first observation is I'm not really sure why a U.S. delegation would give 21 hours to lunatic Iranians that had their list of demands that was so far off base.
That it was never, ever going to happen.
And it was interesting watching as the vice president and Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner went into this in Pakistan over the weekend.
The president is saying it doesn't really matter how these talks go, we win.
And the president is not wrong.
Now, it may be a little bit more complicated than where we were before because of the Strait of Hormuz, but I know that the president's blockade is a first step.
The Iranians, you know, it's very interesting.
There was a 71 person delegation that they brought with them, and they brought with them what they considered four non negotiable conditions before the session began.
Full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
That was never going to happen.
That is non negotiable.
And then they want complete war reparations.
Never going to happen.
They have no power to negotiate anyway.
They absolutely have been decimated militarily.
And then they wanted the unconditional release of frozen assets.
That's never going to happen under Donald Trump.
And they wanted a ceasefire across the entire West Asia area.
Those demands were non starters.
And honestly, you know, why this went on for 21 hours, that's the only part I can't figure out.
We haven't gotten an answer to that question.
Hopefully, we'll get one in the days to come.
But, you know, and meanwhile, the president had red lines.
They've got to end all uranium enrichment, dismantle all major nuclear enrichment facilities, any that they may have left, retrieve any highly enriched uranium, or there's a lot of talk of entombing it.
At first, I was told that that was not a likely scenario.
Now I'm told that, you know, once the president said that they've had eyes on it ever since Operation Midnight Hammer, that kind of made me, it gave me a sense of relief.
Is they're not going to get it anywhere near the 60% enriched uranium, whether we go get it or not.
That our lines are they have to accept a broader peace de escalation that includes regional allies, ending funding for terror proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels, and simply open the Strait of Hormuz and know they don't get to charge any tolls.
Now, I don't know why that took 21 hours.
I have no earthly idea, but the Iranians came with this ridiculous set of demands, so it was never going to work.
And I'm I truly, knowing the president as well as I do, know that he doesn't care.
And they left Islamabad without anything really done.
Now, General Jack Keane was skeptical of this diplomacy idea from the very beginning.
And he's just, he was on with Maria Bertoromo over the weekend discussing, he'll be on with us tonight, whether diplomacy can achieve these objectives.
He was very, very skeptical of all of it because of the 47 years of nonstop terror and And madness, and this is a radicalized theocracy.
Regime Change And Nuclear Threats00:02:07
I mean, these are Islamo fascists.
And this is why I don't really want to get into any discussion or argument with people that don't understand the need to take out this regime's ability to one day be able to reach an American city with a nuclear weapon because I believe their radicalism will cause them at some point to think they're doing the will of God because they strap bombs on kids and tell them to go kill innocent men, women, and children.
Why wouldn't they want an even more spectacular event?
I mean, what happened?
What happened 25 years ago, 9 11 01, is 2,977 Americans were killed, and the people that were flying those planes into the trade center were screaming Allahu Akbar and doing this in the name of, quote, religion and God and Allah, and with a full belief that they were about to enter paradise and be rewarded with 72 virgins.
I don't think you can negotiate with insanity because that's what it is.
There are some updates as it relates to the supreme leader's son.
Who the Supreme Leader never wanted to replace him.
But anyway, according to what is coming out about this particular guy, he's severely disfigured after the sustaining leg and face injuries.
This was in the opening moments of this conflict and the beginning of Epic Fury.
And Hamani's son, Hamani himself, is recovering from these injuries that were incurred on February 28th that killed his father and his top lieutenants.
Despite the injuries, Hamani.
Allegedly, they claim, according to Reuters reporting, remains mentally sharp.
But, you know, at the end of the day, I think the one missing component that hopefully can be achieved in all of this, and I know there have been attempts to get there, has been the notion of regime, of the ability of the people to win their country back.
Oil Tankers And Safe Passage00:06:13
And you can't win a revolution with a slingshot.
And I've said that many, many times.
According to the president, there have been attempts to arm the people in Iran so that they can fight back against Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces and Quds forces, those that remain, and police that might be loyal to the former regime or the new regime.
We don't really even know who's in charge at this point.
I think you also have a conflict and a power struggle within Iran that.
