THE TELEGRAPH: Iran’s leaders will not be threatened into relaxing their hold on the Strait of Hormuz. The president will have to break it for them
It cannot have been part of America’s plan that on day 23 of this war, Donald Trump should still be issuing furious threats and ultimatums to Iran’s regime.
By now, he must have believed that the Islamic Republic would either have been overthrown or so bludgeoned by American and Israeli firepower that its surviving leaders would be imploring him for terms.
Instead, the reality is closer to being the other way round. Incredibly, it is Mr Trump who now finds himself making ever more fevered demands for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The reason why he has landed himself in this invidious position is that his administration failed to foresee the blindingly obvious: that Iran’s regime, once backed into a corner and compelled to fight for its life, would retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz and firing missiles at America’s allies in the Gulf.
Why else would Iran have spent decades amassing the biggest arsenal of ballistic missiles in the Middle East?
The commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – now the de facto rulers of Iran – always knew that their greatest strategic asset was the power given to them by Iran’s geography to, in extremis, wreck the global economy. » | David Blair | Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator | Sunday, March 22, 2026
Trump is an arrogant, incompetent, cruel, and know-nothing president. He should be kicked out of office forthwith. — © Mark Alexander
