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Quest Means Business
Maersk CEO: We're Clearly In Unchartered Territory; CNN Team In Tehran Seeks Shelter As Jets, Explosions Heard; Sources: Iran Begins Laying Mines In Strait Of Hormuz; Trump Administration Sends Mixed Messages On Status Of Iran War; Oil Prices Ease On Hopes Of Quick End To Iran War; Security Lines Stretch For Hours At Major U.S. Airports; Law Enforcement Says New York Attack Was ISIS-Inspired. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired March 10, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:16]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": And the closing bell is ringing on Wall Street. BUNGE ringing the closing bell. The
Dow itself down, then up then down and we are off, just a little tad towards the close because the way the day has been so confusing with
different events bring the markets to a close. One, two oh, you are trying to break it and you did not, sir. I apologize for that.
The market is just barely down. Those are the markets and these are the events we are talking about.
Tonight, the chief of Maersk, the CEO of Maersk tells me the Iran crisis has plunged the shipping industry into unchartered waters.
The CEO of Aramco is warning global oil markets face catastrophic consequences if the war drags on.
And actually, what's happening, well, oil prices have pared their losses, but sources are telling us Tehran has begun laying mines in the Strait of
Hormuz.
As you can tell, it is a very difficult and complicated story tonight. We are live in London. It is Tuesday, it is March the 10th. I am Richard
Quest, I mean business.
Good evening.
The world is in unchartered waters. It is the warning from the head of the shipping giant, Maersk, as relates to the war in Iran. The conflict has
upended the global shipping industry. There is the Strait of Hormuz, virtually nothing really going past. Maybe the odd vessel that you can see,
but most of them are at anchor, or they are just waiting, stranded around the Strait, the hook of the Strait.
It has caused an energy crisis. The price of oil spiked and then fell back on hopes that the conflict will be short lived. The White House Press
Secretary says President Trump will not let Iran threaten global energy supplies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: President Trump will not allow rogue Iranian terrorists to stop the freedom of navigation and the
free flow of energy.
Let me be clear, it is a good thing to wipe out terrorists who indiscriminately target civilians and attempt to hold the global economy
hostage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Well, that's so far, so good. But what's the reality on the ground? The reality is that, for example, Maersk, the largest in the world, has
suspended the Gulf State bookings as it waits to see how long this conflict is going to continue.
The Chief Executive of Maersk has said that some of his ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf. Youve got some up here, some over here. They are all
stuck or I beg your pardon, let me just get that once more again.
They are stuck around, my apologies, obviously it is up here. We are talking about where they are some, it is about 10 ships stuck up there.
However the company is also avoiding Bab el-Mandeb in the Strait, where Clerc says they can manage in the short run. So, you've got two major areas
at the moment.
Youve got the Strait of Hormuz where they are not going and you've got the Red Sea once again where they are not going. What this means for Maersk
ships is they either have to just basically there or they just continue. It is an impossible situation, so not surprisingly, as the war drags on, the
major disruptions continue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VINCENT CLERC, CEO, MAERSK: So, we have 10 ships right now that are stuck in the Upper Gulf and can't get out, and we have numerous ships, in the
tens of ships that are on their way to the region and for which we have had to have contingencies about where they're going to drop the cargo.
They are not going to wait for the Strait to reopen. We will stage the cargo either in Oman or in Jeddah or in other places, in ports where we
have access, and then the ship will go on their way to their next assignment from there.
QUEST: It is the Strait of Hormuz. So you're not going into that waterway. Are there any other areas that you're avoiding at the moment?
CLERC: So for us, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea is also closed as a as a precaution, because you will remember that
for the last two years, we have been subject to attack by Houthi militias in Yemen, which are a proxy of Iran and we feel that as much as the war so
far has been focused on the Upper Gulf, there is a risk that militia -- that the proxies are being mobilized and start to take international
shipping again as a target.
[16:05:17]
And therefore we have decided to reverse the reopening of the Red Sea and continue to sail the long way around Africa.
QUEST: Now, this will be bad enough if it was just for goods and containers for the region, but Jebel Ali and other ports there, which are massive
transshipment depots, the stuff comes in, it is parceled out and then it goes on to other destinations. That makes this -- that sort of is the
ripples and makes it much worse.
CLERC: It is true. I mean some of the -- some of the hubs on which global trade does rely on are actually being affected, are being closed by the
situation right now. It is true from Jebel Ali, it is true for Abu Dhabi. It is true for a few of those of those hubs, and this is this is going to
create ripple effect, I think for a while as we need to see how this is going to sort itself out.
In the short run, we can we can manage this. But if this was to endure, this would create, I think, serious congestions and serious issues across
the global supply chain.
