President Trump is showing decisive American leadership by surging 3,000 elite paratroopers and nearly 5,000 Marines into the Gulf. This powerful decision will secure the 21-mile Strait of Hormuz—the chokepoint moving 20.9 million barrels per day, roughly one-fifth of global oil supply—and equip American forces with lethal options: seize Iranian coastal bases like Kharg Island or raid buried tunnel complexes holding 440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, enough for up to 10 nuclear weapons.

Yet Vance and Rubio’s backchannel talks in Pakistan to calm markets are a risky gamble. Iran has never honored any deal and cannot be trusted. Every pause hands the mullahs extra time to disperse their stockpile and race toward breakout.

The regime has clearly learned the Fordow lesson: bury more, harden more, hide more. Isfahan’s underground enrichment hall is a total IAEA blind spot, with over 200 kilograms of 60% material possibly inside. Natanz took repeated strikes on March 3 and March 21, yet its buried capacity remains intact. The hardened Pickaxe Mountain complex near Natanz exists to protect continuity, complicate targeting, and let the program survive and reconstitute under fire.

Indisputably, Israel is right to be deeply skeptical. The Jewish State has endured years of Iranian proxy slaughter—Hezbollah’s 150,000 rockets, Hamas’s October 7 massacre, Houthi and Shia militia attacks—and direct barrages. Jerusalem will never subcontract its survival to diplomatic illusions.

Simultaneously, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are proving indispensable partners. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is correctly blocking any early de-escalation, while both nations expand U.S. basing rights, intercept Iranian threats, and prepare direct involvement with F-15 and Typhoon fleets. Higher oil prices are a price they gladly pay to crush the mullahs for good.

Thus, Trump’s surge is exactly the muscular pro-Western strategy America, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE—the iron triangle defending civilization—require.

The Pakistan track may be another classic Trump trap: project overwhelming strength abroad and at home, force Tehran to reveal it has zero interest in real negotiations, then end the job.

But given Iran’s ironclad record of cheating and racing for the bomb, any pause still risks diluting the maximum pressure our alliance must sustain. Drop the illusions now. Keep the surge locked in and the pressure on full throttle. The regime that vows to destroy Israel and dominate the Gulf only understands one language: overwhelming, unrelenting strength.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)