Trump Says U.S. Naval Blockade Will Keep Pressure on Iran After Rejecting Deal Proposal

U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly framed Iran’s situation as nearing irreversible breakdown while insisting the United States will keep pressure on Tehran through a naval blockade.

“On March 11, the Thai cargo ship Mayuree Naree was struck by two projectiles while crossing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important waterways located between Iran and Oman”

Al Jazeera

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump said Iran has been “destroyed,” adding that “we have already destroyed their navy, destroyed their air force, destroyed all of their.”

Al Jazeera

He also told Newsmax that “If we leave right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild if they ever could rebuild,” while arguing that “They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump further asserted, “I will tell you that Iran would use the nuclear weapon if they had it,” and said “we’re not going to give them a chance to do it.”

In parallel, Trump told Axios that “The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” and described Iran as “choking like a stuffed pig.”

Axios reported that Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to first open the Strait of Hormuz and lift the blockade while postponing nuclear talks, saying he would keep Iran under a naval blockade until the regime agrees to a deal addressing U.S. concerns about its nuclear program.

Multiple outlets described how the U.S. blockade is constraining Iran’s ability to export oil and forcing it to rely on storage, with analysts and intelligence sources offering different timelines for when capacity could be exhausted.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran could run out of storage capacity for the oil it is producing within “15 to 60 days,” citing “two Western intelligence sources.”

AP News

It said that since the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports began, “Iranian oil tankers have not left port,” and that the tankers previously accounted for about “85% of the country’s total exports.”

The Jerusalem Post also quoted a U.S. official saying, “The blockade is working to perfection,” and “There is no economic trade going into or out of Iran.”

AP framed the same pressure as potentially forcing Iran to reduce or cease production from some wells “perhaps beginning in as little as two weeks,” while noting that the situation may not be as dire as Trump’s “colorfully suggesting pipelines could start exploding within days.”

CNBC similarly reported that experts said Iran has “weeks of space left in its tanks to store oil that it can't export,” and it cited a White House official saying Iran is losing “$500 million per day due to the blockade.”

While the U.S. blockade is designed to choke Iranian oil revenues, Al Jazeera described how a “shadow fleet” continued to move through the Strait of Hormuz even after the blockade began.

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Axios

It reported that on March 11, the Thai cargo ship Mayuree Naree was struck by two projectiles while crossing the Strait of Hormuz, and that “20 sailors were rescued, three remained trapped,” with their remains found weeks later after a specialized rescue team boarded the vessel on Iran’s Qeshm island.

Al Jazeera said Iran threatened to block “enemy” ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz after the United States-Israeli war launched on February 28, and that after a temporary ceasefire on April 8, “the United States imposed a full naval blockade on Iranian ports on April 13.”

It then described an open-source investigation tracking “202 voyages made by 185 vessels through the strait between March 1 and April 15,” and said “Of the tracked voyages, 77 (38.5 percent) were directly or indirectly linked to Iran.”

Al Jazeera reported that “61 of the ships transiting the strait were explicitly listed on international sanctions lists,” and that even during the blockade phase “25 ships crossed the strait” between April 13 and April 15.

It also described specific tactics: the Iranian cargo ship “13448” broke the blockade and reached Karachi, Pakistan, and it said the Panama-flagged Manali crossed on April 14 and “penetrating the cordon again on April 17 en route to Mumbai, India.”

As the blockade tightens, multiple reports described a negotiation deadlock in which Iran’s proposals and U.S. red lines clash, with Trump publicly rejecting steps that would lift the blockade before nuclear issues are addressed.

Axios reported that Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to first open the Strait of Hormuz and lift the blockade while postponing nuclear talks to a later stage, and it said Trump told Axios he saw the blockade as “somewhat more effective than the bombing.”

CNBC

It also reported that “U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has prepared a plan for a

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