Almost a month into a precarious ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, the Islamist regime said Thursday that it is reviewing a new proposal put forward by the Trump administration that would end the war. The development comes as President Trump threatened to implement “higher level” military strikes if Tehran rejects the offer.

The development marks the latest twist in the ongoing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds of ships remain stranded due to threats from Iran against any vessels attempting to pass through. On Monday, Trump announced the implementation of Project Freedom, which involves U.S. naval vessels escorting commercial ships safely through the Strait. After Iran launched an attack on American naval and commercial vessels as they passed through, the U.S. reportedly destroyed at least six Iranian small boats and repelled multiple missiles and drones that were fired on them.

But on Tuesday, after two ships were reportedly guided through by U.S. forces, the president announced that the operation would be paused at the request of Pakistan, which is leading the efforts to mediate a peace plan between the U.S. and Iran. However, the American naval blockade of Iranian ships attempting to exit the Strait would remain in place, Trump noted.

The latest U.S. proposal reportedly “calls for further negotiations over a 30-day period, during which the Strait of Hormuz would remain open.” Trump voiced optimism about the deal, remarking that “it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal” and that the war would be “over quickly.” In response to the news, stocks surged Wednesday by roughly 2% while U.S. crude oil plummeted by up to 15% to $88 per barrel, and international Brent crude oil also dropped by 11% to $96 per barrel.

Experts like former National Security Advisor John Bolton say that while there are a lot of moving parts to the situation, the U.S. blockade appears to be working.

“[It’s a] very confusing picture,” he observed during “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “I do think that the pressure that was applied by the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports has been an important factor by cutting off oil sales by Iran, and therefore the revenue they generate. That has put significant economic pressure on the regime in Tehran, which is already suffering under a bad economy before the war started. And our attacks, along with Israel, have destroyed a lot of their military infrastructure. So the blockade is a very important reality and something that we should use for maximum leverage.”

Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, went on to point out that the Iranian regime still appears to be flailing as it remains leaderless, even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed to have met with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei — the first time such a meeting has been reported.

“The inability of the government in Tehran to form coherent diplomatic positions to engage in systematic negotiation, really to have an idea of what the real position of the government is, is evidence of just how much damage the U.S.-Israeli strikes [inflicted],” he noted. “Did you know, we still haven’t seen a single sign of life from the supposed new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the deceased former supreme leader. And I suspect what’s happening is that really nobody’s overall in charge, that there’s a diffusion of power. … [That’s] why, if the regime does begin to come apart at the top, the opponents of the regime inside Iran, with some help from us and others on the outside, I think would have a real chance of bringing the regime down.”

As for what conditions should be met before the U.S. should declare victory in the conflict, Bolton argued that Iran gaining nuclear capabilities must be off the table. “I think there’s got to be some very clear agreement on how to handle the aspects of the nuclear program as they currently exist. People point most to the highly enriched uranium, which is a necessary step to nuclear weapons. But there are a lot of other aspects to this program that really should be taken out of Iran’s hands. They’ve been saying for 40-plus years they don’t want a nuclear weapon and consistently violating what they say.”

Bolton further insisted that securing the Strait of Hormuz must be a second condition to ending the conflict. “Unless … deterrence [is] reestablished, they’ll turn the Strait of Hormuz on and off like a light switch for the foreseeable future, and that’s something that we can’t tolerate. I mean, we believed in freedom of the seas while we were still colonies of Great Britain. This is a very important point for us, and it’s a critical point for the Gulf Arab states. … If they can’t ship their oil peacefully and without hindrance through the Strait of Hormuz, [that] would really give the regime in Tehran a chokehold permanently over oil production from the entire region.”

At the same time, Bolton contended that America’s allies in Europe must step up and help in ending Tehran’s assault on free maritime trade.

“[T]he Europeans made a real mistake in saying ‘this is not our war.’ It is,” he emphasized. “Global prices in petroleum are affected when 20% of the world’s production capacity is cut off, which is what Iran did. That’s why we’re paying higher prices at the pump here in the U.S., even though we get almost no petroleum from that region. Obviously, buyers all over the world can bid for oil. And so, when you see a shortage caused by cutting off Gulf production, our prices are going to go up — and so are the Europeans.”

“I think Trump made a mistake not consulting them in advance, but they should behave like leaders thinking geostrategically,” Bolton added. “They should be with us. We’ve had reports on the other side of the world that South Korea is giving thought to actually joining with us to try and keep the Strait of Hormuz open. I think we need more allies like that, more allies like Israel.”