Despite the multiple exchanges between the US and Iran since the ceasefire was announced on April 8, war may be imminent. Iran firmly controls the Strait of Hormuz while America maintains a belligerent, albeit porous, blockade of the channel, enabling both sides to reciprocate threats, fire and claims of relative destruction.
This cannot last. Neither the ostensible reason for starting the war, Iran’s enrichment of uranium, nor its most proximate global impact, Iran’s restraint of the Strait, can be surrendered or accepted by either side to guarantee a lasting peace. In fact, America’s need to protect the petrodollar and Iran’s desire for autonomous economic growth, have become irreconcilable.
