“He wants action”: Trump’s frustration with the stalemate with Iran

US President Donald Trump has been frustrated by the “no deal, no war” deadlock with Iran. Senior US officials say the operation he ordered in the Strait of Hormuz is intended to change that dynamic. But it could end up leading back to war.

“The president wants action. He doesn’t want to sit idly by. He wants pressure. He wants an agreement,” said an American senior official who was not privy to the details.

• Trump was presented Thursday night with a more aggressive plan that included sending a U.S. Navy vessel through the Strait of Hormuz to force it open. At the last minute, he opted for a more cautious and gradual approach, at least in the first stage.

• Beginning Monday morning, the U.S. Navy will assist U.S.-flagged ships and other commercial vessels to cross the strait by advising and guiding them on how to avoid sea mines and preparing to intervene militarily if Iran attacks them.
• Senior American officials say that there is currently no plan for full maritime escort of any ship that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
• Instead, US Navy ships will be “in the vicinity” and on alert, alongside US military aircraft.
• American military support for “Project Freedom” will include destroyers, drones and more than 100 aircraft stationed at American bases and on aircraft carriers in the region, as well as 15,000 soldiers, according to the US Army’s Central Command (CENTCOM).
• A senior American said that the rules for opening fire for the American forces in the region were changed, and they were authorized to attack immediate threats against ships crossing the strait, such as fast boats of the Revolutionary Guards or Iranian missile positions.

• A source close to President Trump described this as “the beginning of a process that may lead to a confrontation with the Iranians.”
• The source claimed that the mission was defined as “humanitarian” to free ships stuck in the Strait. This means that “if the Iranians do something, they will be the bad side and we will be legitimized to act.”

• The commander of the US military’s Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, presented Trump with a more ambitious plan on Thursday to send US Navy ships through the strait to help open it by force.
• A senior American official familiar with the plan said that the US would destroy any missile or fast boat that the Iranians would launch in response, and renew the war in full force if Iran were to escalate by attacking the Gulf states.

  The current version carries less risk of immediate escalation, but may also leave the stalemate largely intact.

• The Iranian reaction will determine how “Project Freedom” will develop. Iran attacked vessels trying to pass through the Strait almost every day during the past week.
• Ibrahim Azizi, chairman of the national security committee of the Iranian parliament, threatened in response to Trump’s move on the X network.

  “Warning: Any American intervention in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf will not be managed by Trump’s delusional posts!” he wrote

• On Monday, Iran’s armed forces announced in a statement that “the aggressive actions of the US will only complicate the current situation” and endanger the safety of vessels in the Gulf. They called on all commercial ships and tankers to avoid passing through the strait without coordination with the Iranian military.
• Shortly after several U.S. Navy ships began moving from the Arabian Sea toward the Strait on Monday after midnight local time, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard-affiliated Fars news agency claimed that two Iranian missiles had hit a U.S. Navy ship.
• The Central Command of the US Army denied the claim and said that “the American forces support Project Freedom and enforce the naval blockade on Iranian ports.”

• Diplomacy is not completely frozen. Trump’s emissaries, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, are still exchanging drafts with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
• “There are talks. There are proposals. We don’t like theirs. They don’t like ours. We still don’t know the condition of Supreme Leader Mujtaba Khamenei. They are sending handwritten messages to caves or wherever he is hiding. This slows down the process,” said an American official.
• Witkoff advised Trump to continue negotiations and presented an optimistic assessment of the chances of an agreement, but other senior American officials are much more pessimistic and claim that the gaps are large.

• “Either we will reach real outlines of an agreement soon, or the president is going to bombard them very hard,” the American official said.