Trump Announces Naval Blockade of Strait of Hormuz After Failed Negotiations in Pakistan

President Trump announced Sunday that the United States will launch a naval blockade around the Strait of Hormuz following failed talks in Pakistan among Iranian and American negotiators seeking to reopen the strait and end the six-weeks long military conflict.Mr. Trump said his negotiators in Pakistan, including Vice President Vance, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, could not get concessions on nuclear weapons during the daylong negotiation with Iranian leaders. As a result, the U.S. will seek to tighten the clamps on Iran’s single most effective warfighting tactic.The U.S. Navy will impose a blockade to stop any passage of ships and will “seek and interdict” any vessel in international waters that paid Iran for permission to cross the strait, which had been strewn with mines prior to Iran’s mine-laying ships being blown up. Iran had refused free passage of critical shipping through the strait — promised as part of a tenuous two-week ceasefire announced Tuesday. It instead collected a fee from about a dozen carriers in exchange for safe passage, seeking to use the funds to help rebuild its warfighting effort.The blockade, which the president said would involve unnamed other countries, aims to prevent Iran from extorting nations. “THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted,” the president posted on his Truth Social media platform. Mr. Trump said dropping mines in the strait and failing to open it up to international commerce “caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and Countries throughout the World.” “There is great dishonor and permanent harm to the reputation of Iran, and what’s left of their ‘Leaders,’ but we are beyond all of that,” he said. “As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY OPEN AND FAST! Every Law in the book is being violated by them,” the president wrote on Truth Social early Sunday. “At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis,” he added.Mr. Trump’s latest salvo comes after Mr. Vance and the team headed back to Washington overnight following a failure in Pakistan to reach an agreement to end the conflict. Mr. Vance says the Iranians negotiating on behalf of their government refused to commit to refrain from seeking nuclear capabilities in the future, a red line for the Trump administration. Mr. Vance was dispatched to Islamabad for negotiations to cement the alleged ceasefire, which was tenuous at best. The vice president joined the talks at the invitation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan. After negotiating with the Iranians for the better part of a day, Mr. Vance emerged to tell reporters that no agreement had been reached. The announcement was made just before 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. “We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on, and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on, and we’ve made that as clear as we possibly could and they’ve chosen not to accept our terms,” Mr. Vance told reporters during a brief set of remarks. Mr. Vance said that the Iranian delegation refused to make an “affirmative commitment” that they would neither “seek” a nuclear weapon, nor develop the tools that would allow them to build such a weapon. “That is the core goal of the President of the United States,” Mr. Vance said, flanked by Messrs. Kushner and Witkoff. “We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms,” the vice president told reporters. “We were quite accommodating.”Iran’s former foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said Mr. Vance’s comment is exactly why the talks failed. “No negotiations – at least with Iran – will succeed based on ‘our/your terms,'” he wrote. “The US must learn: you can’t dictate terms to Iran.”Mr. Zarif also mocked the president for his announcement of a blockade. “Clutching at Straws: Blockading Hormuz – which is not blocked – to help global economy. Another ‘Art of the Deal’ Masterstroke? The worst gamblers don’t know when to leave a losing table,” he wrote on X.In a statement posted to X, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said the negotiations revolved around an end to sanctions, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the “nuclear issue,” and what he called, “war reparations.” Mr. Baghaei says Iran’s resolve is “firmer than ever before” following the American and Israeli strikes which began in February. “The success of this diplomatic process depends on the seriousness and good faith of the opposing side, refraining from excessive demands and unlawful requests, and the acceptance of Iran’s legitimate rights and interests,” Mr. Baghaei wrote. Mr. Trump said Sunday he was fully briefed by his three negotiators, and thanked the “kind and very competent leadership” of Mr. Sharif and Pakistan’s top military leader, Asim Munir. Depicting the meeting between his representatives and the Iranian delegation led by Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, as “very friendly and respectful,” Mr. Trump said none of it matters since they were very “unyielding as to the single most important issue,” “There is only one thing that matters — IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS! In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our Military Operations to conclusion, but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing Nuclear Power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people.” “As I have always said, right from the beginning, and many years ago, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”While Mr. Trump said that negotiators from the Iranian side had agreed to several points, another point that appeared to be outstanding was Iran’s demand that Israel stop fighting Iran’s “regional allies,” specifically Hezbollah, which is launching attacks on Israel from within Lebanon. The Lebanese government has not disarmed Hezbollah despite Israel pounding Beirut with airstrikes.On the eve of the anniversary of Lebanon’s 25-year civil war, Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, said he is working to stop the war between Israel and Hezbollah and secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces.“We will continue to work to stop this war, to ensure the Israeli withdrawal from all our lands, the return of all the prisoners, to rebuild our destroyed villages and towns, and the safe return of the displaced,” Mr. Salam said in a televised address.

Trump Announces Naval Blockade of Strait of Hormuz After Failed Negotiations in Pakistan

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