Threatens to bomb power plants; Iran to trap US in deadly vortex
Washington: After two days of hope, uncertainty loomed over West Asia after the American and Iranian teams failed to clinch a mutually acceptable deal during 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad. Though the ceasefire survived failed talks on Sunday, US President Donald Trump escalated tensions by ordering a US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in response to Iran's “unyielding” refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions and completely open the crucial waterway.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the finest in the world, will begin the process of blockading any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines that the Iranians laid in the Straits.”
Competing blockades by the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz would deprive the world of Gulf oil, which contributes 20 per cent of global crude oil supply, and could increase global crude oil prices. Two Pakistani tankers turned back from Hormuz after Trump’s warning.
“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be blown to hell!” Trump suggested that “other countries” would be involved in the blockade effort, without specifying. Trump also threatened China with “staggering” new tariffs on its goods entering the United States if Beijing provides military assistance to Iran during the West Asia war.
In response, Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned they have traffic in the strategic waterway under full control and would trap any enemy who tries to challenge it “in a deadly vortex in the Strait if it makes the wrong move.”
Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said his negotiating team “put forward constructive initiatives, but ultimately the other side was unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations.”
Iran's former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who led his country's delegation at 2015 nuclear talks, said, “No negotiations - at least with Iran - will succeed based on 'our/your terms'. The US must learn: you can't dictate terms to Iran. It's not too late to learn. Yet,” added Zarif in a post on X.
The US President's latest ultimatum appeared to have been triggered by the failure of talks in Islamabad between high-level American and Iranian delegations to secure a deal to end the six-week-old war, which began when the US and Israel launched strikes on Tehran and killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran's refusal to give up its right to a nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful civilian purposes, but Western capitals believe conceals a quest for a bomb, frustrated the US delegation.
Trump also reiterated his threat to destroy Iran's power plants and other civilian energy infrastructure if no deal is reached to end the conflict. “I could take out Iran in one day,” Trump told Fox News. “I could have their entire energy, everything, every one of their plants, their electric generating plants, which is a big deal.”
The failure of the talks will raise concerns that a return to fighting could drive world energy prices higher and further damage shipping and oil and gas facilities in the Gulf, while civilians in the region were concerned that air strikes could resume with no political endgame in sight.
Global leaders, however, urged the United States and Iran to keep negotiating. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, and both leaders agreed it “was vital there was a continuation of the ceasefire, and that all parties avoided any further escalation.”
An EU spokesman said diplomacy would be “essential” to securing peace and hailed Pakistan's mediation efforts, while Russia's President Vladimir Putin called Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian to offer his services to the diplomatic effort.
