In the long and volatile dance between American power and Iranian resolve, President Trump stepped back from the edge of a massive military strike this weekend, choosing instead to open negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that has become the physical embodiment of a deeper contest over regional order. The decision came not from Washington's own strategic calculus alone, but from the quiet counsel of Gulf monarchs who understood, perhaps more viscerally than anyone, what another bombardment would cost. Whether this pause represents genuine diplomacy or merely another interval be