I HAVE been saying here that Donald Trump IS stuck…
He evidently does NOT want to go back indiscriminate bombing of Iran….
Iran HAS launched attacks against The UAE today after saying it would back out of OPEC, the Oil consortium….
That has NOT gotten him anywhere….
And hurt his polling numbers….
And?
Has NOT gained him ANY other countries help in his predicament ….
Saying he has a means to open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ships traffic without Irans….YES….APPROVAL Is gonna be VERY Difficult….
Two US Registered ship’s did get thru the Strait…
They had 2 US Navy Arleigh Burke Destroyer’s with them…
Shipping firms WOULD rather pay Iran’s ‘protection money’ and have their ships pass by US Navy ships out to sea…
This War/Conflict is now beginning to hurt Middle Eastern countries that based their economies solely on oil revenue …The UAE move from OPEC signal’s moves away from just oil revenue….
Oil prices continue their climb UPWARD…..
Iran on Monday rejected a new U.S. effort to help free shipstrapped by the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to attack American warships or other vessels that tried to pass through the strategic waterway without Iran’s consent.
President Trump announced the plan on Sunday, but he did not provide details on how the United States would assist the trapped ships. The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, said on Monday that two U.S.-flagged ships had safely crossed the strait, but it was not clear whether they did so with American military escorts.
The rising tensions across the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit route for global oil, put the nearly month-old cease-fire between Iran and the United States on shakier ground.
In response to Mr. Trump’s new initiative, Ali Abdollahi, a top Iranian military commander, cautioned “all commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without coordination with the armed forces,” Iranian state media reported on Monday.
“We warn that any foreign armed force, especially the aggressive U.S. military, if they intend to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz, will be targeted and attacked,” Mr. Abdollahi said.
The U.S. effort was the latest attempt to break Iran’s grip over the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and much natural gas is normally shipped. The Iranian blockade has rattled global energy markets, leading the Trump administration to retaliate by imposing its own blockade on shipping into and out of Iranian ports.
Scattered incidents on Monday reflected the fragility of the truce.
For the first time since a U.S.-Iranian cease-fire was reached in early April, the United Arab Emirates said that four cruise missiles had been fired from Iran at Emirati territory. Three were intercepted and one fell in the sea, the Emirati authorities said.
Also on Monday, the Emirates accused Iran of launching a drone attack on an oil tanker owned by the Emirati state oil company, ADNOC, while it tried to transit through the Strait of Hormuz. And South Korea’s government said a cargo ship belonging to a South Korean company caught fire after an explosion in the strait.
There was no immediate response from Iranian officials. State media in Iran also claimed that the country’s military forces had fired warning shots at an American ship traversing the strait, although the U.S. military denied it.
Mr. Trump, for his part, warned that any Iranian interference in the operation to free stranded ships, named Project Freedom, would be dealt with “forcefully.” U.S. forces, including destroyers and some 15,000 personnel, were working to help the ships leave the area, the military said.
U.S. officials have offered little clarity as to how much protection they are actually offering to ships seeking to traverse the waterway, which is now littered with Iranian mines and menaced by Iranian forces.
The tensions led to new jitters in the oil market. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose almost 2 percent on Monday to about $110 a barrel. The price of oil has surged since the Iran war began two months ago.
The blockades of the Strait of Hormuz pose one of the biggest stumbling block in talks between the United States and Iran to end the war.
The cease-fire between the United States, Israel and Iran that went into effect last month was temporary: It only paused the war to allow for further negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program rather than conclusively resolve the conflict. Despite high-level meetings U.S.-Iran meetings in mid-April, those talks now appear to have stalled.
By vowing to free stranded ships in the strait, Mr. Trump may be trying to chip away at a big source of Iranian leverage in the negotiations to end the conflict — the ability to throttle global oil markets.
European countries, including Britain and France, have sought to find ways to ensure ships can freely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. But they have expressed little interest in joining the fray until after the war ends.
Mr. Trump has argued that they ought to help police the waterway immediately, which European leaders fear could draw them into the war…..
“Iranian Armed Forces will attack any foreign force, particularly the U.S. military, if it attempts to approach or enter the Strait of Hormuz,” said Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, a senior Iranian commander, according to a statement reported by Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency on Monday.
The United Arab Emirates on Monday accused Iran of a drone attack on a tanker affiliated with its state oil company, ADNOC, according to a UAE Foreign Ministry statement. The statement said the tanker was empty at the time.
Reopening the strait — a vital chokepoint for oil and gas shipments through which Iran has slowed traffic to a trickle, causing severe disruptions to the global economy — has been a central issue in the weeks of negotiations between Iran and the United States since they agreed to a ceasefire on April 7. The two sides have exchanged a number of proposals and held face-to-face talks in Pakistan, but they have failed to bridge considerable differences on key issues, including Iran’s nuclear program. Further complicating matters, Iran has insisted on using its control over the strait as leverage to demand the unfreezing of assets and war reparations.
Iran mined parts of the strait after the U.S. and Israel launched large-scale airstrikes on the country in late February. Since then, a handful of vessels have been allowed to transit, but they are required to coordinate with Iran, which has begun demanding tolls. Others have come under attack. Tehran has largely shut the waterway to traffic, cutting off roughly a fifth of global energy supplies, leading to energy shortages in many countries and skyrocketing prices elsewhere. The U.S. responded last month by placing an embargo on Iranian ports…..
Update …..
Bloomberg: “The US and Iran exchanged fire in the Persian Gulf in a flareup of violence on Monday that also drew in the United Arab Emirates, casting doubt on the fate of a four-week ceasefire.”
“The US military fought off attacks from Iranian drones, missiles and armed small boats as it facilitated the passage of two US-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper told reporters in a briefing on Monday.”
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