QUEST: The idea of either the U.S. government or any government providing war insurance or some form of insurance and guarantees or indeed escorting
your vessels through the Strait. I've heard that that's a bit of a nonstarter. What do you say?
CLERC: Yes, I think that -- I think the most important thing to start with is to say that we have colleagues on board those ships, and we will never
take a solution where it is just because we have insurance, but we put them in harm's way, we are going to find that the solution is okay.
We are only going to act if we feel that the safety of our crew, the safety of our assets, the safety of our customers' cargo can be guaranteed by the
solution that has been put in place.
Whether it is a negotiated solution or whether it is a military solution, there are political authorities that need to decide what is the quickest
and best way to reopen the Strait, but for us, safety remains our primary concern and ensuring the safety of our operation, that is not something
that we are going to trade on.
QUEST: What do you make of the Chinese calling you and MSC in to basically complain about higher surcharges or premia because of extra costs? Freight
charges are going up and now the Chinese are piling on with their complaints to you. What have you told them?
CLERC: I think it is important to understand that a lot of the flow of oil that comes out of the Gulf actually is serving the needs of the Arabian
Peninsula, but also of Asia, and therefore, this energy crisis could have significant consequences on Asian economies, and it is only natural for the
Chinese government to be concerned about how this is shaping and to have dialogue with some of the strategic partners that serve China on other
segments.
We don't do tankers, but on other segments and want to engage on how is the picture evolving, how are we going to deal with some of that?
They do understand that the significant cost increases we are faced with right now, as a result of this situation, we cannot shoulder by ourselves,
but they also want to make sure that there is fairness in the way that we deal with them, which I think is a fair concern and were in constant
dialogue with the Chinese government on multiple issues and this is just one that is quite high on the agenda right now.
QUEST: I mean, Maersk, a giant, you're well used to crises. This is -- you've faced everything at some point as a shipping company but this is on
a scale that is almost impossible to manage.
So, what do you make of it?
CLERC: I mean, we are clearly in uncharted territory. I think the main concern we have more or less resolved today the safety of our of our crews
for the time being, to the best of our ability, we have solved for the cargo flows to the best of our ability. I think the big problem that we
have to solve now is with the Strait being closed, there is enough oil in the world, but there is not enough oil everywhere in the world.
There is dislocations in the market where some areas have plenty of fuel and other areas could face shortages. And we need to be proactive in moving
fuel around so that when we come to ports, we actually have the fuel that we need to keep on powering our network on and that is something that is
completely new.
So I think for me, the only parallel that there is COVID, where something we hadn't tried before either, where we need to really familiarize
ourselves with completely new areas, such in this case, moving fuel around the globe so that we have the right amount in the right time at the right
price.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[16:10:13]
QUEST: That's the CEO of Maersk on the situation with oil.
And now to Fred Pleitgen and his team in Iran who have been witnessing waves of intense strikes hitting the capital, Tehran. They were filming the
aftermath of a strike when they heard jets overhead and had to run for cover.
As always, I will remind you, CNN is operating in Iran with the permission of the Iranian government, as required under local regulations. However, we
are maintaining our full editorial control over what we are reporting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There has been heavy bombardment in Tehran over the past 24 hours, as we
both heard and felt.
This morning, we visited a site when all of a sudden, it was targeted again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we should go!
PLEITGEN (on camera): Yes. We should go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We go! We go! We go!
PLEITGEN: Okay, we are hearing jets overhead. There is anti-aircraft fire going on. We are supposed to get out of here as fast as possible.
So that just goes to show how fast things can turn bad here. We were filming at a site as apparently -- let me get rid of this mask -- struck
yesterday.
PLEITGEN (voice over): Earlier we had spoken to folks caught in the attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was in the basement and was thrown against the opposite wall. I was under the rubble that's it. I don't
know what else to say.
I am sorry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Now at this hour, Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. I will be talking to Fred about that and the implications after the
break.
It is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: So now Iran apparently has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to our sources, the mining is not extensive. It is warning, Iran -- they warn that Iran retains most of its small boats and minelayers, and
that it could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.
President Trump has responded to reports. He said he wants them removed immediately and warned of military consequences, his words, at a level
never seen before.
Natasha Bertrand is in Washington.
Well, this came out of the blue this morning, didn't it?
[16:15:10]
This idea -- what do we know about what is happening?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is something that U.S. officials had been very concerned about and something
that President Trump had spoken a little bit about yesterday in talking about how the U.S. Navy might begin to escort ships through the Strait of
Hormuz, but now that's obviously going to be a lot more difficult, given the fact that we are told that according to U.S. Intelligence reporting,
Iran has begun laying some mines in that Strait, not extensive, as you mentioned, about a few dozen at this time, but they still retain, we are
told, about 80 to 90 percent of their small boats, and their minelayers. So they could feasibly continue to lay mines in the hundreds over the coming
days, according to our sources.
