PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 17th, 2026: Iran’s Plan to Beat the U.S. Blockade Is Failing & Russia’s Satellite Help to Tehran

It's Thursday, the 17th of September. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Well, all right, fine. It's a little bit more like the early evening bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, new reporting shows Iran's effort to bypass the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz is running into serious trouble, with thousands of trucks stranded and trade costs surging around the country. Later in the show, a CNN investigation finds Russian satellites may have helped Iran carry out one of its most damaging attacks on American military assets during the Iran war. Now, not to be churlish, but it should surprise no one at this point that Russia and China have both assisted the Iranian regime with satellite imagery, intelligence, and targeting assistance. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. For months now, Iran has been looking for ways around the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The idea was pretty straightforward. If Tehran couldn't move enough goods through its ports because of the blockade, it would move more of them by land. More trucks through Pakistan and Turkey, more freight through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. More trucks through Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. More trucks through Pakistan and Turkmenistan. More cargo across the Caspian Sea. More trains running all the way to China. Well, we're now getting a decent look at how that plan is working for the regime, and according to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal, it's not going according to plan. Thousands of Iranian trucks are getting stuck at the country's borders, customs facilities are overwhelmed, perishable goods are spoiling, and transportation costs are soaring. All of it, adding to the economic pressure already being felt by ordinary Iranians. Let's start with Turkey. The Journal reports that roughly 3,700 trucks have been stranded on the Iranian side of that border, with some drivers waiting as long as 20 days to cross. Things aren't much better along the border with Pakistan. At one of the main crossings, roughly 700 trucks can be waiting at any given time, many carrying cement or bottled gas or other goods. But according to a local civic group cited by the Journal, only about 40 trucks are allowed through on a daily basis. So, it's a lot of work to do. So, let's start with Turkey. Some Iranian drivers say they're spending days sitting in temperatures that can reach 122 degrees, sometimes without adequate access to food, water, or sanitation. And because many of these trucks are carrying perishable goods, the delays are more than just inconvenient. Now, to be clear, some of these border problems existed before the blockade. Iran's land crossings were already inefficient and bureaucratic. The problem is that Tehran is now asking for a new border. So, they're asking for a new border. That system to handle substantially more trade, well, because its normal maritime routes have been blocked, and it simply doesn't have the capacity. Iran has had some success finding alternatives. Traffic across the Caspian Sea, as an example, has reportedly increased sharply over the past five months, helping Iran bring in commodities like wheat and corn and cooking oil from Russia. A freight train connecting Tehran with Xi'an, China, is also running much more frequently. But, you know, it's a lot of work to do. An Iranian trade official estimated that moving a single shipping container from China to Iran by land now costs around $12,000. By sea, that same container would cost roughly $3,000. Now, I'm not known as a math guy, but according to my math-in, that's four times the price just to move the same goods. One Iranian business leader has estimated that the blockade could eventually cost Iran around $18 billion a year. In some cases, Iranian import experts say the added transportation costs and border delays can account for as much as a third of the final price of everyday goods once they eventually reach Tehran. That's happening while Iran is already dealing with extraordinary inflation. According to Iran's official statistics agency, food prices in August were roughly 128 percent higher than they were just a year earlier. And the pressure isn't limited to the roads. Iran's largest commercial container port has reportedly been sitting largely idle, while thousands of containers destined for Iran remain stranded in neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Mahan Air, an Iranian airline already under U.S. sanctions, said Wednesday that it was suspending flights to Oman and Turkey following another round of American sanctions against Iran. It also said that the U.S. should be paying more attention to the U.S. than any other country in the world. So Iran is now being squeezed from several directions at once. Its ports are constrained. Its overland routes are clogged and expensive. Some air connections are narrowing. And neighboring countries can close or restrict border crossings with very little warning, as Iraq demonstrated over the weekend when it temporarily shut cargo terminals along the Iranian border. And that's the larger problem for the Iranian regime. Iran's strategy doesn't require it to replace maritime trade with trucks and trains, but it does require that those alternative routes move enough goods cheaply enough to at least keep the economy floating. All right, coming up next, Russia may have played a direct role in helping Iran target a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia before a major strike. