Middle East Crisis Iran War

WSJ: Trump has two expensive and time-consuming options to secure Hormuz

Donald Trump has two options to try to secure shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and neither of them is easy, writes the Wall Street Journal.

One is to escort the ships. Experts estimate that it would take two warships per oil tanker, and about a dozen Reaper drones patrolling the air, to safely escort the 600 ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.

– That would involve thousands of soldiers and a considerable amount of money, and it could take several months, says defense expert Bryan Clark at the Hudson Institute.

The other option is to send in ground troops to take control of Iran's southern coast. This would also require thousands of soldiers and several months of warfare, and expose American troops to attacks from a regime fighting for its survival, writes the WSJ.

Sources: Israel's missile defense is running out of ammunition

Israel notified the US last week that its anti-ballistic missiles were running out, US official sources told Semafor.

Israel's stock was low even before it and the US started the war with Iran just over two weeks ago. Iran's tactic during the war has been to bomb the country as much as possible, both from Iran and from the proxy organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran's reported use of cluster munitions has escalated the shortage further. Iran has also bombed US bases in the Middle East, which means they need their defense missiles and cannot necessarily sell them to Israel.

- Israel is developing solutions to deal with its shortage, says a source.

Israel has other ways of defending itself against missiles, for example with fighter jets, but the anti-ballistic missiles are clearly the most effective way.
 

Trump: Not Ready to End War with Iran Through Deal

Iran is willing to reach an agreement to end the war, but it's not Donald Trump. The president himself says so in an interview with NBC News.

Trump says the reason he's not ready to make a deal is that "the terms aren't good enough yet." He doesn't say what the terms are, or what he would prefer them to be. He only says they have to be "very stable."

Trump also says that the US attacks on the oil island of Kharg "totally destroyed" most of the island, but that the US may attack again "just for fun."