Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Is On Life Support, Considers Restarting Navy Escorts Through Strait Of Hormuz

President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran is on “life support” and that he is considering restarting US navy military escorts of ships through the strait of Hormuz to end the Iranian blockade of the vital waterway.

Trump dismissed Iran’s peace proposals as “stupid” and, referring to the ceasefire in force since 7 April, said: “I would call it the weakest, right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us – I didn’t even finish reading it.”

ANI News

Iran’s response, which Tehran framed as reasonable and responsible, was met with rejection from Washington, with Trump calling it “totally unacceptable” and “a piece of garbage.”

The standoff has left the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, with the US enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports while Iran has shut down shipping traffic that normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply.

In the middle of the dispute, Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari said: “As long as the war on all fronts is not over, sanctions are not lifted, blocked funds are not released, war damages are not compensated and Iran’s sovereignty over the strait of Hormuz not recognised, there will be no other negotiations.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Iran’s proposals were “reasonable, responsible and generous,” while Trump said he was considering restarting escorts after rejecting Tehran’s counter-offer.

Baghaei also told reporters that “Our demand is legitimate,” and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran’s armed forces were ready to respond decisively to any “act of aggression”.

AP News

Trump said he supported a suspension of the federal tax on gasoline and described the ceasefire as “unbelievably weak” while the BBC reported that Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf wrote on X that Iran’s armed forces were, “ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression.”

The BBC said Iran’s counter-offer included an immediate end to the war on all fronts, a halt to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and guarantees of no further attacks, while Trump rejected the proposal as “totally unacceptable” and “a piece of garbage.”

As the dispute continued, the AP reported that Trump claimed Iran had said it would allow the U.S. to come in and help extract its highly enriched uranium but went back on that in its latest ceasefire proposal, saying “They changed their mind because they didn’t put it in the paper.”

The deadlock has pushed oil prices higher, with the Guardian reporting oil prices rose to more than $105 a barrel as the impasse continued, and the BBC saying the ceasefire remained in place but was “unbelievably weak.”

The Guardian reported that the impasse will cast a shadow over Trump’s summit with the Chinese president Xi, Jinping, which starts in Beijing on Thursday, with China having deep economic ties to Iran and Xi unlikely to agree to any request from Trump to restrict oil purchases or arms sales between Beijing and Tehran.

The AP said the stalled diplomacy and recent exchanges of fire could tip the Middle East back into open warfare and prolong the worldwide energy crisis sparked by the conflict, while also noting that Iran has a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and America is blockading Iranian ports.

The Guardian reported that shipping companies are still negotiating to bypass the blockades in the strait of Hormuz, but that the overall number of tankers being allowed through remains minuscule, and it highlighted a cargo of Emirati liquefied petroleum gas sailing under the Panamanian flag that departed from the port of Sharjah.

In parallel, the Guardian said Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, Oman’s foreign minister, held talks with Arsenio Dominguez, the secretary general of the International Maritime Organization, to try to reach agreement on a new regime for the waterway and urgent humanitarian measures, with Dominguez saying supplies would soon start running short and the IMO estimating almost 1,500 tankers and 20,000 seafarers are stranded in the Gulf.