Trump says US will blockade strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail | US-Israel war on Iran
Donald Trump said the United States would begin blockading the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to wrest control of the strategic waterway from Iran, following failed peace talks between countries in Pakistan.
The US president also threatened to bomb Iran’s water purification plants, power plants and bridges if Tehran does not agree to abandon its nuclear weapons program, repeating his earlier threat that has been a key sticking point between the two sides.
Trump’s surprise blockade announcement came after 21 hours of face-to-face peace talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad ended in failure on Sunday morning.
While J.D. Vance, vice president and head of the U.S. team, said Iran refused to give up on the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, Iranian delegates said Washington needed to do more to gain their trust.
Risking a new surge in oil prices, Trump said he had ordered the US navy to “blockade all ships attempting to enter or exit the Strait of Hormuz” and accused Iran of extortion with its own plan to charge tankers.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard responded by declaring that if any warship approached the strait to impose a blockade, which is generally considered an act of war, it would be considered a violation of the existing ceasefire and would be dealt with harshly. They insisted that the strait remain under Iranian control.
Two US destroyers passed and re-crossed the strait without incident on Saturday, although Iranian media said they were threatened as they left. The US military said this was the beginning of a mine-clearing mission.
Trump said US warships will “search and interdict every ship” that has paid money to Iran since the beginning of the conflict and will begin clearing mines in the central part of the strait, which was previously declared a “danger zone” by Tehran, but it is unclear how many mines have been laid.
Nearly 100 tankers have passed through the strait since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, paying up to $2 million each time for passage. Many were bound for China and India carrying Iranian oil products, and going after them could complicate relations between the United States and importing countries.
The US and Iranian delegations left Pakistan shortly after the end of the talks. Vance said he spoke with Trump at least a half-dozen times during talks during the 14-day ceasefire that the United States, Israel and Iran declared overnight on April 7 and 8.
“We need to see a positive commitment.” [Iran] “They’re not going to seek nuclear weapons and they’re not going to seek the means to quickly obtain nuclear weapons,” Vance said. “That’s a fundamental goal of the president of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”
Mohammad Bagir Galibaf, the Iranian parliament speaker who led the Tehran negotiators, said he and his colleagues had offered “constructive initiatives” but that the United States “failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations.”
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said “excessive” US demands were preventing a deal from being reached, and the foreign ministry said more time was needed. “Naturally, we should not have expected to reach an agreement in a single session from the beginning,” ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.
Pakistani mediators urged the United States and Iran to avoid renewing hostilities and said they would try to hold a new round of talks. “It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire,” Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar said.
Vance was accompanied by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. They met with Ghalibaf and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi for several negotiating sessions at the Serena hotel in Islamabad, and Pakistani army chief Asim Munir was also there.
The Iranian delegation arrived Friday wearing black clothes mourning the late religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. The Iranian government said they were carrying shoes and bags of children killed in the bombing of a school next to the military compound.
A Pakistani source said the tone of the talks, the highest-level direct contact between the US and Iran since 1979, was unpredictable. “There were changes in the mood of the two sides and the temperature waxed and waned during the meeting,” a Pakistani source said after the first round.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Trump threatened to resume bombing Iran if a deal is not reached and threatened to target the country’s water supplies as well as its bridges and electricity generation.
Trump said: “The only thing that’s really left is their water, which is very devastating to hit. I hate to do this, but it’s their water, their desalination plans, their power generation facilities that are so easy to hit.”
The President was asked whether gas and oil prices would fall in the US midterm elections in November; This was an indication that attacking Iran was not an economic mistake. A noncommittal Trump responded that prices “may be the same or maybe a little higher.”
The country’s state news service said at least 11 people were killed in southern Lebanon and there were at least 30 Israeli attacks on the region.
Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire after Sunday prayers at the Vatican and said he felt “closer than ever” to the Lebanese people.
The war, which started with the US and Israel attacking Iran six weeks ago, led to the deaths of at least 3 thousand people in Iran, 2 thousand 20 people in Lebanon, 23 people in Israel and more than a dozen people in the Gulf Arab countries. It caused permanent damage to the infrastructure of half a dozen Middle Eastern countries.