And so this obviously is a huge concern, just given that the Strait of Hormuz is such an important energy chokepoint, it carries about one-fifth
of all crude oil worldwide. So, obviously this is something the administration is very concerned about and the world, frankly, is concerned
about, given how we have seen oil prices skyrocket in recent days.
QUEST: We will talk more. Thank you for bringing us that and the analysis of that.
Fred Pleitgen is with me. Fred is in Tehran.
Good evening to you, Fred, thank you.
Obviously, as always, stay safe, and please do not hesitate to tell me that you need to go and take cover or whatever.
This new line tonight about mining of the strait. Can you -- are you across it? What do you know?
PLEITGEN: Well, I am across it. I certainly have heard about that reporting also from Natasha, of course, Richard.
The Iranians so far have not confirmed whether or not they've actually mined the Strait of Hormuz. However, one of the things that we have heard
from the Iranians, and this came yesterday and also throughout the better part of the day today, is that they say they obviously have a choke hold,
as they put it, on the Strait of Hormuz. That doesn't mean that they would necessarily shut it down but they say as of right now, the Strait of Hormuz
is closed to commercial traffic.
The Iranians last night said to me, this came in the form of a senior official, that they are the ones who control the taps of the global oil
flow, as they put it. So the Iranians believe, Richard, in this asymmetric warfare that's going on, where obviously the United States and Israel
technologically are on a much higher level than the Iranians, they believe that that is the big bargaining chip that they have.
The fact that they do have that control over the Strait of Hormuz and they also believe, Richard, that it will be economic pressure that could bring
this campaign, this military campaign, to a close as countries, especially in the Gulf region are reeling, but of course, countries around the world
that get their energy through the strait of Hormuz are reeling as well.
It was quite interesting because the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, he came out. This was right after President
Trump said some of these things and he said look, the Strait of Hormuz, as he put it, can be a Strait of Peace or it can be a graveyard, as he put it
for war mongers, of course referring to the United States and Israel -- Richard.
QUEST: And the ability for them to keep going, the Iranians. Yes, they've got tons of drones and can keep manufacturing but the big stuff, the
ballistic stuff, the missiles. When do they run out?
PLEITGEN: Well, it is very difficult to say. The United States has obviously been saying that they have been degrading Iran's ability to shoot
missiles and also to produce missiles as well. Nevertheless, the Iranians have been saying over the past couple of days that their stockpiles still
are full and that they are still capable of putting pressure not just on the Israelis, but, of course, on the Gulf region, where they say, first and
foremost, they are targeting U.S. military installations in that area.
The Iranians, though, Richard, they don't necessarily believe that they have to fire a lot of missiles at targets in Israel or in the region. For
them, the important thing is that they are still there, that the power structure is still in place, that they are still in control on the ground.
And as long as they have that, they say, it is going to be very difficult to unseat them -- Richard.
QUEST: Fred Pleitgen who is in Tehran. Fred, thank you. I am grateful. Stay safe, you and Claudia. Please give my best. Thank you.
Now Tom is with me. Tom Sharpe, who served as Royal Navy officer for 27 years, senior advisor to Qorvis. He is with me.
Good to see you, sir.
TOM SHARPE, SERVED AS ROYAL NAVY OFFICER FOR 27 YEARS, SENIOR ADVISOR TO QORVIS: Thank you.
QUEST: Let's talk about mining. What is being put in the water?
SHARPE: I need to see confirmed that mines have gone underwater. There may be confusion here over pre-positioning of mines. The Iranians have 5,000
roughly in their stockpile. They have a raft of converted fishing boats that look exactly like fishing boats. They open the barrels. Theres a rail
and the mines go in the water.
So they can deploy these things very quickly, but they have to get them in position.
QUEST: Right, but what are these mines?
SHARPE: I mean think World War Two horned mines, a lot of them literally metal spheres bobbing in the water with contact horns. Now they range from
there that free float to moored versions of that to some quite sophisticated ones of Russian origin and Chinese origin.
Obviously, they're more difficult to move around without being detected.
QUEST: And are they the -- sorry, this is a naive question, but are they as serious a threat as they sound?
SHARPE: Yes. And the problem with mines is that sometimes you don't even need to lay them. Today maybe a case study of saying you've laid them and
has the same effect. But the reality is, they will hold you below the water line and unless you are a warship with lots of water tight compartments,
you could get serious damages or --
[16:20:30]
QUEST: So what would you do?
