Donald Trump has warned that Iran will face severe consequences if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened soon, while claiming negotiations with Tehran are progressing…reports Asian Lite News Desk
US President Donald Trump has warned that Iran will be “hit very hard” if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened “very soon”, while insisting Washington is engaged in productive discussions with Tehran despite repeated denials from Iranian officials.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday (US local time), Trump said the United States was “having very good discussions” with Iran. His remarks came after he claimed a day earlier that talks were focused on reopening the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz “literally by tomorrow”.
“I mean they’re going to go quickly, one way or the other. It’s not very complex,” Trump said at the Oval Office on Monday.
“We’re talking about the Strait, the opening of the Strait, having it open, literally by tomorrow,” he added.
Earlier, Trump had warned he was giving Iran a “last chance before decapitation”, linking the ultimatum to efforts to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime route that carries around 20 per cent of the world’s fossil fuel supplies.
However, Tehran rejected Trump’s claims, saying there were no negotiations taking place with Washington.
“We are not holding any negotiations with the United States at present,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said during a news briefing in Tehran.
Baqaei said that, apart from Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is on a pilgrimage to Iraq, all members of Iran’s negotiating team remained in the country. He added that Iran was instead holding consultations with Oman, which lies across the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Baqaei, no other country was involved in the Muscat-Tehran discussions, which Iran’s Tasnim news agency described as aimed at reaching a “temporary arrangement that would ensure maritime safety in the strategic waterway”.
Trump responded to Iran’s denial in a post on Truth Social, writing that the “Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous”. He claimed that after they “beg” for a meeting, they then “say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions”.
The conflicting statements have fuelled uncertainty over the future of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, where shipping has faced disruption following recent military action involving Iran.
Trump also claimed Iran had become alarmed by reports of a planned military strike, saying the country feared an attack “very very hard, harder than any” since the Second World War. He said Iranian leaders had pleaded, “We want to talk. We want to talk about the Strait”.
The latest exchange follows the collapse of an earlier effort to stabilise the waterway. A Memorandum of Understanding on reopening the Strait, signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on June 17, unravelled within weeks after Iran attacked ships transiting the Strait and the United States responded by blockading Iranian ports.
The renewed war of words underscores continuing uncertainty over the future of the vital shipping lane and the broader state of relations between Washington and Tehran.
