“And of course, we do want to get to the latest on that right now as we follow several different developments. Iranian state media now reporting explosions on Iran’s Keshum Island were not caused by strikes, but rather the disposal of explosives. Witness accounts began circulating on social media a short time ago and the Israel war room posted this right here on your screen saying, ‘Initial report Iranian media reports explosions on Keshum Island.'”
“Now Iran International English posted the same via state media but followed up with this post here on X. ‘Several consecutive explosions heard on Iran’s southern Keshum Island around midday Tuesday were caused by the disposal of unexploded ordinance.’ A provincial security official told state media. The deputy security governor of that province said specialist teams carried out an operation and he urged the public not to worry and to ignore rumors on social media.”
“All of these reports coming as Axios reports that President Trump plans to convene a meeting of his top national security advisers that’s set for today to discuss potential military options against Iran. As always, there is so much to discuss here. So, I do want to bring in Major Don Spielman, the former spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces and New York Times best-selling author. He has a lot of titles and wears a lot of hats. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today.”
“Thank you, Josh. Good to see you.”
“Good to see you, too. And first off, I want to start by talking about these reports of explosions because every time we hear something like that coming in out of Iran, there are questions about whether the US or Israel or maybe both are carrying out another operation. Is that kind of what goes through your mind when you hear something like that?”
“I think we have to always have a healthy sense of scrutiny when Iran says anything. They have a propensity to lie certainly when it serves them. Although I do think in this case, Josh, that we probably are looking at them exploding an ordinance that was dropped on that area. We have to understand that that island used to be a tourist island. It’s located directly in the middle of Hormuz. But Iran in trying to choke international shipping turned that island from a tourism center into a military bastion. It would be like taking Ellis Island in New York, making all the tourists go out of the way so that you could threaten every ship sailing into New York Harbor. And it makes sense because both Israel and the US did strike that island. And I think in any future decision and discussion, it’s going to have to involve Iran being dislodged from anything that can threaten shipping. And that island is one of the key choke points.”
“And of course, we’re looking at a map here that kind of points out where Keshum Island is in relation to the strait of Hormuz, which has been a big topic of discussion. When you look at all of this, what is the coordination right now likely like between the US and Israel? I have to imagine that they are still in lock step when it comes to exactly what happens next. Carrying out the mission here against Iran and preventing them from having a nuclear weapon, but also reopening the strait of Hormuz to everyone to get through.”
“You know, I think that this will go down in history as probably one of the greatest coordinations between any two militaries. And to put this in perspective, neither Israel or the US is located near this area. We’re in Israel’s clearly in striking distance because Iran has launched many an array of ballistic missiles. But both the US and Israel are fighting a terrorist entity that is not next door. And at the same time, the ability to coordinate both aerial forces, naval forces, ground forces in the event that they would be used intelligence is on the most phenomenal level. And I think this will really stand up as really an icon as a paradigm for the way warfare should be fought between allies. And it stems really because of the orders given down from the top by President Trump on one hand and Prime Minister Netanyahu on the other. You can see when two leaders really want to coordinate and they send that message down through the militaries, it can be done. Which is why we’ve had very few losses in this entire war and casualties. Every loss of course is important, but it’s because any other two armies doing this, I think it probably would have been much different. To drill this down, Josh, to the present day, there’s no question that this is no longer a war that’s just about proxies and just about nuclear weapons. It’s about economic arteries. The Gulf now sees that they can never leave Iran in charge of an economic artery where it can just squeeze them. And Israel and the US are coordinated. Hopefully Europe will come on board into securing that Hormuz will be an international waterway where you can’t have a terrorist regime squeeze the life out of democracies whenever it wants to.”
“It’s also important to note that a little less than 24 hours ago, we heard from President Trump as he posted on Truth Social and essentially the gist of what he had to say was that strikes were actually planned by the US on Iran today. However, due to some of the remarks, some of the pleas from the Gulf Arab countries, especially the allies there, that he’s postponed those attacks, those strikes on Iran. What do you make of that overall to publicly kind of make that statement and let Iran know, hey, we were going to strike you today, but I guess we won’t?”
“President Trump means business and Israel means business, and we’ve shown that we mean business both in June 2025 and in March 2026. We are willing to do—both of our countries are willing to do what it takes to ensure that Iran does not have any nuclear weapons it can use to confront either of these countries. And at the same time, President Trump is incredibly responsible and he’s been giving Iran chance after chance to do this job themselves. He’s asked a very simple thing. Give up your enriched uranium. Give up your nuclear program and we can make Iran a rich country. We can help it achieve its potential in the Iranian people. But that regime is stubborn. And the reason they’re stubborn, and we have to understand this in the West, it’s because they’re ideologically dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the West. And it’s very difficult to take people who are fanatics and have them think about the betterment of their citizens. But he’s giving them the chance. If they do it, we can avoid a war, have peace in the region. And if they don’t do it, I think the only way to move forward, and this has been said by both sides, will be with force to force them to give up their nuclear program and the ability to threaten the West.”
