Catenaa, Wednesday, July 29, 2026- The US’s conflict against Iran looks set to drag on, possibly for months, with the sides unable to break a deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz.
Bloomberg News reported that the stark assessments from the people, who asked not to be named discussing sensitive matters, come with last month’s interim peace deal having collapsed.
Overnight, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on American forces in Jordan, while the US and Saudi Arabia attacked Tehran-backed militias in Iraq that have tried to hit the kingdom’s oil facilities in recent days.
US President Donald Trump, using expletives, told Fox News Iran would be hit hard for the Jordanian strike.
The latest clashes came hours after Trump sounded optimistic about the chances of a diplomatic breakthrough, and highlight how difficult it will be for him to end a war that’s increasingly unpopular with Americans.
The pattern from the past few weeks, of skirmishing followed by a lull in hostilities and then more fighting, is likely to repeat itself, according to sources who between them are in contact with senior members of the US and Iranian governments.
Iran, while battered militarily since the US and Israel started the war in February, is confident it can hold out against an American naval blockade for much longer, one Iranian official said told Bloomberg News.
Iranian leaders believe Trump will avoid the significant escalation he’s repeatedly threatened because of Tehran’s ability to inflict severe damage on Gulf Arab states and because he’s wary of pushing oil and fuel prices up further.
Crude’s surge to more than $100 a barrel last week was one reason Trump paused his daily airstrikes on Iran and opted to try diplomacy again, the report said.
“Comments from anonymous sources pretending to have insight into President Trump’s thinking should be discarded as mere speculation,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “Only the commander-in-chief knows what he will do next.”
Iran is fully aware that Trump’s ability to intensify his campaign is hindered by the depletion of global oil stockpiles and American munitions since the war erupted.
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now at its lowest since the 1980s, thanks to the White House drawing it down to keep fuel prices in check. Sophisticated US weaponry, including air-defense missiles, has been used up in significant numbers.
Even so, the report added, Trump is unlikely to back away until Iran relents on Hormuz, a vital waterway for the global economy. The Islamic Republic continues to demand the right to manage traffic through the chokepoint and to impose fees on energy tankers and other vessels.
Iran sees control of the strait, through which one-fifth of oil and liquefied natural gas supplies normally flow, as a source of leverage over the US and key to its national security.
Oman is trying to negotiate a short-term deal with Iran to get more ships through the waterway and thus enable Tehran and Washington to restart formal peace talks, Bloomberg reported. Yet those discussions have faltered because of Iran insisting it gets sole control over vessels coming into the Persian Gulf, Iranian media said on Tuesday.