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, regular listeners of the PDB know that I spend a lot of time on the road, so I think I've become a bit of a travel luggage savant. That's why I'm very happy to tell you about Noble Travel. That's Noble, N-O-B-L. 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At the time, the final report from the Financial Times reported that Russia was supplying Iran with intelligence on American military assets across the Middle East, citing unnamed U.S. officials and other people familiar with the assistance. A Ukrainian intelligence assessment reviewed by Reuters later alleged that Russian satellites conducted at least 24 reconnaissance surveys of 46 locations across 11 Middle Eastern countries between the 21st and 31st of March, including, again, the Prince Sultan Air Base. Iran attacked that base with at least one missile and several drones, wounding a dozen U.S. service members and damaging or destroying critical equipment. Among the losses was a Boeing E-3 Sentry, which tracks aircraft and missiles while helping coordinate American military operations. But here's what made the strike especially troubling. The E-3 Sentry had been moved from its pre-war location. So, you ask, how did Iran find it? Well, working with Project Aurora, that's a space analysis initiative, and the Cayenne Space, that's an American satellite tracking company, CNN's investigation used orbital data to reconstruct the Russian activity above Prince Sultan Air Base. It found that Cosmos 2573, a Russian military satellite capable of capturing detailed reconnaissance imagery, passed over the base alongside 13 other Russian spy satellites on the 25th of March. Of those 13 satellites, eight signals intelligence satellites were capable of intercepting radio and radar emissions, potentially locating American air defenses. Two infrared satellites could detect heat signatures, while three were reportedly synthetic aperture radar satellites capable of seeing through clouds and darkness and identifying moving equipment. Together, they could show Iran what was at the base, where American defenses were positioned, and where valuable U.S. assets had been relocated. CNN sources say the satellites played an integral role in the attack on the Russian air base. and assessed that the Iranian regime's precision strike would have been nearly impossible without Russian geospatial intelligence. Now, there's an important sourcing distinction here. CNN did not obtain information specifically confirming that the Russian satellite images were provided directly from the Kremlin to Tehran. What it did independently establish was where the satellites were positioned and the kinds of information they could collect. And CNN says its sources, including two U.S. satellites, were not able to determine the exact location of the satellites. According to the U.S. official, the satellite images in Tehran and Tehran's air base have evidence that Russia then passed some of that intelligence to Iran, helping the regime carry out precision attacks. Now, that tracks with the Ukrainian assessment that we discussed in April, which alleged that a Russian satellite photographed Prince Sultan before the strike and returned the next day to assess damage. CNN sources also suspect Prince Sultan was not an isolated case. They believe Russian satellites provided targeting information for other Iranian attacks, including one that damaged a CIA facility in Riyadh. That assistance gave Tehran capabilities that it lacks on its own, as the regime has only a few military satellites and nothing approaching Russia's reconnaissance network. The founder of Project Aurora told CNN, quote, the war would not be where it is today if it wasn't for the unique capabilities that the Russians gave to the Iranians, end quote. As for Moscow's motive, well, CNN sources point to American intelligence support for Ukrainian strikes against Russia. Ukrainian President Zelensky made the same accusation after the attack, saying Kyiv's intelligence caught Russian satellites photographing Prince Sultan, pointing to preparations for the strike. Now, predictably, this will out-shock you, the Kremlin denies providing satellite imagery or any such support to the Iranian regime. And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Thursday, the 17th of September. If you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, just reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, I've mentioned it before, that is a very simple thing to do, just become a Premium Member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, well, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Now, I have been a business owner for many years, and I want to take just a moment to talk to all of you small business operators out there. Here's the thing. 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