How could US forcibly reopen strait of Hormuz and what are the risks?

US ground troops have arrived in Middle East but military options to open strait risk strong retaliation from Iran The arrival of US ground invasion forces in the Middle East over the weekend provides Donald Trump with the muscle for a perilous attempt to forcibly open the strait of Hormuz, Iran’s biggest pressure point in the war. Iran’s chokehold on the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes, gives Tehran leverage that Trump understands, sending oil prices rocketing to more than $100 a barrel. The US president has said he is prepared to give diplomacy a chance, though bombing of Iran continues. But he also said on Sunday that he wanted to “take the oil in Iran”. Trump has two military options to open the strait: seizing territory, or deploying a massive naval presence in the waterway. Even the limited ground incursion being considered risks the kind of body count that could sink a presidency, experts say. For Iran, boots on the ground would be a red line. Emma Salisbury, a senior fellow in the national security programme at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said she believed Trump would not be able to resist escalating the conflict by capturin