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Trump, Iran, Hormuz
President Donald Trump told Axios the US was “low-keying” negotiations with Iran while “semi-negotiating” and watching Iran’s “huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
““We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,””
Iran’s supreme national security council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zulqader said “until America corrects its behavior, The Strait of Hormuz will not open,” listing demands that include lifting the naval blockade and compensation for damages from two wars.
The dispute centers on whether Iran and Oman can finalize a framework for reopening the Strait of Hormuz while the US and Iran remain at odds over conditions for resuming shipping.
In parallel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said their strategy was to maintain the closure “until the enemy accepts all our conditions ... the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway.”
Vance and the pressure
Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that “we really are in the middle of the game here. This thing is not over,” while saying the US was using “a whole range of diplomatic, economic and military tools” simultaneously.
Vance also said, “They are suffering very badly. They want this thing to end,” and added that “we’ve made some progress over the last couple of days,” as negotiations continued with additional countries in the Gulf.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks with Oman were “approaching the final stages” but cautioned that “this is not a sign of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”
CBS News also described the Supreme National Security Council’s list of demands, including that the US must “withdraw all military assets from the region” and “compensate Iran for war damages,” before the strait fully reopens.
What comes next
The US kept the military option open as discussions continued, with The Jerusalem Post noting that renewed US strikes remained “on the table” and that Israel’s independent strike was also possible.
““We're going to eliminate Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready.””
Trump’s warnings about the underground complex at Pickaxe Mountain near Natanz were tied to whether an agreement was reached, with the report citing Trump’s statement: “We're going to eliminate Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready.”
The stakes extend beyond Hormuz as the same reporting tied Iran’s pressure to attacks by its Yemen-based allies, with The Independent describing a UAE condemnation of an Iranian missile attack on an ADNOC vessel and noting that no injuries were reported.
In Yemen, the stakes also included casualties and damage, with The Independent saying the Yemeni military reported “seven people including military personnel and civilians were killed and 30 others wounded” in a Houthi attack on the Red Sea port city of Mocha.
