President Donald Trump has told Tehran that America won’t be pressured into a bad deal. With the U.S. holding the upper hand, his answer to Iran’s latest offer came quickly and left no doubt about who is negotiating from strength.
On Saturday, speaking to reporters outside the White House before leaving for a college football game, Trump said he rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, calling the terms unacceptable.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had floated a seven-day plan the day before. It would reopen the strait and restart nuclear talks within a week, but only if Washington first met a list of Tehran’s conditions. In effect, the regime that closed a vital shipping lane was asking the U.S. to pay to have it reopened.
Trump said Iran is coming to the table because it is losing badly and has no money coming in.
The numbers back up his confidence. Trump said massive amounts of oil are flowing out of the strait, with 29 ships coming out the night before. A senior official said nearly 40 million barrels moved through the waterway in the previous 48 hours, and that the U.S. is in a very strong position and in no rush.
Trump also had some fun at the regime’s expense, posting an image on Truth Social that relabeled the waterway the “Trump Strait.”
The backdrop is a war Iran’s rulers helped bring on. Iran effectively closed the strait after the United States and Israel struck the Islamic Republic in late February. Traffic has since dropped sharply because of Iranian threats and attacks on commercial vessels. The strait is one of the world’s most vital energy arteries, and Tehran’s decision to choke it off has rattled global markets. That’s why the White House has kept the pressure on.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has told aides he views renewed U.S. bombing after the November midterms as likely. Trump himself confirmed the rejection, saying Iran made a proposal and he turned it down.
Iran is now trying to spin the outcome. Araghchi claimed no rejection had come through official channels and said Tehran was merely asking Washington to honor commitments from a June memorandum of understanding on a temporary ceasefire. The administration’s position is that it won’t be rushed into rewarding a regime that has held global shipping hostage.
Earlier in the week, Iranian and American officials held hours of indirect talks on the sidelines of the U.N. gathering in New York. Iranian media reported that Iran’s president has since left the city.
Trump’s allies quickly rallied behind him. NATO Ambassador Matthew Whitaker said Iran’s economic troubles have made it eager for a deal, echoing the president’s point about the regime’s finances.
Hardliners in Tehran responded with bluster. One Iranian lawmaker warned that Iran has its fingers on the trigger. Meanwhile, a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted projectiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels the same day, a reminder of the regime’s reach through its proxies.
