I'm Brett Baer. I'm Maria Bartramo. I'm Brian Kilmead, and this is the Fox News Rundown.

Friday, April 17th, 2026. I'm Evan Brown. The Strait of Hormuz is now said to be open

and that Iran will give up its nuclear material. Does that mean Iran's lost the war? Can they be believed?

It would be extremely risky to continue to raise the bar in terms of, well, American and world expectations,

if in fact he didn't feel confident about following through.

This is the Fox News Rundown Operation Epic Fury.

Friday began for many Americans with yet another storm of postings from President Trump,

though these messages may signal some real results of the war by both the U.S. and Israel against Iran.

The Strait of Hormuz is open,

according to both the President and Iran's foreign ministry. That commercial vessels can transit it with no impediments. President Trump says this is the case even with the U.S. blockade of

Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf still in place. Along with the opening of the strait, Iran will allow the U.S. to retrieve the so-called

nuclear dust, the remnants of Iran's enriched uranium. From the outside, it may suggest Iran's

capitulating to the U.S., but Iran's regime has a history of not always being honest, but it may be progress nonetheless.

I don't think the president would have made such an announcement if, unless he knew definitively

that the Iranian, that the regime is really feeling the heat.

Christina Balling held a number of advisory roles in the U.S. Defense Department.

She's now a senior vice president at the Institute of World Politics in Washington.

Despite all the bravado, all their communication in the last 24 hours saying that, you know,

the U.S. has no right to set up the blockade, et cetera, et cetera, that will never back down.

This is a very promising statement.

Again, even if there's still back and forth to come, it means, in my view, that our administration is beginning to feel, or at least more publicly, expressing the fact that they're feeling more competent about getting some sort of favorable deal with the Iranians.

The fact that this would, the straight would be open, and we were already seeing the, you know, the oil futures come down, which everyone loves to see that.

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