Trump now wants to blockade Hormuz strait, when just yesterday he insisted it must open

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April 12, 2026, 3:43 p.m. ET10 minutes ago
Iran War Live Updates: Trump Plans to ‘Blockade’ Strait He Insisted Must Open

The president’s threat came after Saturday’s talks failed to produce a deal for peace or the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Both sides suggested further negotiations were possible.

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 said on social media of his planned naval blockade.

It was not immediately clear whether the threat would endanger the two-week cease-fire reached on April 7. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps naval force claimed the strait was not closed, but said that any approach to the waterway by warships would be considered a cease-fire violation and warrant a “severe response.”

Iran has choked off shipping in the strait since the war started, allowing through only its own ships and a few others. That sent global oil prices soaring by more than 50 percent during the conflict, and the United States had demanded that Iran reopen the strait and conditioned the truce on Tehran doing so.

But now Mr. Trump is ordering his own blockade of a waterway that about 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas normally flows through.

His blockade threat came hours after Mr. Vance said the talks in Islamabad — the highest-level face-to-face encounter between U.S. and Iranian leaders since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution — had ended with Iran choosing “not to accept our terms.” Mr. Ghalibaf said on social media that the United States had been “unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation” in this round of talks.

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. The key differences center on the fate of nearly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium, frozen Iranian revenues held abroad, and the Strait of Hormuz.

In an interview on Sunday with Fox News, Mr. Trump downplayed the economic effects of the war, which have been a political liability. Asked if oil and gas prices could fall by the time the midterm elections are held in November, he said they “could be the same or maybe a little bit higher” — an indication that the economic turmoil of the war could linger for months, even if a lasting peace is reached.

Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Ghalibaf appeared to rule out additional negotiations. Mr. Trump told 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.