Washington — President Trump has intensified efforts to compel Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Middle East shipping corridor, employing airstrikes, naval blockades, negotiations, and stern threats. On Monday, July 14th, 2026, Trump announced the U.S. is reimposing its blockade on Iran's ports and will charge other ships for safe passage through the strait, emphasizing that "all other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait."

Despite intermittent conflict, Iran retains the capability to disrupt vessels in the narrow Persian Gulf waterway using drones and missiles concealed within its territory, which is roughly one-third the size of the continental United States. Jason H. Campbell, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and former Pentagon official, stated, "Iran has been preparing for this type of asymmetric conflict for decades now," and noted that this capability explains why no U.S. president since Reagan has engaged at this level of conflict with Iran.

Experts warn that restoring oil tanker traffic to prewar levels will likely require a substantially larger U.S. naval armada and possibly tens of thousands of American troops on Iranian soil. Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said, "You'd still need a very large chunk of the U.S. fleet being dedicated to this on an open-ended basis."

Eric Lob, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East program and professor at Florida International University, observed, "They thought the situation was under control, and now they're seeing renewed escalations, and the markets responding negatively to this."

Clayton Seigle, a nonresident scholar in energy security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, criticized the Trump administration for not following through on early war promises to militarily assist shipments endangered by the conflict.

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