ایران

Any postwar system must preserve the “transit passage” regime, enable ships to safely resume use of the original IMO route, and reject mandatory fees, veto rights, or other Iranian tactics for exerting permanent control over one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints.

Given the country’s difficult experience during the Iran war, Washington should offer sustained political attention, practical assistance, and an expanded vision for the partnership’s future.

Regardless of where the current round of escalation goes, Tehran will continue using ceasefires, front-loaded sanctions waivers, and tit-for-tat attack cycles as opportunities to reconstitute its forces until Washington imposes hard, verifiable limits on its fastest-recovering asymmetric capabilities.

High-profile funeral events in Iran provided an opportunity for the Houthis to pressure Saudi Arabia, and for Tehran to demonstrate support to its partner and signal it has cards to play at another maritime chokepoint.

Even if Washington resumes negotiations, Tehran will keep sending its proxies to commit attacks, buy weapons, and establish sham charities on the continent, so European governments must crack down harder.

Constricted traffic patterns, escalating warnings, uncertain mine threats, and a new drone attack all suggest that Tehran has no intention of willingly going back to business as usual in the Strait of Hormuz, regardless of diplomatic breakthroughs.

Although claimed compromises by some of Iran’s proxies are unlikely to result in actual disarmament anytime soon, Washington can still erode Tehran’s illicit financial networks by carefully exploiting the militias’ desire to be treated as normal political actors.

Although the United States and the world needed shipping to resume through the Strait of Hormuz, negotiating a nuclear agreement is not a postwar priority.

Although the U.S. military approach to the region has delivered many operational successes, the Iran war has exposed its serious shortcomings and created new challenges.