Trump: We will abandon the Strait of Hormuz and leave NATO

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. It is Wednesday, Farvardin 12, 1405, April 1, 2026. The savage, ruinous and endless war of America and Israel against Iran has reached its thirty-second day. Statistics that can be compiled from the data of the Red Crescent, the Ministry of Education and HRANA show that by the thirty-second day of the war, 1,574 civilians have been killed. 1,211 military personnel have been killed. For 707 of the dead, it is unclear

0:58 whether they were military or civilian. Of these, 216 were children under 18, and 17 children under the age of five have also been killed. More than 90,000 residential units and 22,000 commercial units have been damaged so far. 763 schools and educational facilities and seven student camps have been attacked, and there have been 316 attacks on the country's pharmaceutical and medical centers, including seven hospitals that had to be completely evacuated.

1:52 Apart from these attacks and this damage, hundreds of the country's factories and major industrial centers have also been attacked and damaged. Some of them, such as the refineries of Phases 5 and 6 in Asaluyeh, are among the country's main centers for producing sweet gas and energy. We have had attacks on electricity and power facilities in Tehran and Karaj, as well as on core and infrastructure plants such as Mobarakeh Steel or Khuzestan Steel. For the latter, which has a capacity of more than 5.5 million tons, the person in charge has stated

2:49 that bringing it back online will take about six months, and engineers and technicians are working on it. This is the damage to a factory that itself has 17,000 direct workers, but whose products, such as steel billets, steel sections and so on, are used in dozens or even hundreds of downstream factories, such as rolling mills, fabrication, household goods and appliances, automobiles, and so on and so forth. The shutdown of these, and likely the shutdown of Khuzestan Steel, will hurt the output of all those factories. In addition, the oxygen plant of Mobarakeh Steel has also been attacked, and I still

3:47 don't know to what extent it can be rebuilt or how many months reconstruction will take. The Statistical Center of Iran has reviewed the month of Esfand and reported an inflation rate of 70 percent. Even though the country has been shut down and the cycle of supply and demand has been very slow and limited, this figure is high, and economists have warned that if this trend continues, inflation could suddenly reach several times this level and put enormous pressure on people's lives. On Farvardin 15, that is, this Saturday, in any

4:40 case, the holidays end, and the country has to reopen so the economy can get moving and things can be built: factories, and so on and so forth, shops, street vendors, Snapp drivers, the internet. Eight million people earn their living solely through the internet, and if this does not happen and the shutdowns continue, the economic situation will become far worse. Mr. Pezeshkian, whose government, whatever its shortcomings, has managed over the past month, relying on the country's strategic reserves, to provide people with bread, water, food and so on, and

5:35 apart from some northern cities, where the influx of people did cause some shortages, people's basic necessities have more or less been available, has sent a message to the American people, saying that we have no enmity with the American people, we are friends, but this war is harmful to the American people too. Indeed, in America, the price of gasoline per gallon, about 4 liters, has gone from under 3 dollars a gallon to over 4 dollars on average across America, and in some states such as California it has reached over 6 dollars in some cities. The price of diesel has risen even more, which has consequently affected transportation rates and, as a result, the prices of all goods.

6:37 At the same time, for example, fertilizers, which are petrochemical products, chemical fertilizers that is, have become more expensive, which will probably also make American agricultural products more expensive, and this will happen all over the world as well. Consequently, according to estimates, various institutions in America that conduct opinion polls have shown Mr. Trump's approval rating at thirty-something percent, which is very low, and even down to the 20s, which, if accurate, would be the lowest ever for an American president. Mr. Trump's situation is under the microscope, so to speak, and under pressure, and he is facing a lot of criticism. But Mr.

7:36 Trump's incoherent rambling continues. He stated that the president of Iran's new regime has requested a ceasefire, a remark many people criticized: what does that even mean? Which regime, what new, and what has changed? Or yesterday he suddenly said that even if the Strait is not opened, we will leave it and go, and the Europeans and others who need the Strait opened should go and do it themselves. This did have some effect on the markets, but it again raised the question: well, you started a war and created a mess, and now you want to drop it and leave? The criticism, I mean, also

8:30 intensified. Or, he has harshly criticized NATO and the European countries and stated that tonight, in a speech he will give at 9 p.m. Eastern time, in the remarks he will make, he has even raised the possibility of America leaving NATO. In any case, it was also in the American news that Mr. JD Vance, his vice president, who is basically opposed to America's involvement in any war and belongs to the thoroughly isolationist camp, has been tasked by Mr. Trump, in addition to Mr. Rubio, Witkoff and Kushner, with exchanging messages with Iran via Pakistan. Iran has also confirmed that messages have gone back and forth

9:29 through intermediary countries. According to Mr. Vance, they have demanded that Iran open the Strait in exchange for a ceasefire, and of course the Islamic Republic has stated that first there must be a ceasefire, and especially Israel must stop too, and then we will talk about peace and the Strait of Hormuz. In any case, it seems these talks via Pakistan haven't gotten very far. But as for the European countries and their leaders, numerous opinion polls conducted in their countries show that their people stand behind the European leaders in not taking part in the Persian Gulf war against Iran. Even the Prime Minister of Italy, Ms. Giorgia Meloni, who among European leaders personally has the closest relationship with Mr. Trump because of her right-wing position and

10:30 friendships, she too spoke sharply yesterday. Because of pressure coming from within her party, from rival parties and from the Italian people, she explicitly stated that she does not and will not permit the use of any base, whether in Sicily, where the Americans themselves have a base, or Italy's own bases; she said she will not permit the use of any base on Italian soil for participating in this war. The other European leaders have said the same. In any case, this rift between the two sides of the Atlantic, between America and Europe, and the threat of leaving NATO, has on the one hand deeply worried the Eastern European countries close to

11:27 Russia, such as Poland or the Baltic republics, and on the other hand Russia is over the moon and very happy if this rift appears in NATO, especially if Mr. Trump wants to carry out the threat he has made. Of course, he has threatened NATO several times, but each time his advisers or the more sensible parts of the establishment probably warned him off. We don't know what he will decide now. On the other hand, the Islamic Republic has also said it is now prepared to accept Russia's mediation, something Russia has said many times it is ready to do. Of course,

12:19 other countries such as Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and others have also said they are ready to mediate. But if Mr. Trump abandons this war in its current state and leaves, then one of the consequences will be that the Arab countries along the Persian Gulf will realize that America cannot be trusted, and moreover, the Islamic Republic, which has attacked them like this, will remain in power, and from now on, whenever it gets into trouble, it will attack them again. Therefore, they will most likely try to move closer to Russia and China than before, so that through them they can establish a balance with Iran. In the attack

13:19 carried out last night on the residence of Mr. Kamal Kharrazi, the former foreign minister and also head of the Leader's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, his wife was killed and he himself is reportedly seriously injured. Kharrazi was described as one of the more moderate figures, someone seeking to make peace with America. But with the attacks Israel is carrying out, killing people like this, these paths become harder. In hope of victory for Iran and Iranians.