WSJ: Trump tells aides to prepare for extended blockade of Iran

Photo: ‘The New York Post’

President Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, U.S. officials said, targeting the regime’s coffers in a high-risk bid to compel a nuclear capitulation Tehran has long refused, ‘The Wall Street Journal’ reports.

In recent meetings, including a Monday discussion in the Situation Room, Trump opted to continue squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports by preventing shipping to and from its ports. He assessed that his other options — resume bombing or walk away from the conflict — carried more risk than maintaining the blockade, officials said.

Yet continuing the blockade also prolongs a conflict that has driven up gas prices, hurt Trump’s poll numbers and further darkened Republicans’ prospects in the midterm elections. It has also caused the lowest number of transits through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began.

Since ending the major bombing campaign in an April 7 cease-fire, Trump has repeatedly walked back from escalating the conflict, opening space for diplomacy after earlier threatening to destroy the entirety of Iranian civilization. But he still wants to tighten the grip on the regime until it caves to his key demand: dismantling all of Iran’s nuclear work. On Monday, Trump told aides that Iran’s three-step offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and save nuclear talks for the final phase proved Tehran wasn’t negotiating in good faith.

Trump’s decision represents a new phase of sorts of the war and highlights the fact that the president, who always seeks a quick and salable victory, is devoid of a silver bullet.

Unilaterally stopping the fight offers a quick exit to the conflict and relief to the U.S. and global economies.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the U.S. has met Operation Epic Fury’s military objectives and that “thanks to the successful blockade of Iranian ports, the United States has maximum leverage over the regime” during negotiations to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. “The president will only accept a deal that protects the national security of our country.”

The lack of a clear, decisive pathway has some U.S. officials saying the eight-week conflict will likely end with neither a nuclear deal nor a resumption of the war, a sentiment first reported by Axios.

Officials say Trump isn’t currently willing to drop his demand that Iran, at a minimum, vows to suspend its nuclear enrichment for 20 years and accepts restrictions after that point.

“I am not surprised that he hasn’t taken the deal because it doesn’t address the nuclear issue at all,” said Eric Brewer, a former senior analyst for Iran in the U.S. intelligence community. “Why would you accept the Iranian deal while you are still waiting to see if you can cause some serious economic problems to Iran through this bet on the blockade?”

Despite expectations in the White House that U.S.-Iran talks would resume in Pakistan last weekend, the negotiations are stalled.

Regional mediators, however, remain skeptical that Iran’s updated offer would catalyze a breakthrough. Iranian officials continue to say that Washington must drop what they deem maximalist demands while maintaining its own blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

“Both sides seem to believe that they have calculated this right and that time is on their side,” said Nico Lange, director of Germany’s Institute for Risk Analysis and International Security and a former chief of staff at the German defense ministry.

Trump administration officials realize Tehran could try to disrupt efforts to maintain the current no-deal, no-war situation over a long period.

...This decision by Trump hits his competitors – Asian and European countries – the hardest.

If Trump maintains the Hormuz blockade for even another month, Europe will face a nightmare due to a shortage of energy resources, which Europe has been accustomed to receiving on a daily basis for decades! This practice has now been disrupted by Trump.

Furthermore, large quantities of aluminum, mineral fertilizers, helium, sulfur, and other important goods – in addition to oil and gas – were supplied to global markets from the Persian Gulf countries. Now all these supplies have been stopped, and Trump has no intention of opening Hormuz. All this puts the European economy on the brink of collapse.

This is what international competition looks like – the US ruthlessly pressuring its former partners in the EU.

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