Strait flush ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775731706_979_.jpeg\")
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A naval vessel sails on March 1 in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which much of the world\u2019s oil and gas passes.<\/p>\n
(Sahar al Attar \/ AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s main conditions for a truce were the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and, through negotiations, a definitive end to Iran\u2019s nuclear work. But Tehran offered no sign of relenting on its enrichment program, and by Wednesday afternoon, had warned that tanker traffic would halt through the strait until Israel paused its attacks in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
It was the clearest demonstration yet of Iran\u2019s emboldened position to use the strait \u2014 treated for decades as a free and open international waterway \u2014 as a bargaining tool, threatening its closure over any number of demands, or else implementing a toll system as reparations for its war damage.<\/p>\n
By Friday, U.S. negotiators flying to Islamabad for talks can expect Iran\u2019s hold on the strait to weigh against all other priorities, including American demands that Iran relinquish its right to enrich uranium, the source of decades of tortured diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n
The White House said that traffic had increased through the strait on Wednesday. But it also described reports of its closure, briefed to a displeased president, as \u201ccompletely unacceptable,\u201d serving as a stark reminder in the West Wing of the new world its war had brought.<\/p>\n
James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the ceasefire framework \u201ca foreign policy disaster\u201d for the United States that revealed Iranian leverage long predicted by independent experts and intelligence analysts.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s assume the ceasefire actually takes hold \u2014 and as far as I can see, it hasn\u2019t done so far,\u201d Acton said. \u201cIran has the upper hand, and frankly, it\u2019s not close.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe negotiations are likely to focus on opening the Strait of Hormuz, which is clearly Trump\u2019s top goal, not Iran\u2019s nuclear program,\u201d he added. \u201cBecause Iran has demonstrated it can close the strait \u2014 and inflict large economic costs on the U.S. and large political costs on Trump \u2014 it now has plenty of leverage over the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"White](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775731706_326_.jpeg\")
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Wednesday. Leavitt spoke to reporters on a range of topics including a two-week ceasefire deal between the U.S., Iran and Israel.<\/p>\n
(Anna Moneymaker \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Unclear terms<\/p>\n
The Trump administration reportedly urged two allies of Tehran \u2014 China and Pakistan \u2014 to pressure the Iranians into a ceasefire ahead of a Tuesday evening deadline, self-imposed by Trump, to escalate the conflict. The resulting truce was described not in a shared statement among the warring parties, but in separate, differing social media posts that all but guaranteed misinterpretation between the two sides.<\/p>\n
A statement from the Pakistanis, who have helped mediate the talks, said the ceasefire extended to hostilities in Lebanon. The Israeli statement said it did not; Trump\u2019s post omitted any mention of Lebanon at all. <\/p>\n
But the president\u2019s statement did say that a 10-point plan from Iran could serve as the basis for negotiations over a long-term truce going forward. The White House was forced to walk that back Wednesday afternoon, claiming that Iran had presented its diplomats with another, secret 10-point plan substantially revised from those detailed in the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put forward a more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the president and his team,\u201d White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. \u201cThe idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
In social media posts and interviews with select reporters on Wednesday, Trump appeared to suggest exactly that \u2014 floating sanctions relief for Tehran and proposing a plan to share revenue from a Strait of Hormuz toll system that could raise global oil prices while directly funding the Iranian government.<\/p>\n
Limited achievements<\/p>\n
Experts agree that the U.S.-Israeli campaign succeeded in significantly degrading Iran\u2019s drone and ballistic missile infrastructure. But in a statement on Wednesday, Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said any deal between Washington and Tehran had to include structural limits on those programs \u2014 suggesting concern in Israel that Iran could reconstitute its military within a matter of years.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s continued attacks on its neighbors Wednesday, its downing of American aircraft last week, and its retention of its nuclear material have raised doubts among U.S. allies about whether Washington\u2019s military capabilities can deliver on its promises.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is less respect for what the United States \u2014 and Trump in particular \u2014 can accomplish, be it through military force or diplomacy, and for the strategic thinking that underlies U.S. policy,\u201d said Patrick Clawson, director of the Iran program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. \u201cThese attitudes are even stronger in Europe, Russia and China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s military weaknesses have been uncovered as well. Few of its missiles and drones inflicted physical damage throughout Israel and the Arab world. <\/p>\n
Yet the psychological impact \u2014 on local populations, on the economy of metropolitan Dubai, on the commercial shipping sector and the oil market \u2014 has proven Iran is capable of exacting greater pain than its conventional military capabilities would suggest.<\/p>\n
Whether the United States can return the Strait of Hormuz to its status before the war, as a free and open waterway, may depend on longstanding allies that Trump has ostracized over the course of the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe launched a war that affected the rest of the world, with little consideration for its effects,\u201d said Dennis Ross, a veteran diplomat on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who served in the George H.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you berate allies and leave them out but expect them to be there when you need them, you discover that you don\u2019t have them,\u201d Ross added. \u201cNo one is going to assume that the U.S. is more reliable after this.\u201d<\/p>\n
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