Monitoring traffic, rescuing ships in distress, penalizing illegal oil dumping, and enforcing international shipping lanes: all of this is necessary.

The idea put forward by Iran for an authority over the Strait of Hormuz is a good one—that is indisputable. The way it has been presented to the other countries of the Persian Gulf, however, is disastrous. It is the presentation of an autocrat and dictator accustomed to having all his subordinates say YES.

For a country to claim that it alone gets to define everything, do everything, and pocket all the financial benefits is naive. Of course all the other countries will say NO. It cannot be any other way.

The rejection of Oman’s proposal for regional management of the Strait of Hormuz shows just how lost Iran is in its dreams of grandeur and regional power. Is this really serious? Being unable to accept cooperation from one or more other countries on such a project is the surest way to bury it.

Without U.S. strikes on Iran, the Revolutionary Guards have reignited hostilities. Is this a provocation aimed at getting the Americans to reignite the war on a large scale? After all, the Revolutionary Guards do love war. They have assumed a dominant position throughout Iran, and the Supreme Leader has stepped back. The Revolutionary Guards have placed a few hardline advisors around the Supreme Leader, and everything is going according to plan: what the Supreme Leader says is filtered and dictated by advocates of perpetual war, such as the Revolutionary Guards. Their resistance has gone to their heads.

When will full-scale war resume? Probably soon: the Revolutionary Guards are taking it upon themselves to reignite it, deliberately.

July 29, 2026

Naej DRANER

P.S.: This was the continuation and conclusion of the “Persian Gulf Council,” an idea that has now sunk body and soul into Iran’s dream of regional power.