Breaking: US attacks on power plants halted

0:00Now, we can bring you some important breaking news from the United States. The President, Donald Trump, has just posted on his truth social, something that could turn out to be very important. We're going to read it in full. It's just come through. Let's read it together. I am pleased to report that the United States of America and the country of Iran have had over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East. Based on the tenor and tone of these in-depth, detailed, and constructive conversation, which will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. So this is a lengthy message, we're going to keep this up on the screen for a moment

1:02longer. There's a lot here to unpack. Now, remember, we are only hours away or were, just up until this moment, only hours away from the end of a 48-hour deadline. The Donald Trump had imposed on Iran. That deadline was very specific and very simple. Donald Trump had told Iran to reopen the straight-of-hormuz within 48 hours of me sending of the very minute when Donald Trump had sent his last true social message, reopen it within 48 hours, or the U.S. would bomb Iran's power plants, which could have been a major escalation in this conflict. And Iran had already responded by saying no, by saying that it wasn't going to abide by this deadline. It wasn't going to reopen the straight-of-hormuz. And if its power plants were bombed, Iran would respond by bombing power plants in Israel and in Gulf countries across the region. So we were looking at a possible serious escalation between the U.S. and Iran.

2:03And now we have this message from the U.S. President saying he is halting this for five days. That's one takeaway from this message. The other very important takeaway from this message is the first part of it. We read this. The United States of America and the country of Iran have had over the last two days very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East. So Donald Trump is telling us that there are talks, which is a marked departure from what has been the case, at least what was known publicly, up until this moment. Donald Trump has said several times Iran wants to talk, but I don't want to talk to them. Iran had denied that they were talking to the United States. Now the U.S. President writing in all caps, there are conversations actually happening. They are in depth and they are going well and they could lead to an off-ramp.