U.S. President Donald Trump told his aides that he expects to end the war with Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The Wall Street Journal reported this, citing sources in the White House.
According to the newspaper, Trump and his aides concluded that an operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could drag on and extend beyond the conflict period that the U.S. president had previously estimated at four to six weeks.
The White House chief, the report says, decided that Washington should focus on the main military objectives: weakening Iran’s navy and destroying the Islamic republic’s missile program.
After that, WSJ writes, Trump plans to end combat operations and apply diplomatic pressure on Tehran to restore free trade. If that fails, Washington will seek to have allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf take the lead in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the newspaper’s sources said.
Trump and his team believe, the article says, that the strait is far more important for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia than for the United States. In recent weeks, according to WSJ, Washington has been asking allies to prepare for negotiations or operations that would ensure the strait is reopened.
Last week, sources told The Washington Post that the Pentagon was preparing for multiweek ground operations in Iran. Axios sources, for their part, said the White House had considered plans for the occupation or blockade of Iran’s Khark Island in order to force the Islamic republic to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway through which about a quarter of global seaborne oil cargo and one-fifth of liquefied natural gas supplies pass. After the start of the war by Israel and the United States against Iran, shipping through it virtually stopped because of attacks by the Islamic republic. On March 31, Iran announced the introduction of a fee for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.