SHARPE: Well, you've got to go in and clear them, and that takes a long time. And like everything else on the Strait of Hormuz, in order to get in
there to clear the mine threat, you've got to create the conditions and that involves taking down their other threats, surface and air threats.
QUEST: All right, let's talk about this. So, can we have the map of the Strait of Hormuz, if we may, and we can talk about it as we go through it.
We know this is the chokehold. We know that nothing is moving. We know its geographically very difficult and that there are ships now at anchor and
stranded on either side.
This idea of escorting through, is it realistic?
SHARPE: It all depends on the threat. I mean, I know this is a sort of how long is a piece of string question, so there is not a satisfactory answer
to it. If you can write down the threat in the air, surface and subsurface domain to an extent where you're content to go in and take that risk, then
yes, it is.
If you can't, then you have to go in very heavy and then it stops being sustainable and you can't do it for long.
QUEST: Right, but the chief executive of Maersk earlier on this program says, listen, I don't care what guarantees, I don't care what insurance or
escorting, I am not putting my men and women at risk on my container ships. Because it's -- you know, it is not on.
SHARPE: And I think that is critical. We -- the military will go where we have cleared it. Okay, fine. That's only part of the equation. You've then
got to convince the entire community that it is clear to their satisfaction and we know from the Bab el-Mandeb and the Houthi threat, which was not
dissimilar that that can be a discrepancy between those two things.
QUEST: The ships that are going there, let's just talk about the Royal Navy, if I may, since we are in London and you are a former officer in
that. I am just reading your article that you wrote, your blog and your article that you wrote, is it really that bad that there are no ships?
The Prince of Wales is goodness knows what? There is no frigates. A couple of -- I mean, is it really that bad?
SHARPE: I am afraid it is. This is 30 years of decline and of course, it doesn't play out at a moment of your choosing. In fact, it plays out at the
worst possible moment and here it is.
QUEST: So when the "Paris Match," the French magazine, the political editor wrote: With no ships to accompany it, the British forces may have to ask
France for help. What if Napoleon sounded defeated in 1805? Well, he got his revenge 220 years later.
SHARPE: The French are never backwards and coming forwards when it comes to exploiting these, and we've done it as well. It works both ways,
particularly at the political level where their jockeying can sometimes get a bit sort of difficult, but in this case they are right to do so.
You know, they are protecting our sovereign base in Cyprus until HMS Dragon gets there. If we send the carrier, then we have to allocate Dragon to the
carrier.
I mean, that's sort of allied effort.
QUEST: But how did it get it so wrong?
SHARPE: Yes, well, so 30 years, both governments not prioritizing defense over welfare, education, NHS, all the things that we know and love and vote
for. Defense has never been one of them. And now the opportunity has created itself to reverse that decline and we are still not taking it.
QUEST: Okay, well, not yet anyway, not with NATO increased expenditure. And even if you do, ships are much -- the cost and the length versus planes and
infantry is much greater, isn't it? Final thoughts. I just want to get back to the straits, and we've not only got problems down the Strait of Hormuz,
you've got the Houthis down at the bottom, you've got the Red Sea difficulties, all of which. Yet oil is down at $90.00, $80.00, $90.00 a
barrel. But my guess is that the risk is very much on the upside.
SHARPE: Absolutely. And the commodities traders are looking at this minute by minute, looking for answers, looking to predict whether to go long and
the spike last night, of course, scared everyone. That was immediately sort of appeased by rhetoric out of The White House.
I think the general assumption is, is that the longer this goes on, the more that price goes up and the more it affects us at home. So we need to
find a way of clearing it either by persuasion and diplomacy, or by forcing our way in there militarily.
QUEST: Would you sail through the Strait of Hormuz as a warship, yes, because that's your job. But as a container ship?
SHARPE: No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't put my crew at that level of risk. Why would you? Why not wait until there are assurances in place that it is safe
to do so? At the moment, it is not safe to do so which is why they're not.
QUEST: I am very grateful that you came in to talk today. Good to see you, sir.
SHARPE: Thank you.
QUEST: Thank you very much indeed.
[16:25:06]
Kuwait, one of the world's top producers of oil is cutting its production as a precaution. The country has come under Iranian fire. A Kuwaiti
government building was in flames after getting hit by a drone. The country's army says fuel storage tanks at Kuwait International Airport were
targeted.
Its decision to slash oil production, the corporation said, because of threats of safe passage of ships. As we were just talking about through the
Strait.
Nic Robertson is in Kuwait City. Glad to have you there, sir. We haven't heard much from Kuwait, so it is good to have you there.
