Julian Borger

This is The Guardian.

Sometimes he affects not to really care about the Strait of Hormuz and other times he seems almost desperate to get this resolved.

We are seeing a Trump that's less worried about concerns back home because, after all, he's not going to stand for election himself, and someone who is more concerned about the legacy he leaves on the world stage.

He's less comparing himself to Washington and Lincoln these days and more to Alexander the Great, Napoleon, which is worrying for all of us.

Yeah, absolutely.

Because what this new initiative does is it brings U.S.

warships close to Iranian ships, small boats, drones.

And so as they're in proximity to each other in a very tight waterway, then the chance of something blowing up are much greater than they were yesterday.

Well, what they're offering is an alternative route out of the Strait of Hormuz.

that would go well south of the established shipping channels and kind of hug the coast and go within Omani territorial waters.

And what they're saying to the ships that are trapped in the Gulf is, if you follow this route, we'll be watching you.

We can protect you from afar, but we have lots of

things in the air.

We have helicopters and planes and anti-drone capabilities.

And we will also help guide you through what is a very perilous and narrow channel to get out of the strait and to escape the Gulf.

The US bet is that the shipping companies and also the crews on these ships are desperate enough to take that risk under US protection.

Yeah, I think that there is a chance.

I think what shipping owners are doing at the moment is watching what happens to the first few ships.

Two have been confirmed so far, seeing what happens and see if other ships get out.

And it's possible that others will decide they were going to take the chance just to get their ships and to get their crews out.