- Says “our Military will finish up the little that is left of Iran!”
- U.S. ‘failed to gain trust of Iranian delegation’, says Parliamentary Speaker
President Donald Trump posted Sunday on social media that the US Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade to stop ships from entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz.
In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned it had traffic in the strategic waterway under full control and would trap any enemy who try to challenge it “in a deadly vortex in the strait if it makes the wrong move.”
Iran has itself been restricting traffic through the strait – a key route for shipments of oil, gas and fertilizer from the Gulf to the world market – while allowing vessels deemed to be working for friendly countries, such as China, to pass. There have been unconfirmed reports that Tehran plans to charge tolls.
After US officials ended peace talks with Iran in Pakistan, Trump sought to exert more strategic control over the waterway responsible for the transportation of 20% of global oil supplies — hoping to takeaway Iran’s key source of economic leverage in the war.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted.
The President added that he has “also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”
The President stressed that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the failure to end the war and that the US was prepared to finish the war.
“(A)t an appropriate moment, we are fully ‘LOCKED AND LOADED,’ and our Military will finish up the little that is left of Iran!” Trump posted.
Later, in a Fox News interview, Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on Chinese imports if Beijing tries to help the Iranian military, and added: “I could take out Iran in one day. I could have their entire energy everything, every one of their plants, their electric generating plants, which is a big deal.”
The President’s latest ultimatum appeared to have been triggered by the failure of talks in Islamabad between high-level American and Iranian delegations to secure a deal to end the six-week-old war, that began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Tehran and killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s refusal to give up its right to a nuclear program – which Tehran insists is for peaceful civilian purposes but Western capitals believe conceals a quest for a bomb – frustrated the US delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kuchner.
“I have always said, right from the beginning, and many years ago, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Trump said.
“The Blockade will begin shortly. Other Countries will be involved with this Blockade. Iran will not be allowed to profit off this Illegal Act of EXTORTION.”
Trump did not name the other countries he expects to join the US Navy cordon and, before his post, many international capitals had called for the temporary truce in the Gulf to be preserved while Washington and Tehran seek a diplomatic solution.
Vance left Pakistan after the talks – the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic Revolution – and warned that Washington had made Tehran its “final and best offer” for a deal, adding: “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of his country’s negotiating team, said Tehran “put forward constructive initiatives but ultimately the other side was unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations.”
The U.S. “ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation” during peace talks in Islamabad, Tehran’s Parliamentary Speaker has said.
In a post on X, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Washington “understood our logic and principles, and now it is time to decide whether it can earn our trust or not”.
He added: “We certainly consider diplomacy of authority to be another method, alongside military struggle, for achieving the rights of the Iranian people, and we will not stop for a moment from trying to consolidate the achievements of the forty days of Iranian national defence.”
The failure of the talks will raise concerns that a return to fighting could drive world energy prices higher and further damage shipping and oil and gas facilities in the region, while civilians in the region were concerned that airstrikes could resume with no political endgame in sight.
“We feel despair and hopelessness. We are tired of this uncertainty,” said Nahid, a 60-year-old housewife in Tehran, contacted by AFP.
Pakistan, which hosted the talks and whose leadership had ushered the rival sides to the table, said it would keep facilitating dialogue and urged both countries to continue respecting the temporary truce.
“It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, and both leaders agreed it “was vital there was a continuation of the ceasefire, and that all parties avoided any further escalation.”
An EU spokesman said diplomacy would be “essential” to securing peace and hailed Pakistan’s mediation efforts, while Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian to offer his services to the diplomatic effort.
“Vladimir Putin emphasized his readiness to further facilitate the search for a political and diplomatic settlement to the conflict, and to mediate efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said, in its readout of the call.
Written with reports from AFP