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Six months into a war that began on 28 February 2026, with strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Washington has stopped choosing between diplomacy, economic siege, and military force. It runs all three at once. The Trump administration frames this as a sequential strategy. It is not. Diplomacy has collapsed twice. The naval blockade has hardened into policy. American warplanes have struck Iranian territory as recently as May. Tehran still refuses to move a single tanker through the Strait of Hormuz on Washington’s terms. This is not a menu of options. It is a stalemate with a body count.
To understand why Tehran will not bend, look past this month’s headlines. Look to August 1953.