We're probably not fully acutely aware of it, but we know there have been reports of it.
I have some good news on the oil front, although oil was below $100 a barrel for a while today.
It was above $100 a barrel.
But Rory Johnston, and we'll have oil experts coming up at the top of the next hour, but according to Johnston, he reported over the weekend that dozens of empty, very large crude carriers now have just kind of given up on the Strait of Hormuz and are moving towards the U.S. Gulf Coast.
And each of these tankers now carry around 2 million barrels of crude oil.
And according to him, this unusual movement of empty tankers is suggesting that global buyers are now preparing to purchase large quantities of American crude.
And the trend has emerged as oil supply disruptions continue as the tensions have gone on there.
Now, there is one other myth that has come out, and that is that, okay, so if you go with the figure that about 20% of the world's oil supply on a daily basis will go through the Strait of Hormuz.
Most of that supply has already been replaced or it has been rerouted or they're getting safe passage.
Like, for example, 2 million barrels of oil per day are going to China.
They're not being disrupted.
The same thing with India.
Apparently, they've been given safe passage.
Other countries, if they've made individual deals and want to pay the tariff that the Iranians have been charging on the passage through the strait, I mean, that's fine too.
But Central Command, U.S. Central Command forces now are implementing this blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports as of 10 a.m. this morning, in accordance with the president's proclamation.
The blockade now will be enforcing impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing the Iranian ports or coastal areas.
What does that mean?
That means that the Iranians now are going to be starved of any financial benefit from Karg Island.
Now, remember, they don't produce gas, they produce oil.
And the oil is then sent abroad, and then it is refined, and then it is turned into gasoline, petrol, diesel, whatever it's turned into.
So, additional information.
But this now means this is the sole source of revenue for the Iranians, which will, you know, this will now bankrupt them if it is successful.
The danger to me in my mind is when you think of a traditional blockade, or if you think of American, I don't want to be in a situation where American ships are actually escorting these tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
That's not what the blockade is.
The blockade means block.
And what are they looking to block?
The Iranians' ability to export oil.
Now, there are other countries that will find alternative routes to get their oil to market, short of making a deal with whatever remaining third, fourth, fifth tier leadership that exists in Iran.
But what that really means is that they're going to have to.
The world's going to now look for other sources of oil.
That's all there is to it.
And they're going to find them because we don't have a shortage of oil.
And now that America has gotten rid of Maduro, and you look at Venezuela as the number one producer of oil on the planet, America's number two, and way behind would be Saudi Arabia number three.
It's not that we're going to have an oil shortage, it's just a short term distribution problem that will easily.
You know, in meaning in the next couple of months, be able to sort itself out.
And the world market for Iranian oil will disintegrate next to nothing because they won't be able to get it out.
Now, the one thing I would like a buffer zone, the problem with the strait itself, which has been mined by the Iranians, although America did ensure that there are specific passing lanes that they can get these tankers through, which is critical because.
Like you don't know it when you fly in an airplane and you're at 38,000 feet.
You're flying on what is, and how do I best describe this?
It's as similar to a highway, except it doesn't have a name to it.
In other words, planes will fly specific highways in the sky and get reports, by the way.
There might be turbulence, there might be choppiness, there might be air pockets, there might be all sorts of things that pilots will communicate to other pilots that are along that same route.
But there are, it's not like they just fly anywhere in the sky.
There are specific routing flight patterns that are given to aircraft, both commercial and private.
And those lanes exist.
Well, similarly, through the Strait of Hormuz, there are specific now lanes that have been cleared so that tankers, should we allow them at any given point in time, will be able to move through and move through safely without fear of any mining incidents.
The U.S. Navy began this critical mine hunt amid these Iranian tensions and have already been able to identify specific areas where tankers can get through.
National Defense And State Sponsors00:07:24
And U.S. officials confirm that, yeah, Iran did in fact mine the Strait of Hormuz, which was, by the way, that was not something they did not anticipate.
That was discussed in great detail ahead of this entire operation.
So they have deployed minesweepers in the Strait of Hormuz and were very good at detecting them.
It just takes time.
