Trump holds talks on prolonged Iran blockade, urges Tehran to reach a deal

Donald Trump discussed how to mitigate the impact of a possible months-long U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports with oil companies, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the U.S. renewed its calls for other nations to help open the Strait of Hormuz.

Tuesday’s talks with oil executives followed a deadlock in efforts to resolve the conflict, which has led the United States to try to squeeze Iran’s oil exports with a naval blockade aimed at forcing it to reopen the Strait to shipping.

As Washington and Tehran traded public threats, mediator Pakistan was trying to avoid escalation while the two sides exchange messages on a potential deal, a Pakistani source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Trump has said Iran can call if it wants to talk and, in a post on Truth Social earlier on Wednesday, said Tehran “couldn’t get its act together.”

He and the oil executives “discussed the steps President Trump has taken to alleviate global oil markets and steps we could take to continue the current blockade for months if needed and minimize impact on American consumers,” the White House official said.

Oil prices rose more than 6% on Wednesday, with the Brent contract hitting a one-month high on prospects of a lengthy blockade.

The war has cost the U.S. military $25 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said, providing the first official estimate of the price tag for the conflict.

Iran has pledged to continue disrupting traffic through the Strait as long as it is threatened, which may mean more Middle East oil supply disruptions from a conflict that has killed thousands and brought global economic upheaval.

With talks stalled, Trump is set to receive a briefing on Thursday on new plans for potential military action from the leader of the U.S. Central Command, Axios said.

Tehran warned on Wednesday of “unprecedented military action” against continued U.S. blockading of Iran-linked vessels. Trump has said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, while Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

“They don’t know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They’d better get smart soon!” Trump said in the social media post, without explaining what such a deal would entail.

The post featured a mock-up image of him wearing dark glasses and wielding a machinegun, captioned, “No more Mr. Nice Guy.”

The United States is asking ​other countries to ‌join a new international coalition that ​would enable ​ships to navigate the ⁠Strait of Hormuz after traffic through ​the waterway stalled, according to an internal State Dept cable seen by Reuters.

The proposed coalition, dubbed the “Maritime ‌Freedom ⁠Construct”, would share information, coordinate diplomatically and help ​enforce ​sanctions, the ⁠cable showed.

France, Britain and other countries have held talks on contributing to such a coalition but said they are only willing to help open the Strait, a chokepoint for global energy supplies, after hostilities cease.

URANIUM DISPUTE, ECONOMY UNDER PRESSURE

Iran wants U.S. acknowledgment of its right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful, civilian purposes. It has a stockpile of about 440 kg (970 lbs) of uranium enriched to 60%, which could be used for several nuclear weapons if further enriched.

Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Trump was trying to divide Iranians and force Iran to surrender through the blockade.

“The solution for confronting the enemy’s new conspiracy is only one thing: maintaining unity, which has been the bane of all the enemy’s conspiracies,” Qalibaf said in an audio message on messaging app Telegram.

Iran has executed at least 21 people since the start of the war with the United States and Israel two months ago, and arrested more than 4,000 on charges related to national security, U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday.

In a sign of the toll the war is taking on Iran’s economy, its currency fell to a record low on Wednesday, the Iranian Students’ News Agency said. Inflation stood at 65.8% for the month to April 20, the central bank said.

IRAN WANTS FORMAL END TO CONFLICT FIRST

Iran’s latest offer for resolving the war, suspended since April 8 under a ceasefire deal, would set aside discussion of its nuclear program until the conflict is formally ended and shipping issues resolved.

That did not meet Trump’s demand to tackle the nuclear issue at the outset.

The Pakistani source said the United States had shared “observations” on the Iranian proposal and it was now up to Iran to respond. “(The) Iranians asked for time till the end of the week,” the source told Reuters.

U.S. intelligence agencies, tasked by senior administration officials, are studying how Iran would respond if Trump were to declare a unilateral victory, two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Tehran has largely blocked all shipping apart from its own from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, since the U.S. and Israel began airstrikes on Iran on February 28. This month, the U.S. began blockading Iranian ships.

Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power since the strikes killed several senior political and military figures, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The elevation of Khamenei’s wounded son, Mojtaba, to replace him has handed more power to hardline commanders of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say.

Meanwhile, Trump faces domestic pressure to end a war for which he has given shifting rationales to a U.S. public struggling with surging gasoline prices.