they ve got to act. i don t believe they re going to cave in public to u.s. demands. so we re in a position where saudi arabia, you re right, just suffered the equivalent of a pearl harbor attack, knocked out half their production with a fairly cheap, modest cruise missile rvp attack on them. where is it all going to go? the republican revolutionary guard may want war. they may think the confrontation is worth it. so we re in a difficult situation. the u.s. fifth fleet, u.s. navy, and u.s. air force air power in the region, can use standoff weapons to devastate the iranians, their submarines, their aircraft, the air defense system. but in the process, it s likely that would turn into a very intense regional war. no one seems to think that that s a good outcome, certainly to include mr. trump. and we understand that there
let s get right to the start with joe johns who is live at the white house. do we have any details as to what these major new sanctions that the president is threatening here given that the u.s. already sanctions most iranian oil sales and a whole host of other behaviors. reporter: jim, they ve been keeping us in suspends. the president tweeted it on friday. since then repeated questions to the administration as well as the treasury department in specific. just a minute ago i spoke to kellyanne conway here and asked what about the sanctions and she said that we ll know later today. what we do know is the sanctions in the past have been part of a so-called maximum pressure campaign to get iran to the negotiating table. well, the fact of the matter is, of course, the president confused the issue a little bit this morning when he put out this tweet, essentially questioning why the u.s. fifth fleet is protecting the shipping
previously held positions. i think we know that fake news is just news he doesn t like. yes. or information he doesn t like. and fact-checking the president is now a cottage industry in 2019. good to see you. breaking news, the operator of a chemical tanker in the gulf of oman was attacked with some sort of shell. it was involved in a security operation in the gulf. the crews of the courageous and another were evacuated with one injury. nic robertson is in london. we know the american fifth fleet is in the region. we know there have been rescues of those sailors. the iranians say they have rescued these sailors. what is the latest? reporter: the latest appears to be and not clear at the moment whether this image has been cleared for our air that we ve been able to thoroughly check up on it but the image of the frontal terror that is on social media that requires us to do further checking appears to show a large oil tanker with a
both the united states and saudi arabia said they believed iran was behind those attacks. so, again, the search for responsibility is going to shine a light brightly on iran at the moment. but that said, no proof offered yet. this is an ongoing situation, and i think we are going to learn more details through the day. nic, do we know who rescued those sailors? was it the u.s. navy and the fifth fleet or was it the iranians, do we know? reporter: we appear to know, i should put it that way at the moment. we know that the u.s. fifth fleet based out of bahrain is in attendance, that it s rendering assistance where it can in the area. what we are hearing from the iranian state news agency, they are saying their navy, the iranian navy, picked up 44 sailors from those two vessels and they are currently, according to iranian state media, currently on an iranian island near where the incident happened. again, this is ongoing and the details are only just becoming
fire coming from the middle of it, as if it was hit in the middle of the ship. now, this is concurrent with what the captain of the ship describes, that the ship was hit by projectiles, that a fire broke out, and that s when he decided to get himself and all the crew off the ship, and that s what has also happened with the courageous as well. both ships hit while on the move. and the iranian navy saying that they have rescued those 44 people, that they now have them on an iranian island. the u.s. fifth fleet is in the area doing what it can in the way of assistance at the moment. but this comes just a month after an attack on four commercial vessels that have certain similarities but some differences. off the coast of the emirates a month ago. what s different here is this seems to be an escalation, that