CNN: The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is becoming more pressing as the International Energy Agency warns that global oil stockpiles are diminishing at a rapid clip. Traffic through the vital waterway remains minuscule, despite President Donald Trump’s insistence that the strait is open and the US still controls it.
Iran could “prolong” the war with the US until Trump is out of office, a top adviser to the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry has suggested the agreement between the two sides remains relevant despite their refusal to shift positions…
Top adviser to Iran’s IRGC says U.S. military is ‘weaker than what we perceived’ in rare interview
“The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain. We had never seen a real war to gain real experience to learn how to fight with America,” Naqdi told PBS. “In these five months, we have learned how.”
“We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived.”…
Iran says no progress on reviving interim peace deal with US
Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a time frame to implement it…
Gulf Oil Giants Are Spending Billions to Build Ways Around Strait of Hormuz
Gulf countries that have for decades produced much of the world’s oil are now intent on breaking their dependence on the narrow waterway. They are building or expanding pipelines and other infrastructure that can bypass it, and vastly expanding storage capacity in places like Asia.
These endeavors show how the war is changing the oil business in the Persian Gulf. They will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete, but companies and governments consider them essential hedges in an increasingly volatile region…
Trump Says Hormuz Is Under U.S. Control. Few Ships Are Listening.
Ship-tracking data shows that just 14 vessels on Tuesday crossed a waterway that routinely handled more than 130 a day before the war. Eleven of those ships took the route administered by Iran. Traffic was slow throughout July, with an average of 26 crossings a day, and in June, with 33 a day, as renewed Iranian attacks on ships cut short a deal to open the strait.
The disconnect shows how Tehran has managed to squelch traffic through the crucial energy chokepoint with relatively little military force, only a handful of drone and missile attacks on ships. Iran doesn’t need to defeat the U.S. Navy. It just needs shipping companies, captains and insurers to fear that defying it could put their ships at risk…
The US Forgot the Lessons of Iraq. Now It’s Desperate for Ideas on Iran.
“The moment is extremely dangerous, and the Trump administration is showing uncertainty and incompetence,” said Elliott Abrams, a longtime Middle East hawk who worked for Trump in his first term.
Dan Shapiro, who served as a senior Pentagon official in the Biden administration, agreed. “It’s common to have difficult trade-offs, but it is rare to find ourselves in a cul-de-sac of our own making with literally only bad options,” he said…