At its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is, I guess, about 20, 24 miles wide, which is not very wide, which means we don't want to get in a situation where our Navy destroyers, our Navy fleet is anywhere near that close to land, which would make it a little bit more vulnerable to attack by the Iranians.
For them, it would be a, I don't know, it would be a win on paper, and the consequences would be so brutal, I can't even begin to imagine it.
But we'll see because every Iranian port is about to be closed by the U.S. Navy, and that's going to shut off the spigot in terms of their own finances.
So, what the Iranians were trying to achieve here doesn't make sense, but does anything that they do make sense?
Does the fact that they strap bombs on young kids and tell them that they're going to get 72 virgins if they kill innocent men, women, and children make sense?
Does it make sense after Midnight Hammer they wouldn't negotiate?
With some level of sincerity, knowing what the inevitable outcome would be after Operation Epic Fury and taking out three tiers of leadership for these people to show up in Islamabad with their own set of conditions that were never going to be met and not negotiate what they knew was America's demands.
What was the point of it?
I don't really know.
I just don't.
So I think that the world is now going to.
Navigate the oil issue in a way that we've got to keep America's Navy safe and secure.
And I think that's all going to happen.
Factor in one other thing as well.
And Fortune put this out today that, you know, all the relentless bombing by the U.S. and Israel has pushed the Iranian regime to the brink financially.
So if this blockade is successful, they can't sell their oil.
That is their main source of income.
And their central bank last month issued the largest ever currency denomination.
And they're now facing, you know, 50, 60% inflation on top of everything else.
Official data downplaying it, but.
They're in trouble financially.
Solid as a rock.
Honest. Truthful.
This is the Sean Hannity Show.
I find it hilarious that Iran nominated to head the UN Terrorism Prevention Group, the number one state sponsor of terror.
UN's 54 Nation Economic Social Council nominated Iran, which meets next month to shape policy on women's rights, human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention.
And the General Assembly, they usually rubber stamp these nominations without even having a vote.
And in addition to this, they've nominated China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan to the influential committee that is going to, I guess, make this decision.
I mean, you talk about, you know, the hen house meet the fox here, as somebody put it in some column.
You know, counter terrorism, you know, when they're the number one state sponsor of terror.
Why do we pay $7 billion a year for this globalist organization?
Why?
Why do we spend all this money?
Why are we a part of the World Economic Forum?
Why were we ever a part of the Paris Accords?
You know, why do we look to international organizations when we should be the masters of our own destiny?
You know, the reason the president is involved with Iran is because it was an existential threat to America.
The president saw that they were 12 days away from enriching their 60% uranium to 90% weapons grade, and he made a decision that they can't have nuclear weapons.
It's that simple.
It's basic fundamental math.
Then we learned that their ballistic missile range was far further than we thought.
That's another problem.
And then we have these absolutely useless organizations, globalist organizations.
And I'll tell you one other thing.
You know, I was listening to the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney defending his country's NATO commitments after being pressed over the alliance spending by President Trump, insisting that Ottawa meets the benchmark, even though Canada has only reached 2% of their defense target in 2025.
They're not paying their fair share.
And for those countries that don't pay their fair share, like Spain, why are we and won't allow us to even use the air bases we built in their countries as part of alliance strategic planning?
Why are we aligned with people that are unreliable partners to begin with?
You know, we have to face a reality.
The continent of Europe is disintegrating before our very eyes.
They are in a steep, steep decline, and I don't think there's any reversal of this decline.
It's everything from embracing radical socialism, climate alarmism, the fact that they have neglected their own national defense and national security.
They've been weak partners with NATO.
They've never wanted to contribute their fair share.
And then the worst thing they've done is unfettered illegal immigration without assimilation.
Now you have no go zones in France, no go zones in other parts of Europe.
You have nearly 100 Sharia courts in Great Britain.
They're all countries in decline, they're a continent in decline.
And why should we spend $800 plus billion a year securing the defenses of Europe?
When they won't even defend themselves and their unreliable partners, even as something with you should have such easy moral clarity in standing with us against the number one state sponsor of terror.
And by the way, we've got to now keep our eye on China because U.S. intelligence is indicating that China's preparing weapons shipments to Iran amid this fragile ceasefire.
The ceasefire is over, by the way, nobody's saying it yet.
