LOS ANGELES (OC).–President Donald Trump enforced today the blockade on Iranian ports disabling a merchant ship that tried to defy the U.S. blockade. Iran accuses the U.S. of violating the Apri. 17 ceasefire agreement when it routinely attacks commercial ships, largely from Arab Gulf States, from tranisiting the Strait of Hormuz, a recognized international waterway. Iran thinks it can play hardball with Trump who’s given the mullah regime a fair, balanced and equitqble peace deal to end the 13-week war that watched Iran’s military, natvy, nuclear and missile capabability sharply degraded.during active military operations. Trump has recently bombed mine-alying boats in the south and a missile launcher plant, defying the ceasefire but sending the mullah regime a loud message that they’re dangerously close to Trump resuming the war, this time hitting Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Iran’s mullahs have been quibbling over Trump demand to surrender its 1,000 pound stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, something they say is Iran;s “inalienable” right as a sovereign nations. Trump has vowed that, above all else, he will not permit Iran to turn that fissile material into an A-bomb, knowing how the mullah regime would use it to blackmail the rest of the Middle East. Today’s military actions disabling the Gambia-flagged Lian Star in the Gulf of Oman lets Iran know that they’re within a razor’s edge of restarting the war. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and others have tired to get both sides to end the fighting and complete a peace deal. Trump has been a tough negotiator refusing to give up on stopping Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, something Iran considers a national right. More military action only postpones the inevitable of both sides giving in.
Trump has yet to sign off on a 60-day extension to to the original April 17 ceasefire because he doesn’t know whether Iran has agreed to allow the Strait of Hormus managed by an international body government to laws of the sea. Iran stated only days ago that the Strait of Hormuz was Iran’s sovereign territory and could charge whatever it wanted for safe passage to transit to most narrow part of the Persian Gulf. Trump needs an ironclad guarantee that Ira’s Republican Guard Corps [IRGC] will not longer control passage through the Hormuz Strait. Only recently, Iran was blackmailing shipper to pay a $2 million transit fee, something objected to by Trump and all other countries in the region. So, until the agreement to open up the Strait of Hormuz has been signed off by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Trump has no reason to sign the agreement.
Iran still instists that it controls all commercial shipping through the Hormuz Strait, waring shippers that they place their safety into jeopardy without Iranian approval. “Any vilation of these regulations will place the security of their passage at serious risk,” Iran joint military command said today to State TV, warning that all vessels would be targeted. Before Trump signs any extension to the ceasefire, he wants Iran to stop threatening commercial shipping in the international waterway. Iran’s insistence that it controls the Strait of Hormuz stems from operating as a rogue terrorist state, taking liberties that the rules-based order doesn’t do. Trump knows in negotiating with Iran, he’s trying to cut a deal with a rogue terrorist state not inclined to follow an international rules. So, when it comes to signing any deal, Trump finds himself in limbo.
Trump had many objectives in going to war Feb. 28 with Iran, including neutralizing what’s left of Iran’s military, finishing the job from last year’s 12-day war where the U.S. and Israel did everything possible to neutralize Iran’s nuclear enrichment capability. Whether they succeed then or no, the U.S. and Israel decided to go back in in the lates skirmish trying to finish what they started last year. Trump wanted regime change but found out the Iranian people have no coherent opposition, certainly not with the IRGC and Basij militia policing the streets, cracking down on anything resembling street protests. Over 40,000 protesters were arrested and excecuted by Iranian authorities in Dec. 2025 an Jan 2026. Trump realized that ending the radical mullah regime is a long-term prospect, not something that can happen anytime soon. Trump must now get his best deal.
When it comes to what’s left of Iran’s nuclear program, Iran, so far, has refused to turn over its1,000 poind stockpile of 60% enriched uranium. Iran only needs 3.5% enrichment to run its electricity grid, realizing the 60% stockpile can only be for one thing: Building an A-bomb. Trump has said he’s in no rush to sign any deal with Iran, instead potetntially restarting the war to hit Iran even harder than before. Iran’s refusal to cut a deal with Trump puts it in a dangerous place, pressing Trump to take more military action. Trump’s options are limited because even if he strikes Iran’s energy infrastructure, it doesn’t mean that Iran would capitulate on any of the key issues Trump seeks for peace. So, compromise ins the only way out for Trump knowing there’s no military solution to the Iran War. Recent military strikes by Trump hopes to show he means business.
\About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