The same story though, isn't it? They can't get the existing stuff out and the storage tanks are full, so you switch off the tap.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You stop pumping it out the ground at the same rate. You stop refining it at the same rate, and at
some point you have to stop doing all of those completely. And as your experts have been telling you, when you do that, it takes a long time to
restart. So it isn't just a bump because the Strait of Hormuz are closed. It is a much longer bump and bigger net effect to the global economy
because it takes longer to get production back to where it started from.
And I would just add to what your last expert was talking about in 2019, I was down there in Fujairah in the UAE going out into the edge of the Strait
of Hormuz, where the Iranians as your expert was describing, were using small boats with military personnel. These are very tiny boats, like
fishing boats, not Navy boats, the ones that the Pentagon has been able to sink and they were sticking mines, magnetic mines to the sides of tankers.
They would blow one or two or three holes in the tankers, disable them. Put them -- you know, render them so that they can't get them to market, render
them inoperative in port and that was an effective measure that was being used by Iran then.
It was a slow squeeze on the Strait of Hormuz, so it doesn't take a Navy to actually shut it down or impede it and it is hard to catch these small
fishing boat operatives, because that is as we've seen, how the Houthis operate in the Red Sea, interdicting maritime commercial oil tankers with
those same tactics.
QUEST: Nic, in Kuwait, they've done a very good job of keeping themselves to themselves over the last ten to 15 years, in a sense of they just get on
with it. Saudi is rising, the UAE, but they just keep pumping the money out in Kuwait. How do they view this crisis? This war?
ROBERTSON: They are very distressed. I mean, the Emir was really, quite open with Iran and his message, his broadcast just yesterday saying, look
we are a friend of yours, we are a friendly country. Why are you doing this? Our bases there and there are a couple of bases here used by the
United States that are being used for defensive measures only.
The aircrafts that are taking off from there are shooting down the drones and ballistic missiles that are coming in profusion by the way, 50 miles
across the sea here from Iran, a very short distance.
And then used defensively, not offensively against Iran. So there is a sort of a disbelief at what Iran is doing. There is an appeal to the U.N. that
Iran is breaking international -- the Conventions of International Law and breaking International Humanitarian Law. There is an appeal to the better
nature of the Iranians, if you will, that they shouldn't take it out on Kuwait.
But there is a commercial impact, and they're trying to navigate this. And the concern of all the Gulf countries is if they were to join in the war,
which they don't feel is theirs and has been brought upon them and onto them, therefore, their oil infrastructure, which is vulnerable because so
much of it is above ground and you can only defend it so well, that there would be the risk of much greater and more long term damage.
I think countries in this region, the GCC, tend to look towards Saudi Arabia. If Saudi stays out of it, then everyone stays out of it. And I
think what we see you know, with occasional addresses to their publics, the Emir here and the President in the UAE as well, they do try to stay quiet,
but there is a lot of pressure they are under right now.
QUEST: Nic, I am grateful, half past 11, I realize you've got many more hours still to go.
Thank you, sir. Get some rest, you and your team when you can.
The war is shaking up global oil markets. That much is self-evident. The world's top oil exporter warns the impact could be catastrophic.
Saudi Aramco, when they speak, we listen. We will discuss next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:33:12]
QUEST: Hello, good evening. We've got a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS together. Those sources who are telling us about laying mines in the Strait
of Hormuz, now the president says he's been destroying them. The minesweepers that is. U.S. intelligence warning of retaliation after the
killing of Iran's supreme leader.
All of that after the news headlines because this is CNN and on this network, the news always comes first.
U.S. Defense secretary says the United States will end its war with Iran, in his words, on our timeline, and when, in his words, the enemy is totally
and decisively defeated. Pete Hegseth told reporters today President Donald Trump gets to control the throttle and will decide when the U.S. operation
will come to an end.
Voters are headed to the polls in a couple of key races in America. In Georgia, they're choosing who's going to replace the former Congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene. The longtime Trump ally soured on him and she gave up her seat in January. In Mississippi, Congressman Bennie Thompson is
facing a challenge in the Democratic primary. He's 78 years old, and he's trying to hold off a younger candidate who has made age an issue.
Sources are telling CNN that the Iranian women's football team is on its way home from Australia, and it's without seven members now. The prime
minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, says five players were granted humanitarian visas. We're told a sixth player and a member of the staff
have also asked for asylum. The team stood silent during the national anthem before a game last week.
[16:35:04]
Let's go to Washington and to Kevin Liptak.
Kevin, in the last few minutes, President Trump has been posting. Our big story tonight, of course, is on the minds that are being -- allegedly being
laid and the president now says, "In the last few hours we've hit and completely destroyed 10 inactive mine laying boats and-or ships with more
to follow."
