Name: White House redefines Trump’s desire for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’
Uploaded: 2026-03-10T23:04:35.000Z
Duration: 15 min 11 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

As the war with Iran escalates, the number of US Casualties rises and oil prices are getting whipsawed amid confusion about the potential for severe supply disruptions.

It comes as Defense Secretary Hegseth, alongside the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff this morning said US Military action is again ramping up.

Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.

The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.

Intelligence more refined and better than ever.

We're also now learning that according to the Pentagon, approximately 140 U.S.

service members have been wounded since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

The number of casualties renewing questions about the administration's endgame as it sends mixed messages about the timeline for U.S.

What I want your viewers to understand is this is only just the beginning.

President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete, but

your defense secretary says this is just the beginning.

So which is it and how long should Americans be?

It's the beginning of building a new country.

We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here, I could call it.

He's the one elected on behalf of the American people when we're achieving those particular objectives.

And so it's not for me to posit whether it's the beginning, the middle, or the end.

President Trump will determine when Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, when they no longer pose a credible and direct threat to the United States of America and our allies.

Adding to the uncertainty, last night, the president suggesting he could further escalate the war if oil prices continue to rise.

And this morning, writing on social media, quote, if Iran does anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America 20 times harder than they have been hit thus far.

He went on to threaten death, fire and fury.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard responding defiantly that it will, quote, not allow the export of even 1 liter of oil from the region until the US and Israel stop the strikes.

The competing claims about the war continue to roil the price of oil, which initially fell after Energy Secretary Wright posted a video today saying the U.S.

navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormu.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt then clarifying there was no escort through the strait.

I can confirm that the US Navy has not escorted a tanker or vessel at this time, though, of course, that's an option the president has said he will absolutely utilize if and when necessary, at the appropriate time.

Leavitt also vowing that oil and gas prices will drop rapidly once the US Mission is complete.

Right now, the price of oil is roughly 25% higher than when the conflict began, and

price prices at the pump have gone up roughly 20% on average.

Joining me now is NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander, NBC News senior National Security Correspondent Courtney Kuby, and

NBC News Chief international correspondent Keir Simmons.

Peter, is it clear what the administration's end goal in Iran actually is?

Did we get any more clarity on what that is from the White House today?

You know, Monica, first, can I say I think you look good in that anchor chair there.

But let me get to the headline out of this right now.

And this is what I think was particularly striking.

It's that we heard this idea of unconditional surrender.

That was sort of the end point that President Trump wanted.

But today, Caroline Levitt, the president's press secretary, really redefined what that means, unconditional surrender.

You played part of that soundbite, but it's worth repeating.

She said President Trump will determine when Iran is basically in a position of surrender, which in effect gives him maximum flexibility to make a decision that the war should continue or it should end at any point that he so chooses.

One of the questions has been, will the president be satisfied if the now deceased ayatollah's son does serve as the next supreme leader, as Iran has announced within the last several days?

And Caroline Levitt was pressed on that very question by our colleague Garrett Haig.

Is the ending of this war also contingent on Iran selecting a leader that the president finds acceptable?

And if so, how is that not the definition of a regime change war?

Look, as President Trump has blatantly and frankly stated, it's obviously within the best interest of the United States and the west to no longer have a radical terrorist in charge of Iran.

We have objectives that we have laid out that the commander in chief wants to see achieved.

When they are achieved, then it will ultimately be up to the president to end this operation.

Okay, so I think you're not exactly addressing my question, though.

Is that political objective also necessary for the president decide to end this war?

Ms. Look, again, I just told you the objectives of Operation Epic Fury.

When those objectives are met, the president will dictate the end of these operations when he deems that Iran no longer poses a credible threat to the United States of America.

So, Monica, to the very basic question that you were asking, does it give us any better clarity about how long this war will last?

You'll remember the president initially said four to five, perhaps six weeks for a timeline.

Then over the course of the last 48 hours, we heard from the defense secretary saying in effect that, well, this was only just the beginning.

The president then said it was very complete, pretty much then said it was a short term excursion before insisting that it could go much further.

So I think it's up to Americans and ultimately at the end of the day, up to the president where he's going to put himself in a position to say, all right, I think we've done enough.

Whenever he raising questions about how that ends, Peter but also a real mix up today with the energy secretary posting that the US did escort an oil tanker through the state of Hormuz.

Then the White House saying that's not what happened.

Well, I think we're trying to get a better understanding of it as we speak right now.

Obviously, the Energy secretary, Chris Wright, making the announcement, as he said very specifically, the US Navy had successfully escorted, escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.

That would be notable because obviously so much of the global markets as they relate to oil right now are concerned about the inability, the sort of chokehold on that critical passageway, just about 21 miles wide, controls about one fifth of the world's oil that goes through there right now.

And the president has made it very clear that he wants to see oil flowing smoothly through that.

So the fact that this was posted made a lot of investors feel very good that there was progress, that it was quickly deleted.

The White House then said that that is not the case.

No oil tanker has been allowed through there.

We're still trying to get answers why such a thing would have been posted if that weren't the case.

And the president, you played one of his or shared one of his posts from earlier.

This is a post that he posted within the last hour or so.

He said, among other things, if Iran has put out any mines in the strait, in the Hormuz Strait, and

we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed immediately.

If for any reason mines were placed, he says, and

they are not removed forthwith, the military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.

Initially, he said that we might hit them 20 times as hard now.

This is the President's sort of effort to continue those threats and it's not entirely clear that it's getting him what he's looking for.

Peter, thank you so much for all of that.

Courtney, I want to turn to you now because we did hear Secretary Hexis say today it was going to be the most intense day of the war so far.

I mean, you could figure out just based off of how the op tempo, how this campaign has been unfolding that there would be more potential aircraft in the air today than there have been over the last nine or 10 days.

And that's simply by, by virtue of the fact that the couple of days they were, they were taking longer range standoff strikes and taking out air defenses and things.

If you look at a map of Iran, you can actually trace from the west coast, the western side of the country, over further and further as the US And Israel continue to push more towards the center.

As they push towards the center, they're essentially clearing space to make it safer for manned aircraft to fly, meaning every day.