The most glaring absurdity of this crisis is the US administration’s attempt to have it both ways. On one hand, Washington declares a ceasefire and extends it for an indefinite period, and pretending intention to negotiate in good faith. On the other, it simultaneously imposes a naval blockade, an act that international law has long recognised as an act of war.

This is not a matter of interpretation. The UN General Assembly’s Definition of Aggression (1974) explicitly states in Article 3(c) that “the blockade of the ports or coasts of a State by the armed forces of another State” constitutes an act of aggression. You cannot blockade a nation’s ports and simultaneously claim you are at peace with it. You cannot throttle a country’s economy and insist you are pursuing diplomacy. This is not statecraft. It is strategic self-contradiction and it is dangerous play.

The ceasefire represented a pause in active hostilities. By imposing a blockade while that pause was still in effect, the United States has not merely violated the spirit of the ceasefire, it has fundamentally betrayed itself.