The Fight Is Now Over Hormuz, US and Israeli Officials Say

The increase in US forces deployed to the Middle East, combined with President Trump's new threat to destroy Iran's power plants, is building expectations among US and Israeli officials that the conflict could lead to a battle over the Strait of Hormuz and nearby energy hubs. Officials now see reopening the waterway—which normally carries about one-fifth of the world's oil and gas—as the central military goal, the Washington Post reports, overtaking earlier hopes that the campaign might topple Iran's leadership or permanently end its nuclear ambitions.

Iran has largely halted tanker traffic through Hormuz using missiles, small boats, and sea mines, despite sustained US strikes on launch sites and naval assets. The US is sending about 4,500 sailors and Marines, including an infantry battalion with helicopters, F-35s, and armored landing craft, and has accelerated deployment of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Israeli officials said these moves point to an operation aimed at securing Hormuz and possibly seizing Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal, per the Post. "Those Marines aren't coming for decoration," an Israeli official said. Tehran said it would respond to strikes on its oil and gas sites by targeting US-linked energy, IT, and desalination facilities in the Persian Gulf.

Trump is cycling through what the AP calls "an increasingly desperate list of options" to open the strait. While his aides defended the threat as a hard-edged strategy, Democrats frame it as an indication the president miscalculated what it would take to get out of a geopolitical mire. "Trump has no plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, so he is threatening to attack Iran's civil power plants," said Sen. Ed Markey, adding: "This would be a war crime." Responding to Trump's post, Sen. Chris Murphy said, "He's lost control of the war and he is panicking."