Trump says 'they refuse to give up their nuclear ambition'

Trump declares US Navy to begin blockading Strait of Hormuz ‘effective immediately’

Despite claiming talks with Iran ‘went well,’ US president says military to stop ‘all ships’ entering or leaving key waterway; report: 60% of IRGC navy’s Hormuz patrol fleet intact

US President Donald Trump on Sunday declared the US Navy will immediately start blockading the Strait of Hormuz and will also intercept in international waters every vessel that paid a toll to Iran.

The move came a day after US-Iranian talks in Pakistan, where the two parties failed to reach an agreement over the course of 21 hours to end the war in the Middle East.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, claimed that the historic talks “went well” for the most part, but “the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not” agreed to by Iran.

“Effective immediately,” he said, the US Navy “will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.”

“Other countries” will also be involved in the blockade, Trump claimed, without identifying them by name.

Iran has effectively imposed its own blockade on the key waterway since the US and Israel began striking the country on February 28, a move that has caused mass global economic harm, given that the strait is a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

In his Sunday social media post, Trump also declared that he told the US Navy to “interdict,” or intercept, all ships that paid a toll to Iran to cross the strait since it began its blockade last month.

“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” he wrote, without elaborating on how many ships paid Iran crossing fees or how the US will treat the interdicted vessels.

Echoing the inflammatory language he used in the days leading up to the fragile two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, Trump also said: “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”

“Iran knows, better than anyone, how to END this situation which has already devastated their Country,” he warned.

Trump also accused Iran of “world extortion” for saying it had mined the Strait of Hormuz, and repeated his announcement that the US would soon begin de-mining the strait.

“We’re sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me,” he said during the talks a day earlier.

The American military said on Saturday that it had begun a mine-clearing operation in the Strait of Hormuz, saying that two destroyers, USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), “transited the Strait of Hormuz and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”

A day after that announcement, Iranian state media published a video ostensibly showing the IRGC navy warning a US Navy missile destroyer to turn back after entering the Strait of Hormuz.

“Navy warship 121. This is Sepah (IRGC) Navy station. You must alter course and go back to the Indian Ocean immediately. If you don’t obey my order, you will be targeted,” an IRGC Navy serviceman was heard telling the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr.

A servicemember aboard USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. responded by saying that the ship was engaged in “transit passage in accordance with international law.”

The IRGC serviceman responded to the ship, saying he was issuing a “last warning.” The IRGC member also warned nearby ships to keep their distance from any warship in their vicinity, “because I’m ready to open fire on them without any warning.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 60% of the IRGC’s Hormuz naval fleet is still intact after six weeks of war.

According to the report, the IRGC mans the strait with a fleet of small speedboats and attack craft equipped to guard the key waterway with missiles and mines. Those boats are harder to target than the traditional battleships used by the Iranian navy, the report said, as they often evade satellite detection due to their size. The IRGC also stores the boats in “underground pens,” the Journal reported, further hampering efforts to locate them.

As a result, US and Israeli strikes against Iran’s naval capabilities mainly targeted its traditional navy rather than the IRGC’s.

Still, the report noted that some IRGC vessels were destroyed in strikes, including the IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi, capable of firing antiship and surface-to-air missiles, and the Shahid Bagheri, the IRGC’s largest drone carrier in the Persian Gulf.

However, the largely intact fleet of small boats and attack craft should allow the IRGC to continue to control the strait with ease, the Journal said, including by laying mines down throughout the narrow waterway, with the heavy damage inflicted to Iran’s traditional navy making “relatively little difference” in this area.

Trump blames failed talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions

Minutes after his post announcing the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump posted on social media again, reiterating US claims that the main issue behind the failure of the negotiations was Iran’s refusal to commit to not seeking nuclear weapons.

“I could go into great detail, and talk about much that has been gotten but, there is only one thing that matters — IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS” Trump wrote.

“In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our Military Operations to conclusion, but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing Nuclear Power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people,” he continued.

He later elaborated this assertion in an interview with Fox News, saying further that “we got just about every point we needed except for the fact that they refuse to give up their nuclear ambition.”

“They want to have nuclear weapons. They’re not going to have nuclear weapons,” he declared

“They came in like they have the cards, but they don’t have the cards,” he said, repeating a line he said ahead of Saturday’s talks. “I predict they come back and give us everything we want. I don’t want 95 percent. I told them. I want everything.”

On his promise to blockade the Strait of Hormuz to Iranian oil, Trump said that it will happen “in a little while, but it’ll be effective pretty soon. We’re going to clean out the strait. They’re not going to be able to use the strait in not too long a distance.”

Iran has one thing that it can do, he acknowledged — mining the strait. “Just a mine, we’ll drop one mine, two mines, ten mines, and that will, if you have a ship that costs a billion dollars, you say, well, you know, I’d prefer not getting whacked by a mine and losing my ship.”

“I can take out Iran in one day,” he said, adding that he’d prefer not to make good on that threat.

Trump’s claim matched the assessments of several US officials speaking after the talks ended Sunday morning, with Vice President JD Vance saying: “We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.”

An Iranian official later dismissed that assertion as “false.”

“Iran’s position is clear,” the official said. “Iran is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, but it has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. This right is undeniable and must be recognized.″

However, Iran is ready to limit its nuclear activities as part of confidence-building measures, the official claimed, including enrichment levels.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Iran in the negotiations, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.”

He did not mention the core disputes in a series of social media posts, though Iranian officials earlier said the talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called US overreach.

Iran’s First Vice President Reza Aref said Tehran sought US recognition of its “authority in the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that it was Iran’s intention to use fees charged to transit the waterway as compensation for the damage caused by US and Israeli strikes during the war, and that doing so was within “the rights of the (Iranian) people.”

“This is our firm commitment to a strong Iran,” Aref wrote on social media.

Iran’s 10-point proposal ahead of the talks called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the key waterway. It included ending fighting against Iran’s “regional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.