Five months of American and Israeli attacks were intended to weaken Iran, curb its nuclear ambitions and restore secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, the emerging settlement could give Tehran formal control over inbound Gulf shipping and oversight of outbound traffic—authority it did not possess before the war.
Iran has survived the assault, demonstrated its ability to disrupt the world’s most important energy corridor and forced Washington into negotiations while American precision-missile inventories have been severely depleted. A conflict launched as a display of overwhelming power now risks ending as a strategic advertisement for Iranian leverage.
The emerging plan would permit Tehran to regulate ships entering the Gulf and monitor outbound traffic, a remarkable concession after five months of war.
Tehran says the draft depends on the United States lifting its blockade, even as attacks on commercial vessels continue and traffic remains far below normal.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds mounting public unease over a conflict that has disrupted energy markets, strained military supplies and failed to deliver a decisive outcome.
Strikes on Balakliia and the Sumy region killed civilians and wounded many others while Kyiv continued appealing for scarce interceptor missiles.
Kyiv targeted refineries and vessels in an effort to weaken Russia’s war economy even as Russian bombardments intensified at home.
Strong earnings lifted European markets, but disappointment over semiconductor results pulled Asian technology shares and Nasdaq futures lower.
The mineral-rich country is moving to force more domestic processing and retain a larger share of the value generated by resources essential to batteries and electronics.
Authorities described the coordinated operation in Niger and Kwara states as the country’s largest same-day joint rescue effort.
A proposed reopening could formalize Iranian control over inbound traffic.
Public confidence falls as the Iran war drags on.
Russian attacks kill civilians while interceptor supplies remain scarce.
Europe advances while expensive technology shares retreat.
A mineral-export ban seeks to retain more industrial value at home.
Security forces free hundreds of kidnapping victims.
Wars are ultimately judged not by the destruction they inflict but by the political order they leave behind. Donald Trump entered the conflict promising to neutralize Iran’s nuclear threat, protect Gulf shipping and demonstrate the unmatched power of the United States. Five months later, Iran remains intact, the Strait of Hormuz has been transformed into Tehran’s greatest bargaining asset and Washington is considering an arrangement that could recognize Iranian authority over vessels entering the Gulf. The conflict has also consumed large quantities of expensive American precision weapons, diverted air-defence resources from other theatres and imposed higher fuel and transport costs on the global economy. Iran has paid a terrible price, but it has also shown that it can withstand sustained attack, disrupt a trade route carrying a major share of the world’s energy and compel its much stronger opponent to negotiate around Iranian demands. Even if shipping resumes, the lesson absorbed by governments everywhere may be that asymmetric resistance can overcome conventional superiority when the stronger power lacks a realistic political objective. Trump called the campaign a demonstration of strength. Its final settlement may instead demonstrate how military power, badly directed, can enlarge the very adversary it was meant to diminish.