BREAKING: The United States and Iran each claim control over Hormuz | International
According to recent reports, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
The United States faces a dilemma towards Iran. Determined to show an image of strength, he maintains his pressure on the adversary in the Strait of Hormuz. But, unwilling to enter into new hostilities at the moment, he temporizes his enemy’s actions in the area and assures that, despite the Iranian missile launches, the fragile ceasefire agreed upon almost a month ago remains in place. Both Washington and Tehran assure, each on their own, that it is their forces that control this strategic bottleneck and that the other has no possibility of prevailing. Iran “knows what it has to do, but more importantly, it knows what it does not have to do” to violate the ceasefire that has been in force since April 8, President Donald Trump said this Tuesday from the Oval Office, while in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates denounced that its defense systems had had to intervene to intercept missiles and drones from Iran. A day earlier, that Gulf monarchy had also warned of an avalanche of projectiles coming from its neighbor and adversary. Tehran also fired on Monday to thwart the American attempt to break the blockade in the strait, the mission the United States calls Project Freedom. 1,550 merchant ships trappedWith this operation, the United States seeks to free the more than 1,550 merchant ships and 22,000 sailors from allied or neutral countries trapped in the Persian Gulf by the war, and whose living conditions are deteriorating as the conflict continues without any signs of an agreement that would allow the reopening of the strategic maritime crossing, despite the fact that Trump insists again and again that the talks taking place under the mediation of Pakistan “They are going very well” and Iran wants to reach an agreement. But it is not just about the release of the ships themselves. It is also a psychological war, in which each party wants to demonstrate that it dominates the strait and, therefore, has the winning card in that game, while avoiding an escalation that could lead to a resumption of attacks – something that is not convenient for either party today. Neither Iran wants to receive new bombings nor does the Trump Administration have a great appetite to continue a war that has left its arsenals at a minimum, has skyrocketed fuel prices and has left presidential popularity on the floor. The Iranians “do not control the Strait,” the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said early in the morning in a press conference at the Pentagon with the Chief of the General Staff, Dan Caine. Iran “is grasping at straws,” noted the top US military commander. But from the White House, Trump pointed out: “We don’t want to go and kill people. I don’t want to. It’s too hard.” And he insisted on demanding that Iran accept the United States’ conditions – above all, give up its nuclear program – and sign a peace agreement. “They should wave the white flag, the white flag of surrender,” the president maintained. Both sides have cards to play. The United States prevents the passage of ships from Iranian ports. “Our blockade is working, it’s like a steel barrier,” Trump boasted this Tuesday. “No one is going to challenge him.” But Iran clearly maintains its ability to limit access due to the maritime bottleneck it has imposed since the beginning of the war. And its attacks in the last two days, with speedboats and drones, make it clear that the United States does not dominate the strait, although it boasts that it has already been able to get two ships out of the quagmire. Although Trump, as he pointed out this Tuesday in the Oval Office, considers that the Iranian boats only launch “pellet.” Iran, for its part, has expanded the area it blocks to also include the United Arab Emirates in its siege, due to the “close cooperation of the United Arab Emirates with Israel and the United States against Iran,” as the regime has announced through its media. Tehran proclaims that it has expanded the scope of its sovereignty in the Strait of Hormuz with the aim of preventing the export of Emirati oil through the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, and has declared that “the United Arab Emirates is under a naval blockade by Iran,” reports Ali Falahi. Likewise, it is highlighted that “the port of Fujairah, from which up to one and a half million barrels of oil are exported per day, is currently within the scope of application of Iranian sovereignty in the Strait of Hormuz”, and it is added that “all tankers wishing to transport Emirati oil must obtain authorization from Iran”. Also, it is stated that “the enemy wanted to destroy the axis of the resistance, but it will be the Abraham Accords that will end up falling apart”, in reference to the peace pact signed between that Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf and Israel. New details about Project FreedomThe Pentagon provided new details on Tuesday about Project Freedom, which the United States describes as a partly diplomatic and partly military operation. According to Caine, destroyer ships equipped with guided missiles, as well as a hundred fighter planes and 15,000 soldiers, participate in it. These troops will not need to enter Iranian waters or airspace, according to Hegseth. Merchant ships guided by US troops “will see, hear and, frankly, feel our military power around them, at sea, in the air and by radio,” said the Chief of Staff, who confirmed that this Tuesday US-flagged merchant ships have already transited through the area, and “we anticipate that more will transit further north in the Gulf in the coming days.” The head of the Pentagon has also specified that the operation, in any case, will be temporary. And the United States hopes that the rest of the world will eventually take on the task of guaranteeing the free flow of trade through that strategic passage, through which 20% of the world’s gas and oil and a third of fertilizers and other basic products circulate for the global economy.
What This Means:
This report highlights significant developments in the international landscape that could reshape diplomatic relations in the coming weeks.
This is part of a broader trend that has been reshaping the geopolitical landscape in recent months.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.