Trump faces limited options as Iran war drags on

President Donald Trump faces a deepening strategic dilemma as a six-month-old conflict with Iran shows no clear path to resolution, with the president caught between accepting a deal that grants Iran new control over a vital oil shipping lane or escalating a war that has become politically perilous ahead of the November midterm elections. The conflict, which Trump initially predicted would last only weeks and be over by mid-April, has left the United States in what analysts describe as an increasingly tight bind.

The central issue is an emerging interim arrangement being negotiated between Iran and Oman that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. According to a senior Iranian source and two regional officials, the proposed terms would grant Tehran some control over ships entering the Gulf through the strait, a level of supervision it did not possess before the war. Analysts say this would represent Iran's biggest concession since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on February 28 and would formalize, at least temporarily, Iranian oversight of the waterway the Trump administration had vowed to keep...