Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week pause in hostilities to work out an agreement with Iran may presage an end to this war. The fact that he emphasized in his Truth Social post that his acceptance of the suspension of our bombing of Iran was contingent on a “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, AND SAFE OPENING” of the Strait of Hormuz suggests how important that had become for him.