{"id":400923,"date":"2026-04-20T00:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/400923\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T00:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:45:11","slug":"the-iran-war-is-far-from-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/400923\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iran war is far from over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after Iran\u2019s foreign minister declared the Strait of Hormuz \u201ccompletely open\u201d on Friday (17 April), it was effectively closed again. Iran\u2019s top military leadership accused the US of \u201cmaritime piracy\u201d and announced that the Strait of Hormuz had \u201creverted to its previous state\u201d and was under \u201cstrict control of the armed forces\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two Indian-flagged ships reported coming under fire in the strait from Iranian gunboats on Saturday (18 April) before turning around. India\u2019s foreign secretary summoned the Iranian ambassador that evening to convey his government\u2019s \u201cdeep concern\u201d over the \u201cshooting incident.\u201d Despite this, Donald Trump initially insisted that ceasefire talks were \u201cgoing actually along very well\u201d, although he also warned Iran not to \u201cblackmail\u201d the US. But now, as of Sunday evening, a US Navy destroyer has attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship which broke the American blockade. <\/p>\n

The weekend\u2019s developments were a stark contrast to what now looks like a decidedly premature victory lap by the US president<\/a> on Friday. After the announcement that the strait was open, Trump responded with a series of triumphal social media posts, writing that Iran had \u201cagreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again\u201d and it would \u201cno longer be used as a weapon against the World!\u201d He declared it a \u201cGREAT AND BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also assured reporters at the White House that Iran had agreed to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or what he called \u201cthe nuclear dust,\u201d suggested that another round of negotiations would soon follow with the country\u2019s \u201cvery reasonable\u201d new leaders. \u201cThey\u2019re willing to do things today that they weren\u2019t willing to do two months ago,\u201d Trump insisted.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribe to the New Statesman today and save 75% <\/p>\n

Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran\u2019s parliament and the head of the country\u2019s negotiating team in talks, hit back at the president\u2019s proclamations in his own series of social media posts that evening, writing that Trump had \u201cmade seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false\u201d and that the US \u201cdid not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either\u201d. Trump\u2019s crowing megaphone diplomacy seems to have derailed the tentative d\u00e9tente that was in place.<\/p>\n

In a televised speech on 18 April, Ghalibaf said that the US must \u201cearn the trust of the Iranian people\u201d and abandon its coercive, unilateral approach. He, too, declared victory, insisting that by withstanding the US-Israeli assault, Iran had already effectively won. \u201cWhen the enemy fails to achieve its objectives, it means it has been defeated,\u201d Ghalibaf said.<\/p>\n

And so, 48 hours after what was presented as a major breakthrough, the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz has resumed. The crucial waterway, through which one fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas usually transits, remains effectively closed by Iran. The US naval blockade of all shipping entering or leaving Iranian ports is still in place. The mirage of an imminent end to the conflict has dissipated. The hard choices on both sides of this war remain.<\/p>\n

Neither Iran, nor the US, seems eager to resume full-scale fighting, yet neither, so far, seems willing to accept the other\u2019s terms for peace. Both countries\u2019 leaders seem to believe, in the Trumpian parlance, that they still hold the crucial cards. For the US, that means the ability to decimate Iran\u2019s energy infrastructure and destroy the country\u2019s economy. Trump warned on Friday (17 April) that if no deal was reached by the time the current 14-day ceasefire expires on Wednesday (22 April), \u201cwe\u2019ll have to start dropping bombs again\u201d. Iran retains the ability to hold a significant portion of the world\u2019s energy supplies hostage and wreak havoc on the global economy through its control of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

In truth, the fundamentals had not shifted as much as Trump\u2019s euphoric declarations in recent days had suggested. When Iran\u2019s foreign minister announced last week that the strait was open, he clarified that all ships would still have to use \u201cthe coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran\u201d. Even then, Tehran seemed reluctant to cede its powerful leverage over the strait, which is presumably why the US naval blockade also remains in effect.<\/p>\n

Beyond the public brinkmanship, diplomatic efforts appear to be quietly continuing behind the scenes. Tehran said over the weekend that it was reviewing \u201cnew proposals\u201d received from the US via Pakistan. Trump said on Sunday that a delegation of US officials led by vice-president JD Vance would travel to Islamabad today for a new round of talks. The coming days could see an extension of the current ceasefire if those negotiations yield progress, and a genuine step towards an end to this war. Failing that, it is equally possible that this conflict will reignite, as both sides assess that they hold the stronger hand and move to call the other\u2019s bluff.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Sunday, Trump duly reprised his earlier threats to destroy Iran\u2019s infrastructure unless the country\u2019s leadership agreed to his terms. \u201cWe\u2019re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL,\u201d the US president wrote. \u201cI hope they take it because if they don\u2019t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Further reading: We\u2019re all stuck in Donald Trump\u2019s cage fight<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Content from our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images Less than 24 hours after Iran\u2019s foreign minister declared the Strait of Hormuz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-400923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}