"...and once the last polling station in California shuts, frankly, the tankers can do what they like," a senior administration official said on Wednesday. He was describing the White House response to Iran's seven-day plan to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
Tehran had offered to lift its blockade within a week, in exchange for unfrozen assets, permission to sell oil and a ceasefire on all fronts, Lebanon included. Washington has replied with a tighter draft. The strait would reopen for exactly fourteen days, timed to end at the close of polls on the West Coast.
The ceasefire would run to the same clock. Under the American text, Israel and Hezbollah would each receive a calendar and a countdown. Sanctions on Iranian crude would lift for the fourteen days and snap back at midnight, an arrangement the official called "elegant". Nuclear talks would start on day one and be scheduled to produce a framework at roughly the hour the networks call Ohio.
"Peace is a lot like a tax cut," the official said. "Nobody remembers it the week after they voted."
