I'm John Bachelor, Gordon Chang, my colleague and co-host, and we're very pleased to turn to the fleet and our interlocutor, our fleet whisperer, Rebecca Grant, Vice President of the Lexington Institute.

I'm looking at the fleet arrayed around Iran, supporting the president's remarks that Iran is a sinister presence and must be in some fashion contained.

There is a negotiation underway. I believe they meet again in these next hours. The news for weeks

has been discouraging about that negotiation, reaching a conclusion. So the fleet. Rebecca,

a very good day to you. There was a headline from

London yesterday. I did not see a follow-up again that China is shipping anti-air missiles to Iran,

something about new technology that weaves as it closes on an aircraft. At the same time,

we know China has long partnered

with Iran for a strategic element such as oil and other aspects of the production line in Iran.

Right now, how does the fleet regard the Chinese presence in the Iranian Islamic Republic of Iran, does it, is it significant that

China quietly is supporting the Iranian regime given the strength of the Chinese fleet versus

the weakness of the Iranian fleet? Good day to you. Yes, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Central Command are keeping a very, very close eye on

China. The U.S. Navy fleet is a raid, and along with land-based air power, they really have

Iran bottled up from the Eastern Med all the way through to the North Arabian Gulf.

There are no less than seven destroyers deployed at the moment.

I've really never seen anything like it.

That's both a missile defense shield and, of course, the possibility of offensive strike

options and not something small.

And one time like Midnight Hammer, this would be possibly a sustained campaign.

But Central Command has watched China all along, and they have seen there are Chinese ships near Djibouti that watch the fleet.

There are reports so that the Chinese share satellite tracking information with Iran, and we know for sure that the Iranians take delivery from China of ships that carry sodium

per chlorate and other precursor chemicals that the Iranians use to mix fuel for their solid-fueled

...