Susannah George, Shaiq Hussain, Natalie Allison
\n\u00a0|\u00a0 Washington Post<\/p>\n
Islamabad, Pakistan \u2013 After marathon overnight talks between the United States and Iran failed to clinch a deal on U.S. terms, President Donald Trump on Sunday announced the imposition of a naval blockade on Iran \u2013 a move that could derail a tenuous two-week ceasefire reached just five days ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cEffective 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,\u201d Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social, his social media site. The president also said he had instructed the Navy to interdict all ships that have paid a toll to Iran for traversing the strait, calling Tehran\u2019s expanded control of the waterway \u201cEXTORTION.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview afterward with Fox News, Trump said he expected \u201cnumerous\u201d countries to help with the blockade, which he compared to the U.S. operation to block the flow of oil ships out of Venezuela earlier this year, saying it would be \u201cvery similar to that but at a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blockade in the short term, at least, might risk worsening a war-driven global energy crisis by halting all cargo traffic through the strait, and Trump acknowledged that price of oil and gas may continue to increase in the U.S. for some time.<\/p>\n
While Iran would potentially suffer the most economically, the move may come as a blow to the rest of the world as well, especially nations in Asia, which rely heavily on oil and gas, petrochemicals, and other essentials shipped from the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n
The tight geography could also make naval operations in the Gulf perilous. U.S. ships could be vulnerable to attacks by small craft, as well as drones and missiles. Trump in his post said other countries would be involved in imposing the blockade but offered no specifics.<\/p>\n
Despite failing to reach a deal, Trump expressed optimism that one would still be struck with Iran and reiterated Vice President JD Vance\u2019s earlier remarks that the main sticking point was disagreement over Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good meeting yesterday, really, a good meeting, except for one problem \u2013 and it\u2019s 95 percent,\u201d Trump told Fox. \u201cThey want to have nuclear weapons. It\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he would \u201cfurther destruct Iran\u201d if the nation does not give up its nuclear program, Trump said, \u201cYeah, I will,\u201d saying that strikes on electricity plants, missile production facilities, bridges and even desalinization plants were possible, though on the latter possibility he said he would \u201chate\u201d to target the country\u2019s water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI predict they come back and they give us everything we want,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s announcement of the blockade came just hours after the talks concluded and a statement by Vance, the top U.S. negotiator, indicating that Trump still expected Tehran to surrender. When Vance briefed reporters shortly before leaving the Pakistani capital Sunday, he suggested the U.S. remained open to a diplomatic solution, but only if Iran accepts a proposal that he described as \u201cour final and best offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms. I think that we were quite flexible,\u201d Vance told reporters around 6:30 a.m. local time. He did not respond to shouted questions about whether fighting would resume in what had become an increasingly unpopular and economically damaging war for Trump and the world.<\/p>\n
Before Trump\u2019s announcement of the blockade, Iranian officials also indicated they remain open to diplomacy, but their top negotiator, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, suggested that Washington must make the next move. \u201cAmerica has understood our logic and principles, and now it\u2019s time for it to decide whether it can earn our trust or not,\u201d Ghalibaf posted on X.<\/p>\n
Iranian negotiators \u201craised forward-looking initiatives,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the opposing side ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than 20 hours of the highest-level face-to-face engagement between Iranian and U.S. officials in decades, it was unclear if the two sides would be able to bridge the expansive gaps in their positions before the ceasefire expires in 10 days, or if Trump\u2019s blockade would force Iran to offer concessions or, perhaps, the opposite and reignite hostilities.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Sunday, Trump foreshadowed his plan for naval blockade, by sharing an article on social media headlined \u201cThe Trump card the president holds if Iran won\u2019t bend: a naval blockade.\u201d The article, from the website Just the News, suggested Trump would replicate his naval blockade of Venezuela, which preceded the U.S. military operation to seize the country\u2019s leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
Control of the Strait of Hormuz emerged as one of the most important issues in contention during the talks in Pakistan. Negotiators also discussed the future of Iran\u2019s nuclear program and Tehran\u2019s demand that the U.S. unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets, according to a Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive closed-door discussions.<\/p>\n
