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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/03/22/iran-war-talks-trump-strikes-hormuz/
As Iran War Enters Fourth Week, Tehran Is Escalating Attacks
(Washington Post) Susannah George - As the war in Iran enters its fourth week, Tehran is escalating attacks on its neighbors, betting it can ratchet up global economic pain faster than the Trump administration can relieve it with military force. Iran's unwillingness to capitulate is wrapped up in the power it exerts over the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's fuel shipments transit, that Tehran has largely closed. Iran's leaders see their ability to control the strait and withstand the U.S. and Israeli onslaught as a short-term victory, an Arab official and European diplomats said. "They don't feel any pressure to negotiate," said a European diplomat based in the Persian Gulf. An Iranian diplomat said Iran would not be willing to stop attacks against U.S. interests unless Washington could agree to a number of "nonaggression" guarantees, including monetary compensation for war-related damage. The U.S. and Israel have hit more than 15,000 targets across Iran, according to the Pentagon. Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former U.S. intelligence officer focused on Iran, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said that beneath its public bravado, the immense damage caused by thousands of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes would leave Iran's government less capable of addressing existing grievances and could spark new waves of popular unrest. "The most critical moments for them is not during the battle when they hold out against the pummeling, it's when the pummeling stops."