Trump pivots to ‘low-key’ approach using economic pressure to end war with Iran

The United States is taking a low-key approach to the war with Iran by emphasizing a continued naval blockade rather than more military strikes, according to President Donald Trump.

He indicated willingness to rely on mounting economic pressure to help force a peace deal, Axios reported Sunday.

“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump said. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact that they have no money” to pay troops.

“We are low-keying it,” he added.

More than 20 U.S. warships are currently deployed to the Middle East supporting the military mission there, including strict enforcement of the blockade, U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday.

CENTCOM has redirected 55 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two to ensure compliance, the statement said.

Trump said the blockade is intensifying the economic strain on Iran, Trump said.

Meanwhile, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz declined further over the weekend, with just six confirmed crossings on Sunday, according to the data analytics company Kpler.

The president’s plan to squeeze Tehran economically represents a sharp turnaround from his rhetoric just a week ago, when he warned Iran that it had one last chance to make a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz or face airstrikes.

“I want to give them every last chance before decapitation,” Trump said on Aug. 3.

For about a week, Iran has been negotiating with Oman on the terms of a temporary agreement to reopen the strait to commercial shipping. Iran has said an agreement on a temporary maritime route for ships in the Persian Gulf is imminent.

But Iranian leaders say a full reopening of the vital waterway is contingent on several conditions, including a lifting of U.S. restrictions on Iranian ports.

The blockade, imposed on April 13 in and around the Strait of Hormuz, is aimed at constraining Iran’s oil and maritime flows.

It was lifted on June 18 under an interim agreement to halt military operations and reopen the strait, as well as to bring Iran and the United States back to the negotiating table over Iran’s nuclear program.

But the temporary ceasefire fell apart after Iranian forces attacked tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in mid-July, prompting the U.S. to resume airstrikes and reinstate the naval blockade.

The Pentagon estimated in May that the blockade cost Tehran an estimated $4.8 billion in lost revenue.

A report from the Institute for the Study of War suggests that despite the high economic costs of the naval blockade, the situation has yet to reach a breaking point for Iran’s leaders.