So I'm guessing that they weren't laying mines at the time, inactive is the phrase. What is your understanding of all of this?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's interesting because the president, you know, within the same hour that he
posted this message saying that these 10 ships had been taken out. He wrote that there was no evidence that Iran was, in fact, laying mines. Now, he
says that actually the U.S. had been taking out some of the boats that were preparing to do it.
He also gave some insight in that earlier post about how the U.S. was going to go about it. He said that they were going to use the same technology and
missiles that they were using to take out drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, so presumably drones. He didn't say that specifically, but that's what
they've been using to take out those boats. So the president I think laying the pretext here for an operation to try and prevent Iran from doing what
it seems to be already have started doing, which is laying these mines.
Obviously the president has been talking now for the last 48 hours about trying to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. The press secretary earlier today
said that there were various options under consideration that she would not list because she didn't want to reveal it to Iran to allow them to take
steps to counteract that. But that they were having these discussions about how to keep the strait open. So this seems to be one of the options that
she was referring to.
QUEST: Do they see this contradiction that everybody has been saying about, on the one hand, complete -- very complete victory, it's all over bar, the
shouting, nothing to see here, keep moving? And then no, we're going to keep fighting hard, we're going to keep fighting hard, if they retaliate,
we'll go after them even better? Do they see a contradiction in that?
LIPTAK: I don't think they do. And I think the way they look at it, and I think this is strategic on, you know, Karoline Leavitt and Pete Hegseth's
part, they're trying to keep the options open for the president. On the one hand, they want to sort of convey to the American public and the entire
world that they have an idea of where this is all headed because it didn't seem like they had any idea of that last week.
They want to show that they have an end game in mind here. Their end game is the complete surrender of Iran. But on the other hand, they seem to want
to leave open the option for the president to sort of declare that Iran has surrendered when he decides that it's time for this to end.
QUEST: The last quick question, the energy secretary puts a post out saying, we have escorted a vessel. The Navy has escorted a vessel, and then
deletes it, and then apparently -- I mean, straightforward cock up?
LIPTAK: Yes, and it's funny you say this because I literally just as you were coming the energy secretary or Energy Department wrote me back to say
what was going on here. And there are -- they are putting it out to an incorrectly captioned tweet by the Department of Energy. They said it was a
staffer's mistake.
You know, they've been talking about this for quite some time. It has never really been clear what the sort of operational likelihood of a naval escort
through the Strait of Hormuz actually would be. Clearly, the energy secretary is ready for this to happen, but it has not happened yet,
according to officials.
QUEST: Right.
LIPTAK: And I think part of the reason, of course, now that we're seeing that these mines have been -- are being laid, that there is clearly active
fire going across as the U.S. takes out some of these ships. That would be a very dangerous proposition for the Navy to undertake. So it hasn't
happened yet and that was clearly just an error on the part of the Energy Department.
QUEST: Which they admitted and good for them in doing so. Thank you, Kevin. Kevin Liptak is in Washington.
The head of the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, is warning the world faces a catastrophic consequences the longer the war goes on.
Amin Nasser says his company is working to reroute crude oil through Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea. Oil prices have spiked dramatically, as we
know. They've twitted about progress in the war from the president. Even so $150 a barrel by the end of the month.
Anna is with me. And when we got this number of $150, somewhat the difficulty here is this warning of $150 comes at the very moment the price
seems to be falling back which begs the question, is it just being alarmist?
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, you're right. We've seen huge swings over the past day. Remember yesterday
we're at $120 a barrel. Now we're down to below $90. And that's because of these positive noises that were coming out of the White House about this
war being, you know, potentially quite short and sharp.
[16:40:02]
But there is a big gap between what people say, Richard, and what the reality is on the ground and what the fears for the future are. And the
reality is probably an obvious thing to say is that we're still very much in a war. We see CNN's Fred Pleitgen earlier today talking about huge
aerial bombardments overnight. We're now seeing sources saying there might be mines in the Strait of Hormuz, that really important chokepoint for the
global oil system. And then, of course, these future fears which Saudi Aramco are alluding to are pretty enormous.
QUEST: Yes, but the problem might be none of this comes to fruition and that the market takes it in its stride. You know, we've seen again and
again Donald Trump gets his way. And I always think of the Greenland example, and I think of many of the others, where he's --
COOBAN: TACO.
QUEST: Sorry?
COOBAN: TACO. Changes his mind or things don't come to pass in the way that he -- we expect.
QUEST: Right. Or, or he does manage to force the issue and it happens, and that the oil price doesn't go up to $150. And we all look rather silly for
having been alarmist at the very possibility.
