Trump Signals a War’s Endgame Is at Hand

As President Trump says a deal with Iran can be reached in days, he is celebrating the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. He also claims the mullahs agree to hand over their enriched uranium, even as he disappoints the Israelis by blocking their efforts to further degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities.Mr. Trump’s frantic postings on Friday followed conversations with unidentified Tehran regime officials. Confidantes, including Senator Lindsey Graham, claim that the president screamed so loudly at his interlocutors that he lost his voice. After three days of an American blockade that prevented Iranian ships from traveling in or out of the Persian Gulf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of the Islamic Republic announced the Strait of Hormuz open. Crude oil dipped to $80 a barrel. Stock markets soared, with the Dow Jones inching ever closer to the 40,000 pre-Epic Fury mark. Tehran’s move contradicted doomsayers who long claimed Iran was winning the war with its assault on the world’s economy. It is “more proof that the press and markets got everything so wrong about this war, and continue to,” a top Iran watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, tells The New York Sun. Mr. Araghchi said the opening of the strait is temporary and conditional, but Mr. Trump wrote on TruthSocial that “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World.”The president added that the American blockade of Iranian traffic in the Gulf will be maintained. Spokesmen for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps countered that if the American blockade remains, Iran’s closure of Hormuz will resume. Beyond Hormuz, Mr. Trump claimed that Iran agreed to hand over to America the remains of its enriched uranium, which he calls “nuclear dust.” After the strikes on various nuclear sites in June, some 900 lbs of uranium enriched to a near-bomb level at 60 percent purity — enough to fuel 11 bombs — is believed to remain in Iran. Mr. Trump denied reports that Washington agreed to pay Iran $20 billion in return for handing over the remains of the nuclear fuel. “The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘dust,’ created by our great B-2 bombers,” he wrote on TruthSocial. “No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.”The Iranian regime was able to claim victory in one of its demands, though. After a two-week ceasefire was announced on April 8, Tehran demanded to link the opening of Hormuz to ending Israel’s assault on the Islamic Republic’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. A 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon was indeed announced on Thursday, to Israel’s chagrin. “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon,” Mr. Araghchi wrote on X Friday, “the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire.”Mr. Trump claimed no Iran-Lebanon linkage existed. Yet he sharply warned Israel not to violate the ceasefire. The nuclear deal with Iran is “in no way subject to Lebanon,” the president wrote. “But the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezbollah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough.”Israelis fear the ban violates a written ceasefire agreement, which specifies that the Israel Defense Forces would be permitted to hit Hezbollah if attacked. The IDF brass, reportedly, believe that with additional days of strikes they would significantly degrade Hezbollah’s missile arsenal. For now the IDF remains in control of a 5-mile-deep area inside Lebanon’s territory, meant to prevent Hezbollah from threatening Israel’s northern communities. Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he invited Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Michel Aoun of Lebanon for a meeting at the White House as early as next week. Washington is reportedly preparing a new strategy with General Aoun, according to which Americans will assist the Lebanese Armed Forces in the effort to disarm Hezbollah. Mr. Aoun claimed on Friday that disarming Hezbollah would only begin once Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon’s territory. Jerusalem, though, says it would maintain a presence in southern Lebanon as long as the Beirut-controlled LAF fails to disarm the terror group. At Mr. Trump’s request, “We will give an opportunity to promote an integrated political and military solution with the Lebanese government,” Mr. Netanyahu said Friday.

Trump Signals a War’s Endgame Is at Hand

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