The ceasefire is over.
Pope Leo Versus President Trump00:10:29
There's a bit of a battle going on between the Pope, Pope Leo, and President Trump.
Pope Leo on Saturday denounced, quote, the delusion of omnipotence that is fueling the U.S. Israel war in Iran and demanded political leaders stop and negotiate peace while we tried to negotiate peace.
I've never heard the Pope once comment on the need for, you know, to prevent Iran from ever having.
Nuclear weapons.
And if we're going to get lectures from the Catholic Church, and I was raised Catholic and I went to Catholic school for 12 years, and I think the Catholic Mass is beautiful in every way imaginable.
I have not liked past popes.
I think the last pope that I really liked and respected the most was probably Pope John Paul II.
Anyway, he's the first U.S. born pope.
And while he didn't mention the U.S. or President Trump in his prayer over the weekend, Which was planned before the talks were announced.
But Leo's tone and message appeared to be directed at President Trump and U.S. officials that boasted of U.S. military superiority and how this war is justified.
And he spoke about it in religious terms.
And he said enough of the idolatry and self and money, enough of the display of power, enough of war.
And in the Basilica Pews, the Archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominic Joseph Mathieu, said the U.S. was represented in the diplomatic corps by its chief mission, et cetera, et cetera.
And then it got a little bit more heated.
And anyway, the Pope said that the president's threat to annihilate Iranian civilization is truly unacceptable.
How come no Pope that I know of, and especially Pope Leo, if he wants to engage, In a public discourse on issues, maybe we should look at the Catholic Church's position during World War II in Nazi Germany and talk specifically about what the Vatican knew and when they knew it.
Just saying.
You know, if you want my real reasons for leaving the Catholic Church, in many ways, I could not get over the fact that they institutionalized corruption.
I'm just being blunt.
I think the mass is beautiful.
I believe in many of the tenets of the The Catholic faith.
I've not abandoned my faith in any way.
If anything, my faith has gotten stronger in my older years.
We've been talking a lot about it lately, not that I want to discuss it at all today, especially the Lord's Prayer and Linda's interpretation of the Bible and her planned negotiation when she gets to the pearly gates.
And she's going to justify her hate list and just justify ignoring the very clear statement in the Lord's Prayer, which is a direct message to all of us to forgive others as we forgive.
But that's a different issue for another month, another year.
But I find this fascinating that I did not hear the Pope one time, or any Pope for that matter, weigh in about the terrorism that has been waged in the entire region in the Middle East or worldwide, or those that have been so willing to strap bombs on young children and promise them 72 virgins in heaven.
I've never heard the Pope weigh in on October 7th.
I haven't heard the.
And the horrors of that day, and the murder, and the rape, and the torture, and the kidnapping, and the beheading that took place that day.
I've never heard the Pope weigh in about the massacre of tens and tens of thousands of Iranians, not one single word.
And it just seems to be a very one sided argument.
And anyway, I don't blame the president for fighting back, and I don't blame him at all.
I think that the president, you know, is right in challenging.
What this pope is suggesting here.
As the president went out there and said, Pope Leo's weak on crime, terrible on foreign policy.
He talks about fear of the Trump administration, but he didn't mention fear that the Catholic Church and other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were arresting priests and ministers and everybody else for holding church services, even going outside and being 10 or 20 feet apart.
And I don't really want a pope who thinks that it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was sending massive amounts of drugs to the United States or worse.
Emptying their prisons, including murderers and drug dealers and killers.
And I don't want a pope criticizing the president of the United States because I'm doing exactly what I was elected to do, and that is lowering the crime rate in this country, creating the greatest, you know.
And then he went on to list his successes, and he said the pope should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise.
He doesn't think the pope would have been elected.
But if we're going to have selective outrage and we're going to get political commentary from the pope, now, The Pope, Linda, correct me if I'm wrong.
Didn't the Pope talk about the need for peace?
And didn't the Pope talk about the need for a ceasefire and how war is horrible and evil?
I don't think all war is horrible and evil at all.
And by the way, biblically speaking, I don't think God viewed it that way.
And when I brought this up the other day, some people got upset when I said this.
But was it, are we to believe the Bible story about David and Goliath and that David was.
