Iran is expanding the theater of war with an eye on the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, according to U.S. Central Command, more than 30 Iranian-directed drones attacked American forces and Saudi energy installations near Riyadh and the Eastern Province. On July 28, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spread the battle to Jordan, firing a fresh volley of ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the country.

American and Saudi aircraft answered in Iraq, striking targets across seven provinces, where the Popular Mobilization Forces—militias funded by, and loyal to Tehran—counted 20 dead. There were strikes on targets in Iran, too, and threats of more to come. President Donald Trump, who only four days earlier had called off a 13-day bombing campaign, promised that the Islamic Republic was “going to get a beating.”

Oman’s most recent attempt to find an off-ramp that would satisfy all the belligerents collapsed. Muscat had reportedly handed Tehran a Gulf-backed plan for joint management of the Strait of Hormuz, under which Iran would not exercise sole control and any fees would be voluntary. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, rejected it. The Islamic Republic, he countered, should run one full lane through its own waters and part of the other—and Tehran would consider “any action” to keep control of the strait, including resuming the war.

And so, here we are: Iran has restarted its on-again, off-again war with the U.S. over the administrative terms of a shipping lane. The American-Saudi response, punitive in its immediate purpose, must also be understood as an effort to break Iran’s grip on the strait. This is not where we began. When the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28, they had a list: regime change, elimination of the nuclear program, destruction of missile capabilities, dismantling of proxy militias.

Tehran initially turned Hormuz into an instrument of defense, closing the strait to make the conflict unaffordable for everyone else. The U.S.........

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