America Prepares Military Options Even as Trump Says Iran Is ‘Begging’ for a Deal

President Trump’s deadline for the Islamic Republic to finalize a war-ending deal expires Friday. It might be extended, but while the president says Iran is “begging to make a deal,” America and Israel have military options on tap if diplomacy fails. Mr. Trump signaled he might compromise by allowing Iran a measure of control over the Hormuz Strait, where 20 percent of the global oil supplies pass. The Iranians are demanding a $2 million fee for every ship traveling through that naval chokehold. The president disclosed, though, that the “gift” that earlier in the week convinced him that negotiations can be serious, was that Iran granted a free passage through Hormuz for 10 Pakistani oil tankers. Should Iran then be able to dictate who can, or cannot, go through? Mr. Trump was uncommitted. “Well, should they be able to or they shouldn’t be able to, but they’re doing it a little bit,” he told a reporter during a televised Cabinet meeting Thursday. Then again, he added, “their capability is a lot less than it was two weeks ago, and with every week and every day, frankly, it gets less and less. All I can tell you is they’re begging to make a deal.”Pakistan denied on Thursday reports that direct talks between American and Iranian officials would take place at Islamabad. Vice President Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son in law, Jared Kushner, are charged with steering the negotiations. Mr. Witkoff confirmed that America gave Pakistani mediators a 15-point plan for resolving the dispute. “Mr. Witkoff and JD and Jared will tell me whether or not they think it’s going along, and if it’s not going along maybe not,” Mr. Trump said. Thousands of troops are on their way to the Gulf, indicating that the Pentagon has contingency plans in case diplomacy fails. “We pray for a deal, and we welcome a deal, and we have the ultimate deal maker to make it happen,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in the Cabinet meeting. “But in the meantime, as I said yesterday, the department of war will continue negotiating on bombs. War is negotiation by other means.”Mr. Hegseth also confirmed that an Israeli airstrike killed the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy, Alireza Tangsiri, and several of his lieutenants on Thursday. Tangsiri led the IRGC’s mining of the Hormuz Strait and its attacks on ships there. Some 3,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and two Marine Expeditionary Units are on their way to the Gulf. In addition, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates increasingly indicate they might join the battle. Could they send troops to help America capture key islands in the Hormuz Strait?The greater and lesser Tunb islands near the mouth of the 21-mile-wide Hormuz Strait are controlled by Iran, but claimed by the UAE. Capturing those, as well Qeshm, Larak, and Abu Musa islands might end Iran’s control over Hormuz. Up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil, the country’s main cash cow, is exported through Kharg Island. Taking that island could deal a major blow to the regime’s ability to finance the war. Alternatively, troops can locate and extract, with the aid of specially trained technicians, the remaining enriched uranium Iran possesses. Up to 450 kg of uranium at 60 percent purity, which can fuel up to 11 nuclear bombs with little additional enrichment, survived last June’s attack. “Based on some intelligence reports, Iran’s enemies are preparing to occupy one of the Iranian islands with support from one of the regional countries,” Tehran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote on X Thursday. “Our forces are monitoring all enemy movements, and if they take any step, all the vital infrastructure of that regional country will be targeted with relentless, unceasing attacks.”Mr. Ghalibaf, considered the top remaining decision maker at Tehran, is reportedly negotiating indirectly with Mr. Trump’s envoys. He and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were reportedly targeted for killing by Israel before Pakistan intervened with Mr. Trump. Although the Israel Defense Forces knew their location, plans for a deadly strike were reportedly scrapped at the last moment. While these reports are unverified, they add a highly personal incentive for the Iranian officials to accept some or all of Mr. Trump’s 15 points. “They now have a chance to make a deal, but it’s up to them,” the president said.

America Prepares Military Options Even as Trump Says Iran Is ‘Begging’ for a Deal

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