After almost seven months of war, economic strangulation, and mounting isolation, the Iranian regime is searching desperately for an escape route.
Astonishingly, America may be preparing to provide one.
Negotiators gathered in New York are discussing a phased agreement under which Tehran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz while Washington would lift its economic blockade.
Iran could also gain access to frozen assets.
It would be a monumental strategic error.
The clerical regime has rarely been weaker.
This is precisely the moment when maximum pressure should be intensified, rather than exchanged for another temporary arrangement that allows the mullahs to regroup, replenish their finances, and prepare for their next confrontation.
The effectiveness of the pressure campaign is becoming increasingly obvious.
The United Arab Emirates has suspended flights operated by Iranian airlines following sweeping American sanctions against Iran’s aviation sector.
Iranian services to other regional destinations, such as the holy city of Najaf in neighboring Iraq, have also been disrupted.
Washington has warned airports, fuel suppliers, ticket agents, and service companies that assisting sanctioned Iranian carriers could cost them access to the dollar system.
At sea, the pressure is even greater.
Iran’s oil exports have been squeezed by the American blockade, depriving the regime of desperately needed hard currency.
Reuters reports that Tehran has now indicated that it could reopen Hormuz within seven days if Washington eases military pressure and lifts the blockade.
That offer tells us something important.
The pressure is working.
Iranian officials have spent decades boasting about resistance to Western sanctions.
Yet today they are sitting in New York searching for economic relief.
Why give it to them? The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway through which much of the world’s energy supplies must pass.
Freedom of navigation should never become a commodity that Tehran can seize and then sell back to the international community.
Allowing the regime to close Hormuz, inflict enormous economic damage, and then receive sanctions relief for reopening it would establish a disastrous precedent.
It would teach Tehran that aggression pays.
The Gulf states understand the danger.
They have rejected Iranian demands for control over navigation and have insisted that freedom of passage must be restored.
Reuters reports that Iran may now be prepared to defer its demand for transit fees because ending the American blockade has become the more urgent objective.
Again, the conclusion is obvious.
Tehran is hurting.
For years, the international community repeatedly rescued the Islamic Republic when pressure became unbearable.
Negotiations produced concessions.
Sanctions were relaxed.
Frozen funds became accessible.
The regime received breathing space.
Then the machinery of repression and regional aggression resumed.
This time Washington should learn from history.
President Donald Trump has called for the complete economic isolation of Iran.
He should pursue that strategy with determination.
The objective....
