Trump cannot freeze the Iran war on his own terms

On Monday, US President Donald Trump appeared to rule out another major offensive against Iran, at least for now. After speaking with Qatar’s prime minister, he said Washington was maintaining the “status quo”.

In a Truth Social post, he said Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait favoured continuing the naval blockade and “Operation Iron Gate”. Further escalation was “quite unlikely”, he suggested, although US forces remained “locked and loaded”.

Days earlier, Trump had been considering new strikes. Now he appears to favour keeping Iran under economic and military pressure without risking another major war.

The flaw is obvious: Washington can choose to maintain a blockade. It cannot decide how long Tehran will tolerate it.