WASHINGTON – President Trump is tightening the noose on Iran and summoned his top military commander to signal to Tehran that it’s time to make a deal.
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper is reportedly briefing Trump Thursday about military strategy, but experts tell The Post there was a bigger message at play.
“It was a signal to Iran and a political trial balloon to the US,” a former administration official said.
That signal: Tehran should come to the table and make a peace deal or face more US military might.
An economic pressure campaign has been in full force against Iran. The blockade on the Strait of Hormuz is in its third week and without its main waterway, Iran has had to store its crude oil instead of selling it.
And it’s running out of places to keep the 1.5 million to 2 million barrels of oil its wells produce daily. Shutting down production – and then starting it back up – would be an expensive proposition.
Huddling with Cooper – who also briefed Trump two days before the strikes on Iran originally began on Feb. 28 – sends a powerful signal to Tehran.
“The economic pressure is the US main effort but if Iranians don’t agree to his terms as a result of that pressure he has Admiral Cooper on deck,” Joel Rayburn, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who served as special envoy for Syria during Trump’s first term, said of the president’s strategy.
Trump gave a hint at his strategy when he spoke to reporters in the Oval Office ahead of his briefing with the admiral, as reported by Fox News.
“Their economy is crashing,” he said of Iran. “The blockade is incredible. The power of the blockade is incredible. They’re not getting any money from oil, and hopefully it can be worked out very soon.”
And by publicly revealing the meeting, Trump could send another message to Tehran that the US can and will strike back.
“If you’re going to make the economic pressure work you also have to show you have a credible military option,” Rayburn noted.
The White House’s show of force comes as Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued a rare public statement where he said there would be no place for the US to have future influence in the Gulf region and vowed that Iran would retain its nuclear capabilities.
“By the will and power of God, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America,” he said.
The peace talks, at the moment, seem to be at a stalemate. Trump canceled Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s trip to Pakistan this past weekend and said there would be no more in person conversations.
And he’s indicated his unhappiness with Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and put aside the question of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump has several options to break the “bona fide stalemate,” according to a former senior government official.
Beyond the status quo of keeping up the blockade while Iran holds its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, Trump could resume combat operations to finish what was started — in about two weeks or less — and include using force to secure and open the Strait.
Trump could also destroy Kharg Island, the strategically significant Persian Gulf island that serves as the terminal for nearly all of Iran’s oil exports. Ending Iran’s oil distribution could cripple its economy even further and force the regime to come to the table, the former official said.
The president has been clear that he expects a favorable outcome for the US.
“We’ve already won, but I want to win by a bigger margin,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren.
And he repeated his demand that Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He was clear that he wouldn’t change his mind.
