Iran war live: US demands Iran publicly state Strait of Hormuz open for all

Iran sees “weakness” in US President Donald Trump’s inconsistent rhetoric on Washington’s negotiations with Tehran, says Harlan Ullman, a former senior US naval officer and chairman of the Killowen Group, an advisory company.“From Tehran’s position, they heard Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara earlier this week – the tirade about saying I’m getting rid of the MoU, it no longer stands, and the ceasefire is over, and I’m calling the Iranian leadership every name I can think of,” he told Al Jazeera.“And yet here you have, on the other hand, the United States almost pleading for Iran to sign a document saying that the strait is open. So, it seems to me, from Tehran’s perspective, they see weakness on the side of the United States and an absence of policy.”Ullman said the conflict also seems stuck for the moment between “hot and cold” states, comparing it to the Korean War from 1951 to 1953.“For two years and seven days the negotiation was going on while the fighting was continuing. And so I think you have a combination of hot and cold here, where I don’t know how long the fighting is going to go on, limited as it is,” he said.“My guess is that both sides will try and reach some kind of an agreement, initially on the Strait, which is critical to Trump. He sees oil and gasoline prices going up, he sees the world economy being hurt, and he knows that the [midterm] elections are four months off in the United States. So, there’s great pressure here,” he added.“And as far as Iran is concerned, the economic conditions are not getting any better. And so it seems to me that Iran needs to have some kind of relaxation and have an ability to export oil and to relieve some of the sanctions. And for that reason I think we see both a hot and cold war persisting simultaneously, and negotiations could drag on.”