Iran recently launched cruise missiles, drones, and armed boats at American naval vessels escorting commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military destroyed six Iranian boats in response, and President Donald Trump warned Tehran that its forces would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if they target American ships again.
The message was unmistakable: The United States is prepared to resume full-scale military strikes against Iran. In that warning, Trump demonstrated that he is the first American president who understands how to deal with the fanatical, theocratic regime in Tehran.
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Unlike previous administrations, this is no longer posture. It is policy. The 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy names Iran as “the greatest threat to the United States emanating from the Middle East” and commits that operations against the regime “will continue until the regime in Tehran is no longer a threat to the United States.” Sunday’s confrontation was the first lesson of that doctrine, and the regime lost six boats learning it.
IRAN ISN’T A PROBLEM TO MANAGE — IT’S A THREAT TO END
As a liberal Muslim scholar of the Middle East who was forced to flee Egypt after I defended Israel, I have witnessed firsthand the pattern that repeats across every confrontation the West has ever had with Islamist regimes: Flinch first, and they will pocket the concession and demand more, then announce themselves victorious and foster their power. Tehran gambled that it could attack American ships and force Washington to back down from reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s response — destroying the attackers and promising devastation if Iran tries again — is not recklessness. It is the first break from a decadeslong cycle of Western retreat that has emboldened Tehran at every turn.
I recognize this pattern because I have lived inside the Islamist world. Almost two and a half years ago, radical Islamists in Cairo came looking for me after I publicly condemned the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, and defended Israel’s right to exist. Lawyers close to the Egyptian regime filed legal claims against me. I had to choose between arrest, assassination, or exile. I chose exile. Terrorist networks that threatened my life, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and their ideological cousins in Tehran, all share a common operating principle: interpret concession as weakness, and exploit weakness without mercy. As the famous Arab proverb warns: Whoever shows a wolf his back will be eaten.
Consider what Tehran has done with every inch it has been given. The JCPOA was supposed to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Instead, Iran used sanctions relief to funnel an estimated $700 million per year to Hezbollah, arm the Houthis with advanced weaponry, and bankroll Hamas’s operations, leading to the Oct. 7 massacre. Iran expanded its proxy networks while the JCPOA was in force, then accelerated enrichment after it collapsed. Today, the IAEA confirms that Iran has stockpiled roughly 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, a short technical step from weapons-grade, with no credible civilian application. The International Atomic Energy Agency has been denied access to Iran’s enriched uranium inventories for over eight months. This is not a nation negotiating in good faith. This is a nation running out the clock.
The blockade is the one instrument that has altered Tehran’s calculus. For the first time, Iran’s oil revenues, the financial lifeline that sustains its proxy empire and nuclear program, are under genuine threat. Lifting the blockade before a final deal would restore that lifeline and remove the only reason Tehran has come to the table at all. Iran’s proposal to defer nuclear talks is an explicit admission that it wants economic relief without nuclear accountability. The U.S. must continue to stand strong.
Those who argue for easing pressure as a gesture of good faith misunderstand the nature of the regime they are dealing with. Give the mullahs an inch, and they will take the Strait of Hormuz and a nuclear weapon along with it.
I say this not as an abstract policy argument but as someone who has paid a personal price for confronting the ideology that Tehran exports. The same worldview that forced me from my home, that sent Islamists to my family’s door, that punishes Muslim liberals for daring to speak the truth about Hamas, is the worldview that governs the Islamic Republic. It does not soften in the face of generosity. It metastasizes.
AS IRAN MULLS US ONE-PAGE PROPOSAL, TRUMP SAYS ‘IT’S VERY POSSIBLE THAT WE’LL MAKE A DEAL.’
Trump had a choice to make: He could maintain the blockade until Iran signs a deal that addresses its nuclear program, its proxy networks, and its destabilizing activities, or he could ease the pressure on Tehran in a misguided attempt to appear magnanimous.
Trump thankfully made the right choice. The blockade is not cruelty. It is clarity. And clarity, as I learned when I lost my country for telling the truth, is the only currency that counts.
Dalia Ziada is an award-winning Egyptian writer and political analyst specializing in governance, geopolitics, and regional security in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean.
