~ THE STRAIT IS OPEN ~
John Hinderacker, Powerline
…and President Trump says a deal with Iran is at hand:
Iran has opened the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial vessels, its foreign minister has announced.
Abbas Araghchi said that the key oil artery would be “completely open” for the remaining period of the ceasefire in Lebanon, which expires on April 26.
In response, Donald Trump thanked the Islamic Republic, but insisted the US navy blockade of ships entering or leaving Iranian ports would remain in place.
“The naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran only, until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete,” he said, referring to a likely peace deal.
“This process should go very quickly in that most of the points are already negotiated,” he added.
One report suggested that in-person talks could resume in Pakistan as soon as Sunday.
The price of crude oil plummeted immediately after Iran’s announcement, and stock markets soared. President Trump says that Iran has agreed to hand over its nuclear materials, although the details are apparently not yet decided.
Meanwhile, European leaders are looking rather silly. They have gathered in Paris for talks over the Strait:
Germany and France are at odds over whether to cut Donald Trump out of patrolling the Strait of Hormuz once the war in Iran ends.
Before a summit to draw up plans for a naval coalition to reopen the waterway, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, insisted he wanted to “discuss the participation of US armed forces” in the mission.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, however, wants to exclude “belligerent countries” – the United States, Israel and Iran – from any deployment.
Planning is under way to build a “coalition of the willing” to send warships and other mine-clearing vessels under British and French leadership to the Strait of Hormuz.
They are a little late, but if, going forward, they are able to muster a few ships in the Gulf, fine. I am not holding my breath in the meantime, and the idea of France “cutting us out” of anything is absurd.
What did the trick, evidently, was our naval blockade of Iran’s ports. The blockade quickly brought Iran to the brink of economic collapse. It appears that the IRGC is giving in, in hopes of being able to hang on to power.
What we really want is freedom for Iran’s 92 million people–an end to Islamic tyranny. The agreement now being negotiated presumably won’t include scheduling of elections by the regime. We can hope that the conflict that is now apparently ending has discredited Iran’s regime to the point that Iran’s people will be able to rebel successfully, but that isn’t likely as long as the IRGC has all the guns.
