Trump sees blockade extension as best option for forcing Iran back to the negotiating table

 

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office on Wednesday. 

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has told his top advisers in recent days he wants the US naval blockade of Iranian ports to continue, sources familiar with the talks said, and his team has begun laying the groundwork for such an extension, including a longer-term closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The president, for now, is digging into a strategy designed to inflict as much economic pain on Iran as possible in the hopes of forcing Tehran back to the negotiating table without having to resume military strikes, the sources said.

But the strategy for dealing with a war that has now stretched into its ninth week is not without risk for Trump, who once predicted the conflict would last no longer than six weeks.

The strait’s closure has driven up gas prices, contributing to Americans’ weariness of the ongoing war and sending Trump’s approval ratings, especially on his handling of the economy, to new lows. And the cost of the conflict is adding up — a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday the US has spent $25 billion on the Iran war so far. All of that is feeding GOP anxiety about the party’s prospects in November elections.

Nor is it clear this strategy will work — Iran has previously demonstrated an ability to withstand debilitating economic pain without capitulating to American demands.

Still, Trump appears intent on tightening the grip on Iran’s economy until Tehran concedes to his red lines on nuclear enrichment, believing, in his words, the US holds “all the cards.”

“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing. They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it is going to be worse for them. They can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told Axios in a phone interview Wednesday.

Later, in the Oval Office, he seemed to hint the US was ready for a long haul, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins the Iran war could end “on a similar timetable” as the war in Ukraine – a more than four-year conflict that shows no signs of abating anytime soon.

American officials have reviewed intelligence suggesting Iran’s economy can only survive for another few weeks, if not days, before the strain of the blockade forces its collapse, two people familiar with the talks said, pointing to Tehran’s struggles to store unsold oil.

Trump has suggested it won’t take long for the excess oil to cause permanent damage to Iran’s energy infrastructure.

“What happens is, that line explodes from within, both mechanically and in the earth,” he said Sunday on Fox News. “Something happens where it just explodes. They say they only have about three days left before that happens. And when it explodes, you can never rebuild it the way it was.”