An expert was appalled on Monday after President Donald Trump told one of his aides that he is considering ending the war in Iran without requiring the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened.
The Iranian regime has effectively blocked access to the Strait of Hormuz to U.S. and Israeli ships since the war in Iran began in late February. The waterway accounts for 20% of the global energy trade, and the move caused energy prices to skyrocket in the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is mulling quitting the military campaign in Iran and leaving the Strait of Hormuz closed, citing “administration officials.”
“In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks,” the report reads in part. “He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.”
Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told the outlet that Trump’s idea is “unbelievably irresponsible.”
“Energy markets are inherently global, and there is no possibility of insulating the U.S. from the economic damage that is already occurring and will become exponentially worse if the closure of the Strait continues,” she said.
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