As US-Israel coordinated strikes to Iran enters day 26, America is now pushing for talks and using Pakistan as a go-between.
Trump has given Iran a list of demands to end the war. These demands form the widely publicized 15-point plan, which Iran has rejected.
Iran says the demands are pointless.
On day 22 of this war, Donald Trump gave Iran 48 hours to reopen an area called the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz is the space between Iran and Oman. That space is not land, it’s full of water.
All the oil ships coming from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq must use this path to gain access to the sea.
There is no other sea route.
About 20% of the world’s oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz, which is why any trouble there affects the whole world.
Why that 20% matters so much
Iven if we still have the remaining 80%, Well, think of it this way:When the Strait of Hormuz is blocked, countries that relied so much on that 20% must now buy from the remaining 80%. This means more buyers are suddenly chasing the same supply. That increased demand pushes prices up.For example, consider Japan. It buys most of its oil from the Middle East, mainly from Gulf countries that send oil through the Strait of Hormuz. If that route is blocked, Japan will have to buy oil from other places that are farther away. This means the oil will take longer to arrive and will cost more to transport. When oil becomes harder to get and more expensive to move, prices around the world go up.Remember oil is traded globally, so when prices rise, they rise everywhere. Even countries like Zimbabwe or Togo, which are very far from the middle east and not involved in the Iran war, must pay the new higher price. So Zimbabwe ends up paying more for fuel simply because the global price has gone up for everyone.That’s why the Strait of Hormuz is so important Trump told Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or the United States would hit its power plants. Iran refused and said if America attacks, it will hit back very hard.As the 48 hour deadline approached, Trump did not carry out the strikes. Instead, he announced a five-day pause on any attacks against Iran, saying there had been “productive” discussions to resolve the crisis. He also issued a number of demands, widely described as a fifteen-point ceasefire plan. These demands were delivered to Iran through Pakistan. They are Trump’s terms for ending the war.The demands include, but are not limited to:▪️ Opening the Strait of Hormuz▪️ Major limits on Iran’s nuclear program ▪️ Limiting Iran’s long-range missile weapons▪️ Iran stopping support for foreign groups like Hezbollah▪️ International inspectors monitoring Iran’s nuclear and military programsIn return, Trump said that if Iran agrees to the terms, the United States could ease some sanctions and help Iran build a nuclear program for peaceful use only.Iran rejected these demands outright and called them pointless. It also said there were no real talks and that America was just talking to itself.Iran sees these demands not as a path to peace, but as a threat to its independence.Tensions remain high, and fighting continues in other places, including Lebanon, where the Iran war spread in early March. A Lebanese group called Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been fighting with Israel.Hezbollah initially fired rockets and drones into Israel after Iran’s Supreme Leader was assassinated. Israel hit back with heavy airstrikes and later sent ground troops into southern Lebanon. More than a thousand Lebanese people have died, thousands have been injured, and about a million people have fled their homes.What makes it more complicated is that this group called Hezbollah also functions as a political party in Lebanon. It is not the ruling party, yet it has its own military. This has been the case for decades, but that’s a subject for another day.However, the idea of an opposition party using weapons to attack a neighboring country is just crazy. This has put the government of Lebanon in a difficult position. It is now facing the consequences of military actions carried out by a group that is not the government.As a result, the government of Lebanon is now cutting ties with Iran. On 2 March, it banned Hezbollah’s military actions, calling them unauthorized. It made it clear that only the government is allowed to have a military. It also expelled officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and began arrests.Only yesterday (24 March), it declared Iran’s ambassador “persona non grata,” a Latin term meaning an unwelcome person. In simple terms, it told him to pack his bags and leave. The government ordered him to leave by Sunday and also recalled its own ambassador from Iran. It is blaming Iran for dragging Lebanon into chaos.TAFFY THEMAN#dzidzisoyataffy
