Mohammed bin Salman called Donald Trump twice on Thursday. The ask, according to people familiar with the calls, was direct: American strikes on Houthi positions as the group closed on the Bab el-Mandeb. The answer was no. Washington offered intelligence sharing and targeting support instead, and sent the CENTCOM commander to the kingdom for coordination talks rather than a strike package. Forty-eight hours later the question was moot. The Houthis took Mokha on Thursday, pushed down the coast through Dhubab, and by Friday had fighters on Mayyun, the volcanic island that splits the strait’s navigable channel into two lanes.

The market spent most of this week pricing in a reopening. Then Fars published the draft, and the trade unwound in about an hour. Brent settled Thursday at $82.49, up 3.8%. WTI closed at $77.29, up 2.8%. Friday morning added another 1.25% on Brent and 1.10% on WTI, putting the international benchmark near $83.50. That still leaves the week down roughly 8%, because Monday and Tuesday were spent on the assumption that a deal was imminent.

The United States spent four months building a legal and moral case against tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. On June 24, Trump called any fee on transiting shipping unacceptable. Marco Rubio, asked about the distinction between a fee and a toll, said there wasn’t one — it was an international waterway, and no nation on Earth supported paying to cross it. Washington told the Gulf states, told Singapore, told the European Commission, and told Beijing that the principle was not negotiable.