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Paid for it by the Electronic Payments Coalition.

From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

So much for the Iran War being on the verge of a peace deal.

That's what President Trump claimed late last week, but over the weekend, Iran begged to differ.

Iran now says it'll keep the Strait of Hormuz closed until the U.S.

lifts its blockade of Iranian ports. And on the weekend, Iran fired on one tanker, and the U.S.

stopped and fired a pond and then aborted a ship that was ignoring its demand to stop as part of the blockade.

So peace talks are scheduled to resume in Islamabad, Pakistan, as early as Monday evening or Tuesday.

But nobody's sure who from Iran will actually show up, if anyone will. So that's the uncertain state of play this week. Looks like it will not end. Soon, welcome to Potomac Watch. I'm Paul Giego of the Wall Street Journal Opinion pages, and I'm here with Kate, Bachelder O'Dell, and Elliott Kaufman. So let's start with the military situation first, Kate.

The blockade is a serious business, it appears.

The U.S. is not letting the ships out.

So how do you read that exchange this weekend?

Well, we have turned back 27 ships now, Central Command said, today on Monday. The seizure of the Iranian cargo ship is quite significant. It looks

to me as though, you know, Iran wanted to test whether we were serious about enforcing the blockade.

...