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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-victory-in-iran-wont-look-like-one-45755fbc?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
Is a Nuclear Deal Necessary for a Victory in Iran?
(Wall Street Journal) Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. - A stock-market chart from the start of this year is pretty dramatic. A sharp crevice comes a month into the Iran war, but it's only been up since then, and now the market is higher than when the war started. The market can only discount information it has, but it clearly has discounted the claim that Iran achieved victory by tying up the Strait of Hormuz. Let's admit that Mr. Trump's latest way of testing the patience of global oil consumers is so far going swimmingly. The U.S. is implicitly pointing a gun at ships of any country that enter and exit the ports of Iran, or that pay Iran a toll for passage through the strait no matter which country's ports they visited. The hope was that ships wouldn't test the U.S. Navy, and they haven't. An Iran that can't get its oil out will soon exhaust its domestic storage capacity, risking permanent damage (for technical reasons) to its wells by shutting them in. Mr. Trump also wants a nuclear deal, even if it's far from clear that one would be necessary or useful rather than merely face-saving, given the destruction already done to Iran's nuclear sites and the ability of the U.S. and Israel at any time to return for more. The way to deal with proliferators, it should be understood by now, is not to bargain. Iran's Hormuz vulnerability now has been exposed. Its oil can't exit. Its imports can't enter, including the millions of tons of construction supplies it will need to rebuild its battered infrastructure. Iran will also need financing, yet its wealthy neighbors are more interested in "Iran-proofing" their own economies - see Saudi Arabia's $250 billion rail-and-pipeline project to bypass the Persian Gulf.