Was given the strength by God to take on the giant Goliath and slay him, that would be kill him.
Or that, you know, what happened to Pharaoh's army when Moses parted the Red Sea?
I mean, if you haven't watched the Ten Commandments, Linda, are those examples where the Lord, what happened with Joshua and Jericho when the wall fell?
You know, and I can go on.
What happened to the many victories of Saul, you know, or the Amalekites, which God commanded the destruction of?
I think this Pope.
Go ahead.
I'm sorry.
Well, duh.
He's from Chicago.
He can't help it.
You know, him and Pritzker probably have Thanksgiving together for all we know.
But I think at the end of the day, when we look.
At this particular pope, I thought the last one was bad, he's worse.
And the reason is they've made it into being a celebrity.
He thinks he's cool, he likes to have you know people that play baseball come and see him.
He likes to meet with former advisors to former presidents.
He has side meetings.
I'll tell you what, if you mean like with David Axelrod, who we met with before all this, yeah, yeah, exactly.
I'm sure him and Axelrod go way back.
I got a few things to say about the pope.
I'd like to know why the at the parish level, the bishop level, the cardinal level.
And all the way up to Rome, they knew about systemic sexual abuse against children.
And they didn't do anything about it, and they covered it up.
Catholic charities are one of the worst offenders in human and sex trafficking, especially of children.
I don't know about Catholic charities, but I can tell you that they knew about the sex abuse of minors, and they didn't do anything about it.
That was systemic.
Now, nowhere in the Bible, if you look at it, does it say that a priest can't be married?
As a matter of fact, the very apostles.
That were chosen by Jesus himself were married.
11 of the 12 apostles, to be precise, were married.
You know, for the first 1,200 years of the church, priests were allowed to marry.
And it was only after that rule was changed.
Now, I think you can get into a wide variety of analysis in terms of why that rule was changed, but I think one of the biggest reasons was the fear of the loss of property if there was widespread divorce.
And they didn't want to have to give up money and land.
And then as a result, I think you reduce the potential pool of priestly candidates dramatically because I don't think most men would like to be with women in their lives, to be very blunt.
Is that a politically correct way to say that?
Listen, the Catholic Church, this is just my opinion as a practicing Catholic.
I love my particular church, but I had a meeting with my priest last week and I told him as soon as the meeting began that I did not like this pope and I did not care for him.
Which he laughed and said, Linda, tell me how you really feel.
And I said, I'm sorry, Father.
I really, I struggle with this person.
He is not.
You're really sorry.
You just would be mean.
I'm not.
But I'm being nice.
You know, he's the priest.
I can't be mean.
My point is, he is not a representative of Catholics across the world.
He is not a representative.
He is a token.
He is a person that is filling a seat right now.
I think to Trump's point, if we voted for a Pope, Leo wasn't getting the seat.
No way in hell.
Nobody ever heard of him before.
No.
He's an embarrassment.
If anybody was, if they really wanted to pick, I think somebody that would have been a good candidate, maybe Timothy Dolan would have been a far better candidate, more dynamic.
But all of them need to be quiet.
You know, the cardinals, the bishops.
Why don't you get your own house in order?
And if you love illegal immigrants so much, take down all the Vatican walls, let them in.
I hear you guys got plenty of room.
You just redid the place.
Let them all in.
And then we'll talk about how kind and assimilating they are.
Do me a favor, please.
I think that's one favor they could do.
The second thing they can do is come.
Come clean on this, what was institutional corruption.
That's why I left the Catholic Church.
And there's no perfect church, let's be honest about it.
And there aren't perfect people, all have sinned, even Linda, and fallen short of the glory of God.
Although I know you rewrite your Bible to think that you don't need to forgive other people, which I'm not getting back into that discussion today.
Copy that.
No one wants to drag me into this discussion.
I'm glad that people want to talk about God.
That's awesome.
Leaving The Catholic Church00:00:22
What's the real story behind the price of a barrel of oil?
And what will this blockade do to the price of oil?
Also, we're going to get full analysis.
What is the synopsis of Newt Gingrich?
Victory.
What is our aim?
Victory.
He will explain when we get back.
He wrote a great column, and we'll get into the details of it coming up.