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WASHINGTON \u2014<\/p>\nA deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz may require a compromise from Trump<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014<\/p>\n
To reach a deal with Iran that reopens the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump may need to compromise. <\/p>\n
The sticking point has been over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. While both sides say a deal is close, the Trump administration has ruled out any arrangement that would cement Iran\u2019s grip over the Persian Gulf waterway, including Tehran charging fees.<\/p>\n
But Iran has insisted on some measure of control, saying the strait will not go back to being an open international waterway as it was before the war. Despite thousands of U.S. strikes, Iran can still fire drones and missiles at vessels, giving it a chokehold over commercial shipping.<\/p>\n
Video below: Who’s really behind the depleted U.S. military stockpile?<\/p>\n
Yielding ground to Iran could be difficult for the president, even if the conflict keeps gasoline prices elevated and poses problems for Republicans in November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
But David Schenker, a former State Department official in the first Trump administration, said the increasing economic pressure may actually prompt Trump to compromise on the strait, even if it’s likely to have profound implications on global trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a lot of spin both ways, but my guess is that the president has tipped his hand as to the urgency for him of resolving the crisis,\u201d said Schenker, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. \u201cThis is a concession he may very well be willing to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump says weapons stockpiles are \u2018a little bit tighter\u2019<\/p>\n
Trump, however, has so far conceded little about the war.<\/p>\n
He posted on social media Thursday that the U.S. military still has \u201cmassive amounts\u201d of weapons and that large amounts are being manufactured. He threatened jail time for the alleged \u201cleakers\u201d of information on the nation’s weapons stockpiles.<\/p>\n
Trump was referencing a Washington Post story that reported his frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the shrinking inventories of advanced weapons, as the Cabinet had gathered at Camp David last week.<\/p>\n
A senior administration official said there had been a \u201crobust and healthy\u201d discussion about Iran in the Cabinet meeting and would not provide additional details except to say there had not been a “knock-down, drag-out fight\u201d over the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.<\/p>\n
Experts say the U.S. military is running short on weapons like advanced missile interceptors that have defended American troops from Iranian attacks. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, has released reports on declining inventories based on budget documents and other public information.<\/p>\n
When asked later about weapons stockpiles, Trump told reporters that \u201cwe need more all the time.\u201d He claimed that certain kinds of munitions are in \u201cvirtually unlimited supply\u201d and others are \u201ca little bit tighter.\u201d He didn’t offer more specifics.<\/p>\n
He insisted that \u201cwe\u2019re in great shape. But, with that being said, we always want more. We have to have more,\u201d noting that the military could tap into U.S. supplies of munitions around the world if needed.<\/p>\n
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill this week, meeting privately with Republican senators as he makes the case for billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending as part of a major GOP budget package.<\/p>\n
Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot, said the weapons shortfall stems from a war that lacked a well-defined goal and strategy beyond striking more than 14,000 targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy contention on this is, if you knew what the goal is, maybe the target list would have been 500 targets. Maybe it would have been 200 targets,” Kelly said, adding the Pentagon wants “billions and billions of dollars to fix their self-inflicted problem.\u201d <\/p>\n
A deal over the Strait of Hormuz could hinge on fees<\/p>\n
U.S. and Iranian officials say they are close to reaching an agreement to reopen the strait. That is even as the U.S. military insists the strait is open through a route it helps oversee near Oman\u2019s coast, saying this week that it \u201cremains free and open for all commercial vessels seeking to transit the international waterway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potential deal is being portrayed as a temporary solution to the dispute over the strait, and that it would allow ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through an Omani-controlled route.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has said repeatedly that it is strongly opposed to any arrangement that would see Iran charge fees.<\/p>\n
Any temporary routes through the waterway will not have tolls, charges or other impediments, according to a U.S. official not authorized to comment publicly who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity. The official said Trump\u2019s preferred choice is diplomacy and he \u201cholds all the cards\u201d in dealing with Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A deal with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz may require a compromise from Trump WASHINGTON \u2014 To…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[5309,20606,14085,989,687,147,7207,1611,102,34,12339,31030,712,213,1287,14658,150,7732,101,445,392,66994],"class_list":["post-239648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-commercial-vessels","tag-compromise","tag-deal","tag-diplomacy","tag-drones","tag-economy","tag-fees","tag-gasoline-prices","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-midterms","tag-military-spending","tag-missiles","tag-oil","tag-polling","tag-republican","tag-shipping","tag-shnd","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trade","tag-trump","tag-weapons-stockpiles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117053675752426853","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}