Waterway once carrying 20% of traded oil at center of dispute
WASHINGTON — Reaching an agreement with Iran that reopens the Strait of Hormuz may require President Donald Trump to do something uncharacteristic of his style: give ground, The Associated Press reported.
Before the war began, the strait — a Persian Gulf waterway vital to the global economy — carried 20% of the world’s traded oil. Both sides say an agreement is near, but the Trump administration has ruled out any arrangement that consolidates Iran’s control over the passage, including the collection of transit fees by Tehran, the AP reported.
Any concession would be difficult for the Republican president, who has insisted there is nothing true in reports of his declining popularity, a slowing economy and shrinking stockpiles of key military weapons after the war with Iran that he began together with Israel more than five months ago, according to the AP.
Eliot Cohen, who served as a counselor at the State Department in the George W. Bush administration, said Trump divides the world between winners and losers and that the image of being a loser would be intolerable to him.
Control of the strait has been the point of friction in the negotiations, and the administration’s rejection of any deal that would cement Iran’s hold on the waterway — including transit fees — leaves the path to a reopening agreement unresolved even as both sides describe one as close.
The effort to reopen the strait builds on weeks of Iran-Oman diplomacy over the waterway, which MSI previously reported on.