The U.S. did not violate the ceasefire because it was limited to bombing Iran, not enforcing the American blockade against Iranian-linked vessels, according to Michael O’Hanlon, a defense and foreign policy analyst at the Brookings Institution.
“We agreed to stop dropping bombs on them, and that’s the basic thing they wanted,” O’Hanlon said. They U.S. still had to enforce the blockade “if you’re going to make it mean anything,” he said.
But Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior defense adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a violation is up for interpretation because there were no defined terms.
“Trump announced it. The Iranians agreed. But there’s no formal agreement,” Cancian said. “So whether it broke the ceasefire or not depends on your perspective … Nothing was written down.”