A US-protected oil corridor is weakening Tehran’s leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, while expanded sanctions are targeting the financial networks that sustain Iran. China—and the response inside Iran—will determine how far the strategy can go.

Six months of war have weakened Iran without producing surrender or a clear route to ending the conflict. Reuters reports that Washington is consequently shifting its emphasis back toward economic pressure, with further strikes considered unlikely for the time being.

It seems that Tehran presents that change as an admission that military force failed. Yet the more important question is whether the fighting has created conditions in which economic coercion can become more effective. Washington’s “Economic D-Day” is not simply another sanctions package. It is an attempt to combine control of energy traffic, financial isolation and pressure on Iran’s domestic economy.

A Maritime Advantage, Not a Victory

The first front is the Strait of Hormuz. According to Axios, the US military has been guiding 15 to 20 tankers through a southern channel near Oman each night. The operation has raised the flow of oil leaving the strait to nearly 10 million barrels a day—approximately half its prewar level—while US aircraft protect the convoys against Islamic regime in Iran’s missiles and drones.

The operation is coordinated by a task force at Fort Bragg that schedules separate inbound and outbound convoys. On........

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