“And Daron, this is actually a post from Reuters where it says US President Trump said that he had paused a planned attack against Iran after Iran sent a peace proposal to Washington and that there was now a ‘very good chance of reaching a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program.’ We’ve heard that time and time again. We’re of course going to see how all of that kind of plays out, but this is another big topic from the Associated Press as we know that Russian President Vladimir Putin is traveling to China to meet with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. What does that tell us, especially just days after we saw President Trump meet there with Xi Jinping as well?”
“I mean, I think this is a clear response to the president meeting with Xi Jinping and Russia now getting very nervous that one of his partners that has enabled Russia to carry out their campaign against Ukraine—that is, you know, Russia provides oil to China, China gives Russia desperately needed money for that country to continue its war against Ukraine, and the two of them are really in a pact along with North Korea and Iran which is to some degree threatened much of the world. And I think what President Trump’s visit with Xi Jinping did was it created economic cooperation—obviously, let’s make sure it actually comes to bear between the United States and China—and it got a commitment from China that they are not going to send military weapons and bombs to Iran. And that’s a major shift. Russia’s probably getting nervous that their tripartite axis of evil is breaking. And that’s what I’m sure President Putin is going to China to try to mend. And at the end of the day, China will have to make a decision whether it’s going to face more towards Russia, which is a failing demagogic regime, or face towards the west, towards the United States and Israel, and open up both economic benefits and look towards a brighter future.”
“And I want to pop this up on your screen as we talk about the situation in the Middle East. You’re looking at a live look over Beirut in Lebanon. Important to note that Israel has been carrying out attacks here on the Hezbollah terror group. Now, there is a peace deal of sorts, a ceasefire that’s in effect between Israel and Lebanon, but not Hezbollah, not the terror group there. So, we’re seeing those strikes continue to happen. Can you kind of break down for folks out there what the latest is on that situation playing out between Israel and Hezbollah?”
“Josh, Hezbollah is daily not only threatening Israelis, they’re killing Israelis. I can tell you on the my own street where I live, a neighbor up the street, their daughter was supposed to get married in one month. The invitations had just been put out with a soldier and that soldier was killed by a drone strike earlier this week. Horrible tragedy. Hezbollah is using drones and rockets that threaten northern Israel, which Israel has said from the moment we went into that agreement. And of course, President of the United States understands that any threat towards the Israeli people has to be taken care of. And Hezbollah has to disarm. And so all of these actions, Israel’s had a lot of patience, almost like the US and Iran. First of all, we’ve asked the people of southern Lebanon to move out of the way. We’ve established a military barrier. We’re disarming Hezbollah in the southern area. But if they threaten Israel north of the Litani, Israel has said that it will do what it takes to protect our people. And that’s exactly what’s taking place. However, at the end of the day, Josh, it really is going to be up to the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. It’s the Lebanese people who are suffering even more than the Israelis. And I think if we ask them in their heart of hearts, they’re happy Israel has weakened Hezbollah. But we need them to step up to the plate. We need the international community to support Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah. Now, Hezbollah is Iran. Make no difference about it. It’s time to bring in a final final decision that we’re not going to allow Iran to operate via its terror proxies, and this is an important opportunity to take care of that.”
“Jerome Spielman, thank you so much for taking the time to join us here, helping to break down all of the latest developments. We definitely appreciate it. Is there anything we missed? Anything that you want to make sure to add about any of this, any of the topics there in the Middle East before I let you go?”
“There is actually. It’s kind of a silver lining on what’s happening in Iran. First of all, you have the United States and Israel, Josh, that are confronting evil and it’s been—obviously we’ve seen prices rise in the gas pumps. However, there’s another phenomenon that people are not talking about enough, which is that if originally 20 million barrels a day went through the Hormuz strait, now 10 million of those barrels, meaning half of the ability for Iran to squeeze the Western world, is now flowing through alternative routes in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Turkey. And we have to understand that this has greatly weakened any future ability for Iran to squeeze the international community by opening up alternative routes. And I think long term the world is going to benefit from this. And we can just show that when you press an enemy, you force people to make change, that change can benefit the West and the rest of the world in the long term.”
“All right, Deron Spielman, thank you so much as always for taking the time to join us, helping to break down all the latest developments. I’m sure once we get off the call here, there will be even more. So, I’m sure we’ll be back in touch. Thank you again for being here with us.”
“Thank you, Josh, so much.”
“And of course, I do want to continue to follow all of the latest coming in on this as Iran International English is now saying that several consecutive explosions heard on Iran’s southern Casim Island around midday today were caused by the disposal of unexploded ordinance, a provincial security official telling state media there in Iran. The deputy security governor of that province said that specialist teams carried out an operation and he urged the public not to worry and to ignore rumors on social media.”
