Trump upstages Iran by imposing his own blockade of Strait of Hormuz

(Originally published Apr. 13 in “What in the World“) Trump is considering renewed airstrikes on Iran.

“I would hate to do it, but it’s their water, their desalinization plants, their electric-generating plants, which are very easy to hit,” Trump told Fox News after JD Vance failed to win a peace agreement with Iran in Islamabad over the weekend.

In the meantime, Trump has settled for doubling Iran’s efforts to strangle the global economy by blockading the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the blockade wouldn’t target ships traversing the Strait from non-Iranian ports—of which, thanks to Iranian mines, there are nearly zero. Those few that do are apparently doing so only after coordinating their passage with Iran’s military, which has said it will levy a $2 million toll on each one and split the proceeds with Oman.

The U.S. blockade will thus only reinforce the closure already imposed by Iran’s mining of the vital passage. While the blockade should thus ensure Iran can earn no oil revenue and discourage ships from submitting to its tolls, it fails to wrest control of the Strait from Tehran and underscores Trump’s reluctance (or inability) to use force to secure it, remove Iran’s mines, and re-establish free and safe passage for ships. Trump said Saturday de-mining efforts had begun, but no further details of that effort have emerged since the blockade was announced.

Officials also say Iran has also managed to preserve most of the tools it needs manufacture a nuclear weapon—including its 400-odd kilograms of enriched uranium.

Israel, meanwhile, is still largely ignoring Trump’s two-week ceasefire with Iran. After a televised address Saturday evening in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the battle is not yet over,” Israel launched new airstrikes Sunday in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.