Donald Trump‘s inner circle is growing alarmed that he may be losing control of the Iran war after allied countries flatly rejected his plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has demanded US allies deploy warships to reopen the critical oil passageway, but France, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom have all declined to assist in protecting commercial shipping from Iranian attack.
Gas prices have surged to an average of $3.80 a gallon from $2.90 before the conflict began, now in its third week, as the narrow strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows remains strangled by Iranian mines and missiles.
Israel claimed it had killed two high-ranking Iranian commanders overnight. Thirteen US troops have been killed in the conflict, with more than 200 injured across seven countries.
‘We clearly just kicked [Iran’s] ass in the field, but, to a large extent, they hold the cards now,’ a source close to the White House told Politico. ‘They decide how long we’re involved, and they decide if we put boots on the ground. And it doesn’t seem to me that there’s a way around that, if we want to save face.’
Some allies fear Trump risks being dragged into an open-ended conflict just as the midterm elections approach, with the escalating war threatening to drive up the cost of living for voters already furious about affordability.
‘The terms have changed,’ said a second person familiar with the military operation. ‘The off-ramps don’t work anymore because Iran is driving the asymmetric action.’
The war has also caused a schism within Trump’s MAGA movement among top allies, including Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, as the President has for years argued against regime-change wars in the Middle East.
President Donald Trump gives remarks to the media as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, March 16
An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11
US intelligence has also determined that Iran’s regime will likely remain in power despite relentless airstrikes.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will likely tighten its domestic grip as the country’s internal enforcer, intelligence officials told the Washington Post.
Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said security chief Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Basij forces, have joined the late Ayatollah Khamenei in the ‘depths of hell’ after targeted overnight airstrikes.
The attack on Larijani comes four days after he marched alongside thousands of Iranians at a Quds Day rally in Tehran where he taunted Trump during a live interview.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since the war began, has said the US and Israel must be ‘brought to their knees’ and accept defeat before any peace deal is possible.
‘For the White House, now the only easy day was yesterday,’ the source familiar added. ‘They need to worry about an unraveling.’
The White House and Pentagon continue to insist the war is a ‘tremendous success,’ pointing to US naval and aerial superiority over Iran.
Despite the success touted by the administration, the US Navy remains unable to guarantee safe passage for commercial oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
The human toll comes amid mounting concerns over the financial cost, the Pentagon having burned through $5.6 billion worth of munitions in the first two days of the war
Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019
Israel claims to have assassinated top Iranian official Ali Larijani in an airstrike overnight
The US military has moved additional forces to the region, including the USS Tripoli and its 2,000-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit capable of seizing Iranian ports.
The deployment has led some to believe Trump will soon launch a limited ground offensive against the Islamic Regime to alleviate the global oil crisis.
Trump has suggested that the fighting could end soon, while also warning the US is prepared for a long-term offensive.
