"U.S. intelligence sees Iran maintaining blockade of the Strait of Hormuz"

U.S. intelligence authorities have issued a warning that Iran is unlikely to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for the time being, Reuters reported on the 3rd (local time).

According to sources cited by Reuters, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prepared a report to that effect. The assessment is that control of the Strait of Hormuz—the world’s largest crude oil shipping lane—is Iran’s only practical and meaningful weapon to pressure the United States.

Tehran is currently seeking to keep energy prices elevated, in a bid to spur an early end to a war that is unpopular with the U.S. public. Observers also cautioned that a war launched to dismantle Iran’s military could instead prove its ability to threaten the key waterway and boost Iran’s regional influence.

Experts warned that using force against Iran, which controls one side of the strait, would entail enormous costs and could draw the United States into a protracted ground war. Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group, said, “In trying to prevent Iran from developing weapons of mass destruction, the United States has effectively handed it a weapon of mass destruction,” adding that “control of the waterway is a more powerful tool than nuclear weapons.”

A White House official said, “President Trump is confident the strait will reopen quickly and does not intend to allow Iran to regulate the waterway after the war,” adding that “President Trump noted that other countries have bigger interests at stake than the United States does.”