Trump Threatens Higher-Level Strikes as Tehran Reviews U.S. Proposal to End War

Tehran said it was reviewing a U.S. proposal to end the war, as President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, “They want to make a deal.

We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it's very possible that we'll make a deal.”

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Trump also threatened to resume bombing Iran if an agreement did not go through, and the CBS News report said he threatened “higher level” military strikes if Iran does not accept a peace deal.

The dispute has been tied to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, and Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, while Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs for the first time since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month.

In the same reporting cycle, U.S.

Central Command said it disabled an Iranian-flagged oil tanker, identified as M/T Hasna, after it allegedly tried to breach a U.S.-imposed blockade.

The U.S. military said the tanker’s rudder was disabled after a navy fighter jet fired several rounds, and CENTCOM said the blockade remains “in full effect.”

Iran’s response to Trump’s announcement of a pause in Project Freedom came without a public reaction, while CBS News said the pause was prompted by “great progress” in negotiations brokered by Pakistan.

The Guardian reported that Iran’s most senior negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, remained defiant, saying, “The enemy, in its new design, is seeking, through a naval blockade, economic pressure and media manipulation, to destroy the country’s cohesion in order to force us to surrender.”

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The same Guardian account said Trump’s ultimatum followed a rapid series of policy changes and came shortly after Axios reported Washington and Tehran were close to agreeing on a one-page memorandum of understanding.

In parallel, The Jerusalem Post reported that a Pakistani source said, “We will close this very soon.

We are getting close,” and said the U.S. expected a response from Iran within 48 hours.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told news outlets Tehran was still reviewing the proposal and would present its response to mediators in Pakistan.

The Hill also described the proposed 14-point framework as including a moratorium on nuclear enrichment and lifting sanctions, while Reuters-linked reporting in The Jerusalem Post said the document would require lifting blockades in the Strait of Hormuz and a U.S. removal of sanctions.

As negotiations advanced, the Strait of Hormuz remained the central pressure point, with Project Freedom paused and the U.S. blockade described as continuing.

The Guardian said more than 800 ships and roughly 20,000 crew members remain stranded west of the narrow waterway, and it reported that Iran has threatened to deploy mines, drones, missiles and fast-attack craft to make passage too risky for commercial shipping.

Trump’s latest ultimatum tied the reopening of the strait to Iran’s acceptance of what he said had been agreed, writing that the operation would end and the “Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran,” if Iran agrees.

If Iran did not agree, Trump warned, “the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” raising the stakes for both the blockade and the broader conflict.

Meanwhile, CBC’s reporting said the global oil supply was expected to be pinched for weeks even if a peace plan was reached, because oil shipments would take weeks to return to normal.

The same reporting cited Rystad Energy’s Claudio Galimberti, who told Reuters that by the time supply returns to normal “the world will have lost 1.2 billion to 2.0 billion barrels of supply.”