“President Trump is weighing a seizure of Iran’s critical oil depot on Kharg Island — a move that would require U.S. boots on the ground — if tankers remain bottled up in the Persian Gulf,” Axios reports.

“Trump is drawn to the idea of seizing Kharg Island outright because it would constitute ‘an economic knockout of the regime’ — essentially defunding Tehran.”

“But the move would require boots on the ground and could trigger Iranian retaliatory strikes against oil facilities and pipelines across Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.”

Wall Street Journal: “The Trump administration as soon as this week plans to announce that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition that will escort ships through the waterway, which runs along the Iranian coast, U.S. officials said. The U.S. and potential coalition countries are still discussing whether those operations would begin before or after the war ends.”

“The White House declined to comment on the expected announcement, which could shift depending on battlefield conditions. Publicly, many countries have been noncommittal to such an escort mission until hostilities cease, given the risks involved, including Iran’s placement of mines in the strait.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed President Donald Trump’s claim that Tehran wants truce talks, saying it will continue defending itself, Al Jazeera reports.

Wall Street Journal: “Across the island, pot-banging is becoming louder as Cuba plunges into darkness almost every night, protecting the identity of protesters in a country where the totalitarian government keeps an eye on everyone and a tight lid on dissent.”

“Two weeks into a war against Iran that he chose to launch, President Trump faces a stark choice — stay in the battle to achieve the dauntingly ambitious goals he has set, or try to extract himself from an expanding and intensifying conflict that is generating damaging military, diplomatic and economic shock waves,” the New York Times reports.

“He has quickly discovered that both options are deeply problematic, littered with consequences that he and his team downplayed when he plunged the United States, alongside Israel, into the biggest war in the Middle East in nearly a quarter-century.”

The Economist: “The Trump administration reportedly did not expect the strait to slam shut—another example of its short-sightedness in the prosecution of this war—and is scrambling for a response. ‘One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait open, safe, and free,’ the president wrote on social media on March 14th. Meanwhile Mojtaba Khamenei, or whoever is writing statements in his name—Iran’s new supreme leader has not been seen since he was named to the job a week ago—says it will remain shut.”

“Mr Trump will struggle to make good on his promise. The geography of the strait favours Iran; so does the low risk tolerance of shippers and insurers. Yet Iran has a dilemma as well: so far, closing the strait has been a tactical win that has not achieved its strategic goal of ending the war. The battle for Hormuz may push both sides towards risky escalation.”

The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei worried about his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has now replaced him, was “perceived as not very bright … unqualified … and had issues in his personal life,” CBS News reports.

“Swaths of the public in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. have soured on the U.S., driven by President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions” according to recent results from the Politico Poll.

“Respondents in these countries increasingly see China as a more dependable partner than the U.S… Critically, Europeans surveyed see it as possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. but harder to reduce reliance on China.”

“President Trump’s call for other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz was met with little in the way of immediate commitments from the nations he named, including Japan, South Korea and the U.K.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Vice President JD Vance said that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was hurt in strikes on Iran,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Vance: “It’s obviously a very chaotic environment over there. And you have the Israelis striking, you have, obviously the United States striking a number of targets. We know that he’s hurt. We don’t know exactly how bad, but we know that he’s hurt.”

“I think President Trump thought he could get a better deal than the Obama administration did. He failed to get that better deal, and he went off and launched a war without planning.”

— Pete Buttigieg, on CNN.