President Donald Trump announced a naval blockade on all ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz during a Fox News interview on Sunday morning, confirming an earlier post on Truth Social. The move comes after intense negotiations with Iran failed to yield an agreement.Speaking on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo, Trump stated, "We’re going to be blockading. It’ll take a little while, but it’ll be effective pretty soon." He confirmed that talks, which he described as lasting 21 hours with U.S. representatives like J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, broke down over Iran's refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions. "They want to have nuclear weapons. They’re not going to have nuclear weapons," Trump asserted.
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The President characterized Iran's negotiating stance as an attempt to act like "they had the cards," a notion he dismissed by claiming, "Their army and their whole military is obliterated. The whole place is obliterated. And as you know, levels of leaders are gone. They’re literally gone. Khamenei’s gone, the whole thing is gone, the whole place is gone."
Trump described Iran's potential response, such as placing mines in the Strait, as "extortion," saying, "if you have a ship that costs a billion dollars, you say, ‘well, you know, I prefer not getting whacked by a mine, losing my ship or damaging it badly, at least.’" Despite calling the negotiations "very friendly," he reiterated that Iran's nuclear program was the critical sticking point. "We got just about every point we needed, except for the fact that they refused to give up their nuclear ambition. And that’s the only point, frankly, to me, that was the most important point by far."
Trump described Iran's potential response, such as placing mines in the Strait, as "extortion," saying, "if you have a ship that costs a billion dollars, you say, ‘well, you know, I prefer not getting whacked by a mine, losing my ship or damaging it badly, at least.’" Despite calling the negotiations "very friendly," he reiterated that Iran's nuclear program was the critical sticking point. "We got just about every point we needed, except for the fact that they refused to give up their nuclear ambition. And that’s the only point, frankly, to me, that was the most important point by far."