Aaron David Miller

There are many other ways of mining.

And remember, forget the military with intelligence capacity.

You're dealing with a world of commercial transport.

Tankers, which cost a fortune, carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil.

It doesn't take much to raise shipping costs and to scare and intimidate insurance companies and shippers.

You now have

you know, large numbers of humans on these ships that have been stuck there for weeks.

That's a sort of human dimension, sailors, commercial maritimers on these ships.

So again, I think bottom line here on blockade, it will badly hurt Iran.

Will it be determinative or decisive?

in ending the war, either because the Iranians give up or they are prepared to meet American demands, particularly on nuclear enrichment, at the negotiating table, almost seven weeks in, I doubt it.

Richard Wagner Well, this is in line with any number of other statements he's made during the first term and during the first year of this non-consecutive second term.

This is a man motivated in large part by money and business.

He's talked about owning Greenland.

He's prided himself in now opening up Venezuelan oil to American companies and seizing Venezuelan oil.

I think it is untenable for the planet.

to allow any sort of toll regime to emerge, let alone having the United States and Iran share in the spoils.

I mean, that is a bridge way, way, way too far.

So I think this is a sort of

figment of the president's imagination and quite in line with the way he sees so much of the Middle East, particularly Gaza, which he'd like to turn into a variation of Palm Beach.