President Trump said Sunday that the United States will enforce a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, stepping up pressure on Iran after marathon peace talks between top Iranian and American leaders in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough.
The announcement by Mr. Trump plunged the already brittle truce into further uncertainty. Vice President JD Vance and the chief Iranian negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, met in Pakistan over the weekend, but did not reach a deal to fully reopen the strait or conclusively end the war.
“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!” Mr. Trump wrote of his planned U.S. blockade in one of two lengthy social media posts on the talks.
Mr. Trump had conditioned the two-week cease-fire on Iran ending its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil and gas in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s grip on the strait sent global oil prices soaring by more than 50 percent during the monthlong conflict, which began in late February.
In practice, however, only a few ships have transited the Strait of Hormuz since the cease-fire came into effect last Tuesday. U.S. officials blame Iran, which they say has sought to impose tolls on ships passing through the waterway.
Mr. Trump said the U.S. Navy would “seek and interdict” any vessel that paid the fee to Iran. For its part, Iran could see an American naval blockade as an act of war.
Iran’s leaders have given no indication that they intend to relax their control of the waterway, which they view as a crucial bargaining chip, until a permanent peace is reached. In a defiant post on social media earlier on Sunday, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said “the key” to the strait “is firmly in our hands.”
Analysts said the issues dividing the two countries were so complex — and their differences so entrenched — that cinching a deal in a single round of talks had been highly unlikely.
Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Ghalibaf, the Iranian negotiator, appeared to rule out additional negotiations. Mr. Trump said in an interview on Sunday with Fox News that his threats had forced Iran “to the bargaining table and they haven’t left,” adding that he believed the United States would eventually get “everything” it wanted from Iran.
Mr. Ghalibaf said on social media earlier Sunday that the United States had been “unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation” in this round of talks. “Now it is time for it to decide whether it can earn our trust or not,” he added.
The last talks between the United States and Iran fizzled, and were promptly followed by a U.S.-Israeli attack in late February that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and ignited more than a month of war. Mediated by Pakistan, this weekend’s negotiations were the highest-level face-to-face encounter between U.S. and Iranian leaders since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mr. Trump, who was watching a U.F.C. fight in Florida during the talks, had declared the cease-fire last week in part to ease the shock from the loss of access to 20 percent of the world’s oil supplies. The other two key issues were the fate of nearly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium and Iran’s demand that about $27 billion in frozen revenues held abroad be released, the officials said.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Mines in Hormuz: The Pentagon said on Saturday that two U.S. warships crossed the Strait of Hormuz to begin an operation to clear mines from the critical waterway. Iran denied the claim. Only a handful of ships have passed through the strait since the cease-fire began. U.S. officials said one reason Iran had been unable to get more ships through was that it could not locate and remove all of the mines it had laid in the waterway.
Israel and Lebanon: Israel was not involved in the weekend negotiations and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoided mentioning them in an address on Saturday evening as he faces criticism at home over the cease-fire with Iran. Israel has kept up deadly attacks on southern Lebanon, including on Sunday morning, according to Lebanon’s state media. Iran had accused Israel of breaking the cease-fire by continuing to attack in Lebanon, leading Mr. Trump to ask Israel to rein in its assault. The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States are expected to meet in Washington next week for rare direct talks.
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,701 civilians, including 254 children, had been killed in Iran as of Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry on Saturday said that 2,020 people had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, including 357 in a wave of Israeli strikes on Wednesday. In attacks attributed to Iran, at least 32 people have been killed in Gulf nations. At least 22 people had been killed in Israel as of Sunday, as well as 12 Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon. The American death toll stands at 13 service members.
