Iran's strategy in leveraging on control over the Strait of Hormuz looks to be working

AI summary

<p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">When US president Trump earlier this week said the deal is "over", everyone feared the worst. However, he then toned things down by playing his go-to card in proclaiming that the other side wants to be making a deal. That tends to be his signal to de-escalate. And the latest headlines also suggest that there is perhaps a chance both sides can continue negotiations again.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">While that may be leading to an ever so slightly calmer mood, it's not to say that the nightmare is over. In fact, it is still very much engulfing markets as the Strait of Hormuz returns to de facto closure again. Traffic along the waterway has ground to a halt with Iran not being happy about the US' attacks.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">That being said, is it all just a ploy though?</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">As a reminder, control over the Strait of Hormuz is still Iran's biggest leverage in this whole war with the US. And the modus operandi of Tehran in negotiating with Washington is to keep kicking the can down the road.</p><p class="text-align-justify" style="text-align: justify;">In attacking ships along the strait, they are pretty much killing two birds with one stone. One is that they are reminding the US over their leverage of the strait and that they won't yield so easily in talks. The second is that if the US so