Name: US Ratchets Pressure on Iran With Military Buildup
Uploaded: 2026-02-20T21:31:31.000Z
Duration: 4 min 42 s
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There's many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against the, against Iran.

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The president had a very successful operation as commander in chief with Operation Midnight Hammer, as you know, as you just said, totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities.

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The president has always been very clear, though, with respect to Iran or any country around the world.

And Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump.

Well, joining us now to unpack a little bit of that is Bloomberg Horizons anchor Jomana Bertra.

Thank you so much, Jomana, for joining us this morning.

Given the move in oil that we saw yesterday, we saw Brent break below, I should say above 70 for the first time since June of last year when we had those strikes, what is the US's options here for Iran?

Yesterday morning we were talking about the, quote, unquote, progress that was ostensibly made at those discussions in Geneva and pushing forward towards more rounds of negotiations in the future.

We were talking about the real possibility of US military strikes, military action, kinetic action on Iran, which is the reason why you saw that huge spike in the price of oil, up more than 4%.

So at this point, it's very clear that the US has two paths, essentially, continue down the path of diplomacy, continue with those negotiations, or which is what multiple outlets are reporting, go down the routes of military action.

president has stressed this many, many times, his preference is to get a deal done.

He has said that no president in history has done a, quote, good deal with Iran.

Obviously, it's a dig at the JCPOA deal that he pulled out of in 2015.

But their focus right now is to continue with those negotiations on terms that suit the us.

But at the same time, Ali, we need to be cognizant that there has been a massive buildup of military assets in the region as well.

That second aircraft carrier is making its way through the Atlantic.

It's going to arrive in the Mediterranean this week.

It will be positioned in the Persian Gulf next to the first aircraft carrier, a bunch of warships, submarines, all positions in the region as well.

And so the region is on high alerts, as are the troops in the region.

Are about 30 to 40,000 troops positioned here.

And at the same time, Iran are paying note of this as well, taking good notes.

And if you recall, yesterday they actually did a military exercise around that Strait of Hormuz, which is the canal, whereby 20% of airborne sea oil passes.

Airborne oil, seaborne Oil rather passes through every single day and so would have an immense implication on these oil markets, hence the reaction that we had yesterday.

But at this point in time, it's unclear whether Pentagon or President Trump has indeed made a decision to strike.

Yeah, it seems, Jomana, that we're really sort of taking our cues from the oil market in terms of gauging kind of where we are on this story in order to sort of get an idea of how to measure progress in the situation.

If you talk to conventional, traditional foreign policy people, you know, the sort of progress between the United States and Iran traditionally would be measured in years.

With this huge, you know, armada, as President Trump has called it off the coast there, it seems they want to sort of measure it in hours and days and weeks.

How should we be measuring progress in this discussion, Jomana?

I think the timeline is probably a couple of weeks to a month.

Also, bear in mind that the region has just started the Ramadan month, the holy month of Ramadan.

Whether that might influence the calculus on whether to go for a strike is, again, a question that you have to consider.

But yesterday the press secretary, Caroline Levitt, actually

said, I believe the Iranians are expected to come back to us with more details in the next couple of weeks.

So the president will continue to watch and see how this plays out.

He indeed yesterday said that the conversations could take a couple of weeks to a month.

So we should get a better idea in the next couple of weeks what the Iranians come back with and whether they are going to be open to some of the more hardline suggestions coming through from the US Particularly as it pertains to.

There have been a lot of reports suggesting that they would accept to, for no nuclear enrichment for a limited amount of time, at least until the end of President Trump's term.

But then again, that raises questions about what happens later down the track and whether this is something that would be acceptable to the US from the Iranian perspective, they're pushing very hard for sanctions relief and also the possibility of tying in an economic deal as well to the US and perhaps talking about oil and aircraft purchases and making it part of a bigger deal as opposed to a nuclear focus deal.