COOBAN: I mean, that could certainly happen. But, you know, the sources say that Iran might now be planting mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Maybe this
is one of those moments where this has really run away from Donald Trump. And the longer this goes on for, Richard, the higher the oil price stays,
is the fear -- then that then raises the fear that they will then be feed through to the wider economy.
And oil is in everything, Richard. It's in the products that we hold, the packaging, the plastic packaging, it comes in. It's in the truck that
transports that product to your door. And the fear then from central banks is that all these prices will rise, inflation goes higher, people ask more
wages, and then we're in that dreaded price wage spiral.
QUEST: How realistic is all of that? Or are you just being alarmist?
COOBAN: I don't think I'm being alarmist. Many analysts are saying that if this is prolonged, and I think that is the real clincher here, if this goes
on for a significant period of time, there is very real possibility that we'll see $150 a barrel. Already yesterday we saw oil at the highest price
since Russia invaded Ukraine. I don't think it's too alarmist, but it is too early to say that all of these catastrophic consequences will happen.
But certainly we're in pretty -- a pretty big mess right now, Richard.
QUEST: I'm grateful. Thank you very much. Well, I mean, I'm not grateful that we're in a pretty big mess, but I'm grateful that you put it into
perspective. Thank you, Anna. See you as always.
In a moment, travelers at some of U.S. airports are waiting hours to get through security, and it's all about funding. Nothing to do with the war,
all about funding. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: The partial U.S. government shutdown is causing long lines at airport security around the country.
[16:45:05]
At Houston a three-hour wait. New Orleans said lines could stretch up to two hours. TSA agents will miss their first full paycheck on middle of the
month. There's no deal in sight to resolve the shutdown.
Pete Muntean is in Washington.
What is the problem here? I mean, there -- is it that there's not enough people, that they can't pay them? That there's -- I mean, why should
because the department is closed the lines be so long?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's kind of a perfect storm, Richard, given the fact that TSA agents only get a partial paycheck
two weeks ago, now they're going to get a zero dollar paycheck come the end of this week. And the problem for them, many of these TSA agents live
paycheck to paycheck. So if they don't get paid, then they end up calling out sick to try and care for their kids because they can't pay for daycare.
We've also heard from the union of TSA agents who say that really things are getting quite desperate, and some TSA agents are now doing things like
Door Dashing, donating plasma, to try and make ends meet. The airports simply say that it's hard to predict. Sometimes it changes day by day and
shift by shift. And the good news now is that some of the huge lines we saw Sunday and Monday, and you saw that incredible video, have really subsided
at least for the moment, although we'll see when we get into the weekend.
And it seems that these problems get exacerbated on Sunday into Monday when people try to sort of slough off their weekend duties or try and extend
their weekend.
QUEST: Right. Now, I realize it doesn't -- you know, if you haven't got a paycheck, it doesn't matter. But traditionally once the thing reopens
people do get the backpay.
MUNTEAN: That's right.
QUEST: For the work that they've done. So to a certain extent they can borrow and there are loans or things, but that's not really the answer. You
know, as my grandmother would say, this is no way to run a railroad when you're having to do this. And I wonder what is the pain point for
politicians before they put pressure on one side or the other to settle this?
MUNTEAN: This has always been a major political pressure point. You know, you have to think back to the 35-day government shutdown, 2018 into 2019.
And these TSA callouts spiked a little bit, partially responsible for ending that government shutdown. You know, you have to think about the
direct impact on members of Congress and the problem now is that there's really no deal in sight, that this is now having a real impact on people.
So maybe, just maybe, it will lead to some normal people, normal travelers, going into spring break now. Millions of people packing planes, leading
them to call their members of Congress to hammer out a deal here. You know, this is different than a normal government shutdown that really impacts far
and wide-reaching parts of government. This is a bit more targeted. This is all about Department of Homeland Security funding.
QUEST: Right.
MUNTEAN: The transportation administration -- Transportation Security Administration falls under, therefore, this is the biggest pain point now.
QUEST: Last question. Markwayne Mullin, the new DHS secretary, if he's confirmed, the current one, Kristi, is in post until the end of the month.
Has it -- what has he said on this? Anything?
MUNTEAN: Well, there's been a lot of pressure here from the White House and they say that this is all to blame on Democrats. That they have not come to
the table here to reach a deal, although it's Democrats who in some cases are holding up the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which
has led to this shutdown. But there's, of course, plenty of blame to go around. You know, it's still Republicans who are in the majority there.
So there really needs to be a deal here. We'll see if this will ultimately lead to some sort of actual substantive debate and talk to end this partial
government shutdown. We're 25 days in, though, and it seems that nobody is really going to budge.
