As the stalemate with the US continues, Iran just made an aggressive new move: It redrew its map of the Strait of Hormuz and expanded the area under its control, reports Reuters. A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval official says Tehran no longer considers the strait to be a narrow passage but as a much broader "operational area" that stretches roughly from the Iranian port city of Jask in the east to Siri Island in the west. State-linked media said the strait's effective width, long described as 20 to 30 miles, is now being framed as spanning 200 to 300 miles in a "complete crescent."
The move comes after President Trump rejected the latest Iran peace proposal as "garbage" and weighed a resumption of military strikes. If the latter happens, "our armed forces are ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression," said the speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in a Tuesday post on social media. "A bad strategy and bad decisions always lead to bad results—the world already understands this," he said, per CBS News.
Iran's leaders clearly think Trump is bluffing about renewed bombing, according to the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board. "This is a regime that thinks it can absorb economic pain from the US blockade longer than Mr. Trump can tolerate higher prices for oil and petrochemicals," reads the editorial. "Mr. Trump will have to persuade Tehran's leaders they've underestimated him—and the pain."
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