The President's Daily Brief - February 6th, 2026: Iranian Forces Seizes Oil Tankers & More Purges In China

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: First up— Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seizes two foreign-crewed oil tankers near critical shipping lanes, just days after IRGC gunboats attempted to board a U.S.-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. Later in the show— Xi Jinping’s military purge deepens as Beijing removes three lawmakers tied to China’s defense sector following a probe into a top general. Plus— on the day the final nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia was set to expire, Washington and Moscow signal they may continue observing New START limits anyway. And in today’s Back of the Brief— German police detain two men suspected of plotting to sabotage naval vessels in Hamburg, heightening concerns about covert Russian operations inside Europe. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief.  YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief CBDistillery: Visit https://CBDistillery.comand use promo code PDB for 25% off your entire order! PDS Debt: You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. It's Friday, the 6th of February. Look at that. We've made it through another week.

Well, well done you. Welcome to the president's daily brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right. Let's get brief. First up, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the IRGC, seizes two foreign crude oil takers in a show of force near key shipping lanes, just days after IRGC gunboats tried to board a U.S.-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. We'll walk through what happened and what message Tehran is trying to send. Later in the show, Xi Jinping's military purge deepens as Beijing removes three lawmakers tied to China's defense sector following a probe.

into a top general. Plus, on the very day the final nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia was set to expire, Washington and Moscow signaled that they may still continue observing the new start limits. And in today's back of the brief, German police detained two men suspected of plotting to sabotage naval vessels in Hamburg, as European officials grow increasingly concerned about covert Russian attacks within the EU. But first, today's PDB spotlight. It's getting fairly crowded in one of the world's most critical shipping corridors. According to Iranian state-linked medium, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, has seized two foreign crude oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, accusing the vessels of maritime

violations while transiting near Iranian-controlled waters. Details remain limited at this point, but Tehran claims the ships were detained over alleged fuel smuggling and failures to comply with Iranian maritime regulations. The IRGC Navy's Public Relations Department. Really? What? The IRGC, the same group that just finished killing thousands of citizens and detaining tens of thousands more, has a PR department? Well, okay, I digress.

Anyway, they alleged that more than 1 million liters of fuel were found on the ships. That's about 6,300 barrels. The 15 foreign crew members were taken into custody and referred to the judicial authorities. As is often the case, those accusations have not been independently verified, and the cruise nationalities and the ownership of the vessels have not been fully disclosed. What we do know is this. Neither tanker appears to be American-owned, but that doesn't make this incident inconsequential.

In fact, it fits into a pattern that we've been tracking this week. Just days ago, the IRC attempted a similar maneuver against a U.S. flag tanker, the Stena imperative, while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, roughly 16 nautical miles north of Oman's coast. According to U.S. officials, three pairs of small, armed IRGC fastboats approach the vessel and ordered the captain by radio to stop engines and prepare to be boarded. Instead, the vessel did what it was trained to do. The ship increased speed, maintained course, and issued a distress call. That call was answered quickly, a nearby U.S. Navy-guided missile destroyer, the USS McFaul, along with U.S. Air Force assets, moved in to escort the tankers safely through the strait.

So that boarding never happened, but Iran's message was delivered. Well, in the minds of the regime, at least. They're still in control of the strait, at least in their minds. Now, let's zoom out for a moment. Many are saying President Trump is engaged in a form of gunboat diplomacy, with the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln positioned right on Iran's doorstep. The IRGC, it seems, is reminding the world that it has gunboats of its own. Although, to be fair, well, they are in no way comparable.

Iran has long relied on asymmetric tactics in the maritime domain, fastboats and harassment and seizures to compensate for conventional military weaknesses. When tensions rise, the Strait of Hormuz inevitably becomes Tehran's pressure valve, a place where I can demonstrate control, create risk and shape negotiations without firing a shot. On Thursday, Esotola Zarami, the former head of Iran's state broadcasting organization and former minister, made that strategy clear when he told Iran's Merr-News, quote, the Strait of Hormuz will be a killing field and a hell for the Americans. Iran will show that the Strait of Hormuz has historically belonged to Iran, end quote. Now, one could argue that

Zargami is either a moron or a delusional moron, but I digress. Now, all of this is unfolding as Washington and Tehran are sitting down today in Oman for their first round of talks aimed at restarting negotiations of Iran's nuclear program. These discussions were nearly derailed before they began, with Tehran pushing hard to keep the agenda tightly focused and free of discussions around missile programs, proxy forces, or regional behavior. So while diplomats are set to meet behind glow stores, apparently OK with sticking to the regime's agenda, Iranian gunboats are setting their own opening statement. The message is straightforward. Iran wants to negotiate from a position of strength. Really?

