🇺🇸🇮🇷 Over the past few days, the United States has explored ways to prompt Iran to back down from insisting on exercising control over the Strait of Hormuz and on receiving what Tehran calls the “service fee” for the passage of ships. The Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources, reported that the main leverage in the indirect negotiations held in Doha a few days ago was a promise to release part of Iran’s frozen assets—assets estimated to be worth about $100 billion. Axios also reported that a senior U.S. official said that Steven Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the U.S. president’s son-in-law, who traveled to Doha last Tuesday, tried to convey this message to Iran that Tehran’s demand to receive the cost of ship passage through the Strait of Hormuz could end the initial agreement between the United States and Iran. 🔴