The story being told about this week is that Iran has the initiative. The drones, the missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain, the refusal to come to terms — all of it read as a regime dictating the tempo while a reluctant Washington waits for a deal. That reading mistakes motion for control. The party that controls the strategic clock is the one running the blockade, and that party is not Iran.

U.S. Central Command released footage on May 8 documenting the interdiction of two Iranian-flagged tankers, the Sea Star III and the Sevda, as they attempted to breach the U.S. naval blockade and enter an Iranian port. A Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet operating from the USS George H.W. Bush struck both vessels’ smokestacks with precision munitions, disabling them before they could reach their destination. CENTCOM confirmed neither tanker continued its transit toward Iran.