The United States will be “hangin’ around” in the Strait of Hormuz to “make sure that everything goes well” as the strategic waterway opens up following the declaration of a Middle East ceasefire, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
Everyone has “had enough” of war and it is time for peace, U.S. President Donald Trump declared overnight after Iran pledged to observe an 11th-hour temporary ceasefire. The ceasefire announcement surfaced about an hour before Trump’s Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or see its civilisation destroyed in a hail of bombs. Writing on his Truth Social platform, President Trump hailed the economic opportunities of flowing trade and post-war reconstruction, stating: “There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds… Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East”.
The ceasefire is intended to be time-limited to two weeks, giving the sides breathing space for reported in-person talks to settle the needs and demands of those involved. Iran has reportedly put forward a ten-point negotiation position and the U.S. its own 15-point plan.
What precisely is in these plans is unclear. The U.S. 15-point document has been on the table for weeks, but what precisely it contains is unclear. Iranian state media has published a precis of their own 10-point plan but several versions with distinct differences in content exist, and it is by no means clear these points are actually the same as what was sent privately to U.S. negotiators through Pakistan.
Nevertheless, it is clear that averting Iran ever becoming nuclear armed, and ensuring the global trade in oil continues to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, are relatively top of the deck in terms of U.S. war aims. President Trump made clear the United States was going to continue to be a regional presence to ensure future stability in his message, stating: “The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz… and just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well.”
That the U.S. has declared itself ready for this mission is something of a rebuke to America’s global allies, including the United Kingdom, the European NATO states, and Asian states like South Korea and Japan, which President Trump has repeatedly told to be ready to police the Strait.
Exactly what the future of the Strait and the broader Persian Gulf looks like is unclear. In recent weeks, Iran has made a show of allowing a small number of non-Western cargo ships pass its shores in return for cash payments, reportedly around $2 million for a single crude oil carrier. While a small payment compared to the value of ship and cargo, this could add up to revenue worth billions of dollars a year to the Iranian government.
Critics have already emerged to state that if this system survives the negotiation period now beginning – and this is far from clear – it resembles a strategic defeat for the United States. Yet the Trump-directed military strikes have focused on Iranian military facilities and have avoided the underpinnings of Iran’s economy, such as its energy system and oil infrastructure, which Washington has made clear leaves Tehran the carrot of a route to engagement with the global economy and recovery post-war. Conceivably, allowing Iran to take a cut of passing oil trade in the future gives it more incentive to engage with the global community, given its ongoing prosperity would be tied to the Strait remaining open.
As previously reported, Pakistan had said it anticipated the second stage of the peace process – in-person talks after a ceasefire – to last up to three weeks. It is now thought talks could start within days and U.S. Vice President JD Vance will be personally present in Pakistan.
President Trump quickly followed up the ceasefire with other actions on Wednesday morning. On the matter of Iran’s longstanding nuclear ambitions, President Trump stated the U.S. would not be working “closely with Iran”, that there will be no enrichment of Uranium, and that the remains of Iran’s previous stockpiles of material would now be excavated and removed from the country. Any country attempting to sell weapons to Iran would be hit with an immediate heavy tariff, he further stated.
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