Since the outbreak of war, Iran has effectively shut the strait, a narrow passageway that is vital to global energy supplies, a move that has wreaked havoc on global energy markets. Tehran mined parts of the strait, required tankers to request permission to pass and began collecting tolls, a setup Iranian officials have been pushing to make permanent.<\/p>\n
Trump previously said after the conclusion of conflict in the area, the strait would reopen \u201cnaturally.\u201d But Iran has refused to back down. A blockade, at least initially, would mean no one will be able to use the strait.<\/p>\n
Trump has previously threatened the unspecified devastation of Iran, posting on Truth Social: \u201cA whole civilization will die tonight, never to \u200bbe brought back \u200bagain. I don\u2019t want that \u200cto \u2060happen, but it probably will.\u201d The White House later clarified that Trump was not considering the use of nuclear weapons but did not explain what he meant by his threat against the nation of more than 90 million people, with a history tracing back more than 6,000 years.<\/p>\n
Before the blockade announcement, the ceasefire appeared to be holding in the Middle East, with no reported U.S. or Israeli attacks against Iran and no Iranian strikes on Israel or Persian Gulf states. But with 10 days to go in the ceasefire, time appeared to be on Iran\u2019s side. Despite the killing early on of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other high-level assassinations, the country\u2019s hard-line government remains intact, and its security apparatus withstood nearly six weeks of bombing.<\/p>\n
After the talks ended Sunday, Pakistan pledged continued support for a diplomatic resolution to the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is imperative that both parties continue to uphold their commitments to ceasefire,\u201d Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a video statement shortly after Vance departed Sunday morning. \u201cPakistan will continue to play its role to facilitate engagement and dialogue,\u201d he said, between Iran and the United States \u201cin the days to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the Strait of Hormuz, the talks in Islamabad also addressed Iran\u2019s nuclear program and Tehran\u2019s demand for compensation for war damages.<\/p>\n
Negotiators discussed the future of some 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium in Iran. Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities were one of the Trump administration\u2019s central justifications for going to war, and after the ceasefire declaration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested the material would not stay inside Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s buried, and we\u2019re watching it,\u201d Hegseth told reporters last week. Iran can either \u201cgive it to us voluntarily,\u201d he said, or U.S. forces would remove it, though it was unclear how they could do so without undertaking highly dangerous ground operations inside the country.<\/p>\n
Iran is also demanding that the U.S. unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets so the money can be paid as reparations. Another proposal under discussion was to have the toll money Iran collects from the Strait of Hormuz serve as reparations for the damage caused by the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign.<\/p>\n
Iranian leaders have said the payment of war-related damages would be a key element of a deal, providing some disincentive for the U.S. to attack again. The demand was included in Tehran\u2019s 10-point plan to end the war that state-run media released last week.<\/p>\n
Some Israelis, including government officials, have objected to the ceasefire, saying more needs to be done to permanently address the threats to Israel and the region posed by Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Susannah George, Shaiq Hussain, Natalie Allison \u00a0|\u00a0 Washington Post Islamabad, Pakistan \u2013 After marathon overnight talks between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24161,2415,41,23955,177,2524,38,24160,24166,24165,23954,1277,4504,105,618,1368,34,23632,1096,24163,179,1488,19551,876,42,15188,23961,24162,5702,772,5975,11020,81,6386,5160,24164,392,23953,1257,36,23958,1142,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-64021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-autopilot","9":"tag-benjamin","10":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","11":"tag-branch","12":"tag-conflict","13":"tag-donald","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-exclude","16":"tag-exclude-from-paywall-logic-testing","17":"tag-exclude-social-autopilot","18":"tag-executive","19":"tag-executive-branch","20":"tag-fox","21":"tag-fox-news","22":"tag-from","23":"tag-hegseth","24":"tag-iran","25":"tag-jd","26":"tag-jd-vance","27":"tag-logic","28":"tag-military","29":"tag-navy","30":"tag-negative","31":"tag-netanyahu","32":"tag-news","33":"tag-overall","34":"tag-overall-negative","35":"tag-paywall","36":"tag-pete","37":"tag-pete-hegseth","38":"tag-political","39":"tag-political-science","40":"tag-politics","41":"tag-science","42":"tag-social","43":"tag-testing","44":"tag-trump","45":"tag-u0026","46":"tag-vance","47":"tag-war","48":"tag-war-u0026-conflict","49":"tag-world","50":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}