Is the Strait of Hormuz open or closed? The Iranian thugocracy has sold the opening of the Strait to us twice, first in the April 8 ceasefire agreement and again, most recently, in the Memorandum of Understanding. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the thugs are reaping huge and immediate finanicial gains.
Based on President Trump’s public comments, one may infer that the many concessions made to the thugs in the MOU aimed at freeing up the Strait for safe passage. However, that doesn’t appear to be what the thugs have in mind. Indeed, the thugs continue to test Trump.
General Jack Keane’s Institute for the Study of War publishes an extremely useful daily Iran Update. Yesterday afternoon’s edition reports in the first paragraph (emphasis in original, footnotes omitted):
Iran is attacking and threatening vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to advance its objective of establishing control over the waterway. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy attacked a vessel approximately eight nautical miles southeast of Dahit, Oman, on June 25. The attack came after the IRGC Navy issued a warning demanding that vessels coordinate with Iranian authorities and use the Iranian-approved traffic separation scheme. The IRGC Navy warned that traffic outside these routes is “very dangerous” and implicitly threatened vessels that do not comply. Iran likely seeks to use force and coercion to compel vessels to use its illegitimate traffic separation scheme and implicitly acknowledge Iranian control over the strait, which is a key objective for the regime.
Read the whole thing here and draw your own conclusion.
