It may also be that there is no such thing as an agreement other than unconditional surrender. All nuclear activity stops. Enriched uranium must be transferred from Iran to America. All proxy and other forms of terrorism must be stopped. The Strait of Hormuz must be completely open. And frankly, whatever other American demands are placed on a badly defeated Iran.
In a sense, there is now a ceasefire, but US military combat operations, now even stronger than at the start of the war, could resume at any time. And perhaps most importantly, the US Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports continues. That is the state of affairs and the state of war right now. No oil, no money. That is Iran’s dilemma.
America will probably control the entire Persian Gulf area, including the Strait of Hormuz. It probably costs Iran about $450 million a day, on an annualized basis almost $160 billion a year, for a budget estimated at only $100 billion a year. Simply put, there is no money to pay payroll or pension.
All the criminals, and barbarians, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and the rest of the government, and all the companies they stole and looted, and all kinds of fanatics who just don’t get paid.
If we actually took out Kharg Island, that would generate an additional 1.5 million barrels per day, worth about $140 million at current prices, employing 190,000 personnel, according to a NY Post op-ed by retired US Navy Captain Lance B. Gordon. And there could be roughly 200 million barrels of Iranian oil floating on the high seas every day, mostly near communist China, which could be worth about $20 billion. Yet the economic crisis resulting from the blockade is the largest and most powerful financial weapon; We’ve never tried this before, and it just might work. I would like to see the US Treasury seize all the bank accounts of the criminals running Iran, but that’s another story.
The point right now is that Mr. Trump is content with the fact that the blockade will punish Iran for the foreseeable future, perhaps for as long as it takes to bring the country to its unconditional knees.
