Did Trump make a bad mistake? Iran has these 3 aces up its sleeve

President of the United States Donald Trump believes economic pressure will force Iran to capitulate. News channel CNN by However, Trump may be underestimating Iran’s resilience.

The United States blockaded the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian ports on Monday after peace talks between the two countries failed to produce results over the weekend.

Now the threat is that the world economy will go into a downward spiral and, for example, the prices of fuel and food will rise significantly in the United States as well.

Rising prices are poison for the Trump administration, which fears defeat in the crucial midterm elections this fall. Economic reasons strongly guide Americans’ voting behavior.

Middle East politics expert Hasan Alhasan also estimates that Iran may have a better ability to withstand a blockade than Trump believes.

According to Alhasan, Iran could seek to increase oil and gas exports via alternative routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

Alternative routes could include transportation via pipelines to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia, or oil export through the Neka oil terminal located in the Caspian Sea.

“Iran could also increase fuel smuggling through its long land border with Pakistan, or circumvent the embargo by mixing its own oil with Iraqi oil, as it has done in the past,” Alhasan noted.

More worrisome means would be a direct attack on US Navy ships or an attempt to persuade Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attempt a blockade of the Bab el Mandeb strait, which, if successful, would block cargo shipping through the Red Sea and Suez Canal routes.