It wants to remind the United States and every commercial ship transiting the Gulf that stability in these waters exists only with Tehran's consent. At least, that's how they imagine it. Now, I've said it before, and I'll likely be saying the same thing next year and probably the years to come. But there will be no stability and long-term peace in the Middle East, as long as this Iranian regime and their IRGC stay in power. Until the people of Iran, perhaps along with some level of meaningful support from the international community, remove the Mullahs in the IRGC, nothing in the Middle East will change. All right. Coming up next, Xi Jinping's military purge widens with the removal of three defense industry lawmakers in China, while Washington and Moscow signal an unusual moment of restraint by continuing to observe new start limits even as the treaty formally expires. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you woke up, actually feeling rested? I mean, really rested. Or when was the last time you got through a day?

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Cocktails up here feel just right. is Cambria you're homemade. Bring a date, your team, or even your mom. Book direct at choiceotails.com. See you on the roof. Welcome back to the PDB. A purge that began with a surprising downfall of China's top general has only accelerated. This time, three Chinese lawmakers tied to the defense sector have been removed from their posts,

widening President Xi Jinping's purge of the military, and now the industries that supported. After the announcement Wednesday, Beijing did what it often does at moments like this. Well, it said almost nothing. State media confirmed the removals but offered no explanation, no charges and no indication that the lawmakers themselves were under investigation. In China's system, that silence usually signals that something larger is unfolding behind closed doors. What we do know is where these lawmakers came from. All three had deep ties to China's defense, aerospace, or nuclear sectors. That alone suggests this wasn't a routine personnel shuffle, but a move aimed squarely at the ecosystem that designs, builds, and maintains China's military power.

And to understand why this matters now, well, you have to go back just a few weeks. Our regular PDB listeners will remember our coverage of when China's defense ministry confirmed it was investigating General Zhang Yoshia, a long-time ally of Xi, for what it called, quote, serious violations of discipline and law. Now, Zhang wasn't just another general. He was the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the People's Liberation Army and the central figure in China's military command structure. That move carried consequences well beyond Beijing. U.S. officials long viewed Zhang as a key military interlocutor, one of the few senior figures with whom Washington could maintain regular contact to reduce the risk of miscalculation between the

world's two most powerful militaries. When Zhang disappeared from the scene, those comms channels effectively froze. So with lawmakers tied to the same defense and nuclear ecosystem being sidelined, the pattern is becoming harder to ignore. This purge didn't stop with the generals. It's spreading outward into the civilian institutions that support the military, oversee sensitive programs, and handle some of the state's most classified work. One of the lawmakers' remove was Zhou Shin-min, the head of the state-owned aviation conglomerate Aviation Industry Corporation of China, otherwise known as Avaic. Also axed was Liu Tosung Li, a longtime nuclear weapons researcher, as well as Lo-Chi. Now, Lo-Chi held the post of chief engineer of China National Nuclear Corporation.

That's a state-owned power giant. It's important to know why these purges are happening in succession recently. These removals come just weeks before China's legislature, the National People's Congress, convenes for its annual session. So the timing's not coincidental, marking the start of a new five-year planning cycle for the Communist Party. It's a moment when she is especially focused on discipline, loyalty, and message control. Removing figures tied to sensitive defense sectors ahead of that session reduces the risk of leaks or internal dissent or heightened security at a politically delicate moment. She has set an ambitious goal of achieving four. military modernization by the year

2035, a push that has already made China the world's largest military spender after the U.S. But American defense officials repeatedly warn that corruption inside China's military industrial complex could slow or undermine that effort entirely. The scope of this purge suggests

those concerns may not be theoretical. Jez-Kess offers a window into the problem. He was appointed as Avaic chairman in March of 24, but his name has since been quietly removed from the company's website. The day before his dismissal, Avic announced it had held an internal anti-corruption meeting. Leal's removal is justice-telling. He led the China Academy of Engineering Physics, which is the country's premier nuclear weapons research institute. He led that group from 2015 to 2024 and spent decades working on nuclear weapons development. When figures with that level of access are being sidelined, it raises serious

questions about whether Beijing is facing unprecedented levels of instability, distrust, and questioned loyalty within the upper levels of the CCP and its military. Okay, now I want to turn your attention to what's happening as the New START nuclear treaty between the U.S. and Russia expires. Quiet diplomacy is now underway as officials from the U.S. and Russia work toward a informal arrangement to keep nuclear limits in place. What matters here is that this represents a real shift from where things stood just a few days ago. As we previously discussed, the treaty's expiration didn't trigger an immediate nuclear crisis this morning. Well, that's a good thing, but it did raise a serious question. Once limits are gone, what replaces them, if anything at all?