QUEST: I'm grateful, sir. Pete Muntean, thank you.
MUNTEAN: Anytime.
QUEST: U.S. intelligence agencies say there's a real threat of retaliation on U.S. soil after the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Our John Miller
will be with us after the break. What is that threat? How real and what can be done about it?
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:52:00]
QUEST: The conflict with Iran has police in major U.S. cities on alert especially in New York after two teens were accused of tossing makeshift
bombs at the weekend. Prosecutors described it as an ISIS inspired attack. The intelligence community is warning of retaliations on U.S. soil
following the killing of Khamenei. Authorities are concerned about security on energy infrastructure, protecting government targets, securing the
border.
John Miller is the man that we need to help us understand it.
John, at one level, yes, I mean, obviously it's the target, but the New York police are really rather good at keeping things tight as a drum. So
what needs more to be done?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this is one of those times where New York's investment in counterterrorism in
the NYPD has started to pay off again. No city has devoted as many resources or as much money or people to the counterterrorism effort as New
York City than any other police department. And that's because New York is a natural target. It's a media capital. It's a business capital. It's a
global capital.
We certainly saw some of that emerge the other day with the two individuals who tossed powerful bombs that by some miracle of mis-engineering did not
go off. But had they gone off, could have killed multiple people at that demonstration.
QUEST: Right. I was interested to read recently that New York is one of the -- has an enormous number of -- well, not enormous. A large number of
officers overseas in various embassies, more so, you know, it is part of the wider U.S. intelligence agencies, but actually does maintain its own
officers in major foreign capitals.
MILLER: New York City police detectives are spread around the world from places like London, Paris, capitals throughout Europe, but also in hotspots
from Tel Aviv to East Africa, to you name a number of places. And that's because they're collecting intelligence on the ground there and keeping
those partnerships with those foreign agencies and their U.S. partners on the ground there from the federal government, to make sure that all
ripples, no matter where they are in the world eventually come to the very diverse city of New York. And that's what they do.
QUEST: Supposed rifts between the Commissioner Jessica Tisch and the Mayor Mamdani. From your reading of the tea leaves, the two were on different
sides in many ways, but the new mayor did keep her on. Is it a real, pardon the pun, tiff?
MILLER: Well, I think what they have come to is a very interesting relationship where they agree that there are things they disagree about,
but their shared goal is the safety of New Yorkers, and that's where they meet on every issue. And they've managed to navigate pretty well on that.
[16:55:04]
QUEST: John, I'm grateful to you, sir. Thank you very much. Good to see you.
MILLER: You too, Richard.
QUEST: (INAUDIBLE) myself in the morning.
Now Wall Street finished mostly flat. Everybody is trying to keep up with events in the Middle East. It's very difficult. Of course, it's such a busy
day. Not much movement. The movement, the final numbers, look at that. Nasdaq up 1.16. That's the points, not the percentage. 3M is at the top of
the Dow -- of the Dow 30. You don't often see that along with Caterpillar so it's a strong performance.
Boeing at the other way. Chevron off more than 1.5 percent as oil prices retreated. Boeing says wiring flaws could delay 737 MAX deliveries this
quarter. And that's the way things look for Brent. It's down quite sizably. The two crudes, the benchmarks holding the differential, as you would
expect.
Those are the markets. We will have a "Profitable Moment" after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:58:36]
QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment."
CEOs earn the big bucks because they take the responsibility and they have to make the decisions in the hardest of times, and in the last two days,
we've had two CEOs on this program. Federico Gonzalez yesterday from -- we had Federico from Radisson, and tonight we had Vincent Clerc from Maersk.
Both talked to us head on about the problems that their companies are facing. Whether it's keeping hotels open and developing and knowing what to
do with staff, or Maersk tonight going around the Straits of Hormuz, refusing to think, to even countenance putting any of their ships under
threat. Particularly, of course, when they're being offered things like escorts and insurance and all that sort of stuff.
And that's where it really counts because when in the next few weeks and months, believe me, on Quest Means Business we every single day try to
bring you and we do bring you the best CEOs. But the numbers who simply don't want to speak or who just run in the opposite direction for all sorts
of valid reasons. But at the end of the day it's the chief executive who comes out and speaks and says, this is what we're going to do. This is why
we're going to do it, and this is what's likely to happen. And that's really what separates the good from the bad.
No one expects in the middle of a crisis people are going to rush to come and talk to us but overall, giving an understanding of where your company
is at a time of crisis and where you are leading, well, frankly, that is part of the job of the CEO.
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for this evening. I'm Richard Quest in London. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it is profitable.
I'm on my way back to New York. I'll see you in New York tomorrow.
END
