Along the narrow waters of the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world's oil passes each day, a nation under economic siege is reaching for its oldest instrument of leverage. Iran, squeezed by sanctions and sensing its strategic position eroding, is signaling a willingness to escalate tensions with the United States — not necessarily because it seeks war, but because history and political survival have taught its leadership that confrontation, however dangerous, is preferable to the appearance of surrender. The world watches a familiar and perilous dynamic: a cornered power calculating