Iran is again playing the four-corners stall game with its latest peace proposal — a sign that American leverage is paying off. President Donald Trump and the United States should continue to put maximum pressure on the regime to exacerbate the Iranian economy’s free-fall.
News outlets reported this week that Mr. Trump had rejected an offer from Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz in return for an end to the U.S. blockade and a postponement of nuclear talks. It was a wise decision. The “offer” is a transparent effort by Iran to buy time and alleviate the economic carnage inflicted by the U.S. blockade on an already cratering economy.
“They want to settle,” the president told Axios. “They don’t want me to keep the blockade. I don’t want to (lift the blockade), because I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Trump continued.
The Iranian leadership — whoever is in charge — has only one tactic in its arsenal: delays and time. But the idea that Iran can easily outlast the United States and Mr. Trump because the president has expressed an urgency to quickly end the war has always been dubious. And now Iran may not have as much time as anticipated.
The Wall Street Journal revealed Wednesday that Iranians are suffering relentlessly as unemployment rises drastically, business close and the cost of goods soars. The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is creating shortages and preventing the country from profiting off the oil exports that keep it afloat. More than 90 percent of Iran’s annual trade passes through the strait, meaning imports aren’t reaching port.
Iranian “authorities are confronting a level of hardship not seen in decades,” residents told the Journal. The blockade has dealt a “devastating blow” to Iran, leaving the country with a shortage of critical raw materials. An internet shutdown has crippled many online businesses. One economist told the paper that “Iran is at its weakest point.”
Meanwhile, a senior analyst at a commodities data company said there is “no evidence” any Iranian oil tankers have made it through the blockade. Absent any way to off-load its oil, Iran’s storage facilities are under increasing strain, which may eventually lead to a halt in production. The American and Israeli air campaigns during the first few weeks of the war hammered Iranian energy and other infrastructure, causing further chaos.
Yet as the Iranians are desperate to buy time on the one hand, they rattle sabers with the other. An Iranian senior security official told CNBC that there would be a “punishing response” should the United States not end the blockade. Mr. Trump should take that hollow threat as a clear indication the pressure is mounting in Tehran.
