Iran says it's closing Strait of Hormuz, accusing Israel, US of violating truce

Iran has figured out it can make the US president look like an idiot over and over at relatively low cost to themselves, since they're already so thoroughly excluded from the rest of the world.

It was astonishing to see the praise heaped on Trump by Israeli citizens and leaders, who believed he was their savior. I wonder if it's going to change now, not because he's giving up on them (which he seems to), but because they have nobody else left to rely on. Constant incoming ass kissing is effective when it comes to him, so their best strategy might be to keep going until he changes his mind again.

Iran’s perspective seems to be that their sovereignty will continue to be threatened by Israel if the US doesn’t start using its considerable amount of leverage over Israel to force them to stand down. I’m not sure how likely this would be, but Trump said that the US would start facing drastic fuel shortages and enter a recession in the next few weeks if he didn’t sign off on the MOU (which seems like a dumb thing to say while negotiations are ongoing but whatever), so it seems like Iran has a lot of power here. Ultimately, I think Trump and Netanyahu’s decision to start this war may result in the largest shift in the Middle Eastern power balance since the post-World War II period.

Trump agreed to the MoU saying it's allies would stop attacks, including in Lebanon. Israel continues to bomb it. It's up to Trump to put pressure on Israel to stop in order to make good on his deal. It's no surprise this is instantly falling apart - Trump promised something he couldn't deliver. We can only hope that he does eventually put enough pressure on Israel to stop.

TACO

So Iran can shield Hezbollah and other allies/proxies via its stranglehold on the strait. This is quite the shift.

Guess $300 Billion from U.S. taxpayers wasn’t enough. #TheArtOfTheDeal

cut ties with israel at this point?

Art of the Deal sigh

It is closed! Open! Closed! Open! Closed!

We are negotiating! We dont! We do! We dont! We on the plane! We are not!

So from now on every time Israel is attacked and responds the strait will be closed.

Masterstroke of diplomacy and military power. /s