Iran war live: Trump says he views Strait of Hormuz as ‘American territory’

Ross Harrison, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, says Trump’s use of military terminology like “D-Day” to describe economic pressure on Iran is unlikely to force Tehran to capitulate.Harrison told Al Jazeera that Iranians have already been living in an economic “D-Day” since maximum pressure sanctions were reimposed after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.“I think the D-Day is language Trump is using because the military campaign failed to create the kind of conditions on the ground that would get the Iranians to capitulate,” Harrison said.“I think he’s using that language in order to transfer military language to economic language, but in terms of actually creating the kind of outcome that he plans or hopes for, I’m quite sceptical,” he argued.Harrison added that China remains the most significant source of support for Tehran, but targeting that connection carries major risks for Washington.“I think the biggest lifeline that could be given to Iran would come from China,” he said. “And the question is not really the policing; the question is whether the United States is willing to pay the price of derailing US-Sino relations now, when China also has levers of power that they could inflict upon the United States and because there’s a looming summit between President Xi and Donald Trump in Washington next month.”“So, it’s not a matter of policing; I think it’s a matter of whether the US is willing to go to the mat and pay the price of disrupting a relationship that Donald Trump seems to be leaning on right now,” he said.