He’ll never actually admit it to us. But he did something very telling, which was covered recently. It’s not going to work, of course, but supposedly he’s giving it a try. The problem is the difference between what *he* says, and what *Iran* says, and never the twain shall meet. But that wasn’t possible from the beginning. Acknowledgement to Raw Story:
By announcing a new naval operation to provide security for vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump had “effectively” admitted that his naval blockade of the critical shipping waterway was a failure, Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas argued on Monday.
“The push to re-open the Strait of Hormuz today, with two US warships crossing it and two US-flagged merchant vessels, signals the White House realizes it cannot keep waiting for the blockade to force Iran into the negotiation table,” Blas wrote in a social media post on X.
Ooooof. That’s something that hadn’t been thought of. Iran is taking its own sweet time on peace talks. They waited us out. And now they are in an even stronger position because of it. We need to know more about Iran and what the possibilities are to end this war. It’s in a holding pattern because neither side has announced it’s done.
“Effectively, it’s an admission the blockade isn’t working (if the blockade is seen as a means to get Iranian concessions, rather than an end in itself). The timeline of what the blockade would do to the Iranian oil industry was completely wrong.”
The Strait of Hormuz – a critical shipping route through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade flows – has been partially closed since Feb. 28 after the Trump administration launched a coordinated attack on Iran alongside Israel. Iran’s denial of U.S.-aligned vessels to the strait prompted Trump to authorize a U.S. blockade of the strait in mid-April.
We had guessed the blockade was to stop *any* ship from going through the Strait, not just the Iranian tankers. But they turned back a French cargo ship, if I remember correctly, that had passed through, too. Well, now it’s done. No more blockade. As to whether or not the US Navy can support escorting ships through there remains to be seen. After all Denis has told us, it seems *highly* unlikely that anyone could get through if it’s still closed by Iran. It gets *narrow* and runs right along the coast. What makes Trump think we can escort ships through?
Seen by many as an attempt to increase pressure on Tehran to reach a peace deal with the United States, the blockade – now three weeks in – has yet to produce an agreement acceptable to the president.
On Sunday, Trump announced Project Freedom, a new naval operation designed to force transit through the strait, but in doing so, Blas argued, he had all but admitted his previous strategy of forcing Tehran to the table “isn’t working.”
Okay, the bluff was called out by not calling us out. Iran bided its time regarding the Strait. That’s all there is to it. Now, it’s been driving me crazy, because Iran had started letting ships through, and then Trump did his blockade, and *poof* the Strait was closed again. Is it possible for things to get back to ‘normal’, such as it is? We’ll have to, again, frustrating as it is, wait and see. We’re tired of waiting.
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Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the blockade was on Iranian ports. Mainly just blocking Iran ship traffic in and out of the country.
I agree, that his reversal of course is a tacit admission of failure.
Indeed it is. He knows he’s in trouble and it’s not something that can be fixed anymore.
Hmmm. I thought the blockade was to prevent *any* ships from coming through. I’ll look into it.
I did goo and look up the blockade. You are correct. It was intended to block Iranian ships and let others through. I would have sworn they stopped a French ship and it had to turn around.
They probably did. I imagine that was payback for them not allowing us to use their land for airbases or some such.