President Donald Trump insists any deal with Iran would not allow that country to retain control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump said the “strait will be open to everybody. It’s international waters.”
With the strait effectively closed for nearly three months, prompting U.S. gas prices to increase by about 50% since the Iran war began, Trump said he wasn’t feeling economically pressured to reopen the waterway that handles about 20% of the world’s oil during peacetime.
“The primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said, reiterating a point he has often made since the U.S. and Israel first attacked the country.
He also said he expects gas prices to be lower than before the war began — a sentiment Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed during the meeting when he said prices are “transitory” and “oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels when this ends.”
When that will be, however, is unclear. Over the weekend, the president said the Iran deal was “largely negotiated,” but on Wednesday he said Iran is “negotiating on fumes.”
Trump said he will not consider easing sanctions on the country, nor will he consent to an agreement that calls for further talks on uranium.
“One of the things that will happen is the strait will open immediately. Immediately,” he said. “But it’s got to be perfect. I didn’t do this for getting a crummy agreement.”
“We can make a great deal with this guy right here, but it’s a lot nastier,” Trump said, referencing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who, earlier in the meeting, said Iran “cried uncle to talk” after the U.S. implemented its naval blockade of the strait in mid-April.
“We know from the intel that their economy is hurting big time because that is their lifeblood,” Hegseth said, adding that the conflict would be resolved through negotiations leading to an assurance that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon or by going “back to the War Department to finish the job that way.”
Last month, the Pentagon said the cost of the Iran war was $29 billion — a figure that included munitions replacement, equipment maintenance and initial combat operations. The Harvard Kennedy School estimates continuing the war could cost U.S. taxpayers up to $2 billion per day.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Iran as “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism,” adding, “They can never have a nuclear weapon.”
While “diplomacy is always the first option,” Rubio said, “we’ll see over the next few hours and days where progress could be made” and “have other options” if negotiations fail.
On Wednesday, Iranian state television reportedly said it had a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding with the U.S. to end the war that included Iran reopening the strait if the U.S. lifts its naval blockade.
Responding to a reporter’s question about Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi suggesting Iran and Oman would jointly control the strait, Trump said: “Nobody’s going to control it. … Oman will behave just like everybody else, and we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine.”