At 4 a.m. Eastern on April 29, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” An apparently AI-generated image of Trump holding a gun came with it, captioned “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”
It was not clear what the president meant by a “nonnuclear deal.”
Options on the table
NBC News reported that Trump’s national security team had put several options before him that week on how to deal with the bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz, after negotiations failed to reopen the waterway. A US official described the Monday Situation Room meeting: whether the US military presence in the strait should grow or shrink, and whether American forces should act more aggressively there. Trump had made no decision, the sources said, and it was not clear when he would.
The standoff, which includes a continuing US naval blockade, had by then kept the trade route effectively shut for two months. Gas prices in the US averaged $4.23 a gallon, the highest in nearly four years. Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped to $115 a barrel early Wednesday. Iran’s rial hit a record low against the dollar, trading at around 1.8 million to $1, and prices and job losses were rising inside the country.
On Tuesday, Trump and other senior officials met energy executives from Chevron, Trafi, Vitol, Mercuria and other companies at a meeting hosted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. A White House official said they talked about keeping up the blockade of Iran’s ports “for months if needed” and about limiting the damage to American consumers.
Nuclear program is the sticking point
Washington showed little interest in a new Iranian proposal to end the war and reopen the strait, because it left the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program untouched. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that week that any deal must “definitively prevent them from sprinting toward a nuclear weapon at any point.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said US negotiators were still talking with Iranians “who are struggling to sort out their leadership situation following Operation Epic Fury.” Trump will sign only an agreement that puts American national security first, she said.
The president took the same line at a White House state dinner for Britain’s King Charles III the night before, telling guests the US had “militarily defeated” Iran and would never let it have a nuclear weapon. Asked about that, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the king “is naturally mindful of his government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”
On the water
US Marines boarded another commercial vessel late Tuesday, the military said, then let it go on its way. Tehran, for its part, had attacked three commercial ships and seized two. NBC’s analysis of traffic showed the strait close to a standstill, with 11 ships passing in 12 hours. The Japanese-owned tanker Idemitsu Maru, which entered the strait Tuesday, was confirmed by Tokyo to have cleared it Wednesday morning, bound for Japan.
Four months later
The standoff had not ended by late August. CBS News reported on August 26 that the war was nearly six months old, that Trump was insisting Iran is “begging to make a deal,” and that talks remained stalled. “I don’t want to meet, they do,” he wrote on Truth Social.
An Iranian military-run news outlet said Iran and Oman had agreed on a temporary new shipping route through the strait, but only if the US lifts its blockade and returns to the terms of an earlier truce. Qatar’s foreign minister traveled to Tehran and, in the Qatari government’s words, “stressed the need to resume the diplomatic process.” CENTCOM said 75 ships had been redirected since the blockade went back into place on July 14. Trump said the strait was open and that 24 oil tankers had passed overnight with US help; allies reportedly told Bloomberg they do not believe it has been cleared of mines.
Sources
- Tehran engages in renewed diplomatic push, touts proposal to reopen Strait of Hormuz
- Trump warns Iran 'better get smart soon' as he weighs military options over Strait of Hormuz
