The Daily Populous Tuesday March 31st, 2026 day edition
Authored by brief.gizmet.dev and submitted by Mikeynphoto2009

The White House listed four war objectives. Reopening the strait is not one of them. The Secretary of State says it will reopen. Gulf allies say the war cannot end without it. Iran says no negotiations have happened. Brent is up 55% in March.

The Wall Street Journal reported on 30 March, citing administration officials, that Trump has told aides he would end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The mission to pry open the chokepoint "would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks" (WSJ, 30 Mar). Operation Epic Fury is on Day 31. The four-week mark has passed. The six-week window closes 11 April.

White House press secretary Leavitt confirmed the substance on the record, listing four core objectives: destroy Iran's navy, dismantle missile and drone infrastructure, weaken proxies, prevent nuclear acquisition (White House briefing, 30 Mar). Hormuz is absent from Leavitt's list. Hours earlier, Rubio told Al Jazeera the strait "will be open when this operation is over, one way or another" (Al Jazeera, 30 Mar). The Times of Israel flagged the contradiction: the Secretary of State says Hormuz will reopen; the White House says it is not a core objective. Rubio's fallback: a "coalition of nations" would reopen the strait. Over thirty nations issued a joint political statement backing the concept on 19 March, led by the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada (GOV.UK, 19 Mar). None committed forces. The parallel to Operation Earnest Will (1987-88), when US-led escorts partially reopened Gulf shipping during the Iran-Iraq tanker war, is instructive; that operation took fourteen months.

Gulf allies are pushing the opposite direction. The Washington Post reported Saudi Arabia and the UAE are "privately making the case to keep fighting until Iran is decisively defeated," with the UAE pushing for a ground invasion and Hormuz security as an explicit war termination condition (WaPo, 30 Mar). Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Baghaei stated on 31 March: "We have had no negotiations with America in these thirty-one days." He called US proposals unrealistic and excessive. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on 29 March that the US was "doing extremely well in that negotiation" (Iran International, Al Jazeera, 29-30 Mar).

The administration has separated winning the war from reopening the strait. That separation has a price. If the war ends on Trump's timeline, the IRGC toll corridor survives the campaign it was built during. The Majlis legislation converting the toll into permanent law advances on its own timeline. War-risk premiums, which effectively priced many commercial operators out of the strait before the IRGC's physical closure, remain in place (Lloyd's JWC, S&P Global). Brent settled at $112.78, up approximately 55% in March, the largest monthly surge since the contract began in 1988 (ICE, 30 Mar; CNBC, 30 Mar).

Oil does not fall on a ceasefire if the strait stays closed.

For informational purposes only. No editorial line. No advocacy. Assessment only. AI-assisted collection and drafting; all analytical assessments are human-directed. Errors: corrections@gizmet.dev

Sources: Wall Street Journal, 30 Mar 2026 (administration officials) · White House press briefing / Leavitt, 30 Mar · Rubio, Al Jazeera interview, 30 Mar · Times of Israel, 30 Mar (objective discrepancy) · GOV.UK joint statement, 19 Mar (35 signatories) · Washington Post, 30 Mar (Gulf allies, ground invasion) · Trump, Air Force One remarks, 29 Mar (Iran International, Al Jazeera) · Baghaei, Iranian foreign ministry, 31 Mar · Lloyd's JWC, S&P Global · ICE / CNBC, 30 Mar (Brent)

GIZINT · 31 March 2026 · Signal · Gizmet Dev Ltd · gizmet.dev

Good_Posture on March 31st, 2026 at 05:08 UTC »

The Trump administration has made Russia, China, and now Iran stronger.

The man is a master strategist.

CarmynRamy on March 31st, 2026 at 04:15 UTC »

So, we ended up getting the worst of all in the end?

Iran getting more radicalised.

Iran exerting more control over the Hormuz strait and monetising it.

Distrust and tensions to prevail among GCC states.

Proxy war to continue.

This is the problem when people with cognitive ability of a reddit armchair expert with no real world experience and educated on Western propaganda ends up on the most powerful seat in the world and declare war on state in the middle of negotiations. They seriously thought this was another Venezuela, didn't they?

No matter how much wars they lose in the Global South. US has to understand countries in the global South are the ones whose indigenous population fought invasions and colonialism for centuries without wiping themselves out, unlike countries whose indigenous population was replaced by the settlers.

Mikeynphoto2009 on March 31st, 2026 at 03:48 UTC »

SS: The Wall Street Journal reported on 30 March, citing administration officials, that Trump has told aides he would end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed because reopening it would push the conflict past his four-to-six week timeline.

White House press secretary Leavitt listed four core objectives on the record the same day: destroy the navy, dismantle missile and drone infrastructure, weaken proxies, prevent nuclear acquisition. Hormuz is absent. Hours earlier, Rubio told Al Jazeera the strait "will be open when this operation is over, one way or another."

The Times of Israel flagged the discrepancy. The article analyses what this separation means for oil markets, the IRGC toll corridor, and Gulf allies who have made Hormuz security an explicit war termination condition.