“THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION,” Trump said. “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. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits.”
The US military had said on Saturday that two Navy warships went through the strait to begin clearing it of mines and ensure it was a “safe pathway” for tankers, a claim denied by Tehran.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Sunday that two Pakistani-flagged oil tankers heading for the strait had turned around.
Fears of renewed fighting rattled an already tense region after the US-Iran talks collapsed.
“I am worried about the continuation of the situation and the return of attacks again,” said Imam, an Egyptian housewife living in UAE capital Abu Dhabi.
“I was making a great effort not to pass my tension on to the children.”
‘Act of extortion’
Trump in a Fox News interview again threatened Iran’s energy infrastructure, before warning he would impose a 50% tariff on Chinese imports if Beijing tried to help the Iranian military.
“I could take out Iran in one day. I could have their entire energy everything, every one of their plants, their electric generating plants, which is a big deal,” he said.
The President’s latest ultimatum appeared to have been triggered by the failure of talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, to secure a deal to end the six-week-old war, which began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Tehran and killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s refusal to give up its right to a nuclear programme frustrated the US delegation, led by Vice-President JD Vance, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“I have always said, right from the beginning, and many years ago, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Trump said.
“The Blockade will begin shortly. Other Countries will be involved with this Blockade,” he added, without specifying.
Experts said blocking the crucial waterway in the middle of a two-week ceasefire, after the Islamabad negotiations, would further erode America’s global credibility.
“Imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz right now – even if it’s implementable, which remains an open question – is bewildering and seems self-defeating,” said Shibley Telhami, a professor of peace and development at the University of Maryland.
Vance left Pakistan after the talks – the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic revolution – and warned that Washington had made Tehran its “final and best offer” for a deal, adding: “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of his country’s negotiating team, said he had “put forward constructive initiatives” but the US team did not win Iran’s trust.
Ceasefire efforts
The failure of the talks will raise concerns that a return to fighting could drive world energy prices higher and further damage shipping and oil and gas facilities.
Pakistan, which hosted the talks, urged both countries to continue respecting the temporary truce.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, and both leaders agreed it “was vital there was a continuation of the ceasefire, and that all parties avoided any further escalation”.
An EU spokesman said diplomacy would be “essential” to securing peace and hailed Pakistan’s mediation efforts, while Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to offer his services to the diplomatic effort.
“Vladimir Putin emphasised his readiness to further facilitate the search for a political and diplomatic settlement to the conflict, and to mediate efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said, in its readout of the call.
- Agence France-Presse