Now, I can tell you this movement on that front. People familiar with the talks told Axios that U.S. and Russian officials are working toward a stopgap understanding, one that wouldn't resurrect new start, but would keep both sides operating within limits long enough to allow negotiations over a successor framework to begin. Two of those sources cautioned that the draft plan still requires approval from both President Trump and Russian President Putin. Another source confirms that negotiations took place as recently as on the sidelines of the Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi. Trump's envoys, Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, directly discussed the topic with Russian officials during those sideline talks. One U.S. officials said the practical

effect would be that both sides continue to observe New Start's caps for at least six months. To understand why this matters, it helps to remember what New START represented. It was the last remaining arms control framework governing the strategic nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and Russia, two countries that together possess most of the world's nuclear warheads. With its expiration, there's no longer a formal ceiling, no shared structure, and no agreed framework anchoring restraint. What's being discussed now, as mentioned, would not revive new start or extend it in a legal sense. Instead, the administration's focus is on preventing an abrupt removal of limits

while a new framework is explored. And Trump reinforced that position publicly, writing on truth. social, he called Newstart, quote, a badly negotiated deal by the U.S., and argued instead for a, quote, new, improved and modernized treaty that can last long into the future, end quote. Now, another reason the White House has resisted extending New Start is that the treaty does not constrain China. Well, how about that? Secretary of State Marker Rubio reiterated that any durable arms control framework must eventually include Beijing, pointing to China's rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal.

But China has shown zero interest in joining such an agreement. Well, there's a shocking surprise. And even as Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, arms control was not mentioned in the U.S. readout of that call. For now, everything remains informal. One U.S.

official described the arrangement under discussion as a so-called handshake understanding, stressing that nothing will be final until both leaders personally endorse it. Okay. Coming up in today's back of the brief. German investigators break up an alleged plot to sabotage warships in Hamburg, a case that's raising new alarms, of course, about Russia's covert operations inside Europe.

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Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. In today's back of the brief, European authorities are once again confronting the hard reality of Russia's shadow war across the continent, as German investigators reveal an apparent sabotage attempt targeting the country's navy from inside one of its most critical ports. Earlier this week, German prosecutors announced that two men have been detained on suspicion of sabotaging vessels of the German Navy at the port of Hamburg. The suspects, a 37-year-old Romanian national and a 54-year-old Greek national,

were arrested in Hamburg and Northern Greece, respectively, after a coordinated investigation spanning three countries. According to authorities, both men worked at the port and allegedly carried out acts of deliberate damage against several German naval corvettes. That's the smallest class of warship, but a key component of Germany's maritime force structure. Investigators say the suspects poured roughly 20 kilograms of grit into an engine, punctured water lines, removed fuel caps, and disabled safety switches, actions that, if undetected, could have caused serious mechanical failure, delayed deployments, and potentially endangered crews at sea. Germany's public prosecutor said the investigation is ongoing,

and authorities are now working to determine whether the two men acted alone or were part of a wider network. Now, here's a pro-tip. They were likely part of a wider network. While officials have stopped short of formally attributing the case to Moscow, the political reaction in Berlin was telling. A senior German lawmaker from the ruling Christian Democratic Union said the case fit a familiar Russian-Russian-Moscow.

pattern, telling Politico, quote, the modus operandi and the apparent objective fit a Russian pattern of using targeted acts of sabotage against militarily relevant and critical infrastructure to prepare for attacks and spread terror in Germany through hybrid methods, end quote.

He cautioned, however, that investigators must still establish whether that pattern applies definitively in this case. According to data cited by the Associated Press, Europe has suffered at least 145, suspected sabotage. incidents since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine back in 2022.

Now, most have caused limited physical damage, but collectively they forced European intelligence services and police and prosecutors into a constant state of response, stretching resources, and complicating security planning. Investigators say Russia has increasingly relied on deniable tactics, including the use of criminal intermediaries to carry out the persistent acts of disruption across borders. and Germany, in particular, has been a frequent target. Now, that should probably come as no surprise, as Germany has been Ukraine's largest donor within the EU since the war began.

In May of 2024, for example, an arson attack linked to Russian-directed networks hit an arms manufacturer in Berlin, and in November of 2024, a DHL cargo plan departing from Leipzig crashed in Lithuania's capital after a parcel exploded on board, killing the captain. Lithuanian authorities later said the incident was organized by Russian operatives with intelligence ties. But what makes this week's case in Hamburg, especially concerning, is its proximity to active military assets. If the damage to the Corvettes had gone unnoticed, it could have caused major damage and delayed naval operations, which is precisely the kind of quiet disruption that Russia's hybrid playbook is built to achieve without triggering a direct military response. While this plot was uncovered, the broader danger with Russia's hybrid attacks isn't any single act of sabotage, but the cumulative effect.

And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Friday the 6th of February. Now, if you have any questions or comments, and I hope you do, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. Also, if you've chosen for an ad-free PDB experience, well, we can make that happen. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDB premium. And finally, it is, of course, Friday. Well, you knew that, which can only mean one thing. A brand new episode of our PDB Situation Report is launching this evening at 10 p.m. on the first TV. Our excellent guests include retired Admiral Mike Studeman, former commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and author of a great book called Might of the Chain, as well as Jan Yakelick,

he's a senior editor of the Epoch Times. We're talking all things China and Iran. You can also catch this and past episodes on our YouTube channel, just head on over to YouTube, obviously, and search up at President's Daily Brief, and you can also find us on podcast platforms everywhere. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the BDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.