Scott Lucas

At the start of the week, the U.S.

knocked out two Iranian boats that it said were laying mines in the strait, carried out a strike on an Iranian port.

And then overnight, we get the news that they've carried out three more strikes near this Iranian port called Bandar Abbas.

The Iranians, meanwhile, say that they've intercepted four ships that were trying to get out of the Strait of Hormuz.

In other words, continuing to enforce their control of the waterway.

No, look, there was never stability since the ceasefire was declared on April 7th.

Set aside for the moment that Israel is continuing assaults across Lebanon, deadly assaults, despite the fact there supposedly is a ceasefire there.

In the Strait of Hormuz, you had the Iranians trying to exercise their leverage by saying which ships could leave, which couldn't, and there are about 1,500 that are trapped there.

The Americans said, oh, we'll get the ships out under Project Freedom.

That failed.

And so what the Americans have been doing is blockading Iranian ports, trying to collapse the Iranians economically.

Now, clearly, the Iranians want the blockade lifted.

They will probably trade overall control of the Strait of Hormuz for lifting the blockade.

But the Strait of Hormuz will probably be run by, if Tehran gets its way, a group of countries, which include Iran and some of the Gulf states.

And that's the difficulty that the U.S.

faces right now.

Yeah, I think it's best to answer that very good question by just going through the stages in the Iranian proposal, which is the one on the table.

The first stage, as we mentioned, includes arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz, with the Iranians probably talking about a group of countries overseeing it.

In return, with shipping being able to go through the Strait, the U.S.

will gradually lift sanctions, will lift its blockade of Iranian ports, and there will be a 60-day ceasefire in this first stage.