What's behind Trump's shift to economic pressure on Iran? Will it work?

More than 23 weeks into the war on Iran, United States President Donald Trump has signalled he would rather rely on squeezing Tehran's economy than returning to a military offensive, as he had warned he might last week. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway now central to negotiations aimed at ending the war, remains disrupted by Iranian forces as a US naval blockade tightens its grip on Iranian ports. "We are low-keying it," Trump told the news website Axios in an interview on Sunday regarding the US approach to the war on Iran. Now, Trump said, he wants to hit Iran economically instead. He said Iran is in "very bad shape" financially, citing high inflation and difficulty paying its own soldiers, and credited a US naval blockade in place since April with increasing that pressure. "We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," he said. "It will work out. It always works out. It's like a chess game," he said. While Iran and Oman have said they are close to reaching an agreement on the management of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said the US is "only semi-negotiating" with Iran. Tehran has denied direct talks at all with Washington. Tehran has asked the US to compensate it for these losses as one of the conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The US has maintained a naval blockade against Iranian ports since mid-April. The aim is to reduce Iran's oil exports — estimated at about 1.5 million barrels per day — and thereby significantly decrease its oil revenues. On Saturday, the US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) reported redirecting 53 commercial vessels, boarding two and disabling two others.