Fifty days into the US-Iran war, there appears to be a fresh escalation with the US Navy blocking Iranian ships and the Iranian navy blocking the passage of all other ships through the Strait of Hormuz. The two-week ceasefire ends tonight, and a deal is yet to be reached between the two nations after the failed first round of talks. US President Donald Trump has already said that an extension is ‘highly unlikely’ if a deal is not reached.
On the other hand, Iran has maintained that it won’t send a delegation to Islamabad for talks until the United States quits its maximalist demands. Iran said on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open for commercial shipping, a move that pushed crude prices down by over 10%. However, by Saturday, that optimism faded as Tehran moved back to assert control over the vital passage after Donald Trump declined to lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports. There was a short-lived increase in shipping activity on Saturday, but it didn’t last. Traffic in the Gulf soon slowed again, with ships reportedly coming under attack during transit and being forced to turn back.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he was offering Tehran a better deal than the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which he ripped up in 2018 as favouring Iran. “The deal that we are making with Iran will be far better than the JCPOA, commonly referred to as ‘The Iran Nuclear Deal’, penned by [former President] Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden [his predecessor as president], one of the worst deals ever made having to do with the security of our country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council, along with Germany and the European Union, in 2015 to curtail Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting some sanctions. Trump denounced it during his 2016 campaign, and after his election, he said the United States would withdraw from it, which it did in 2018.
Ceasefire extension unlikely: Trump
President Trump also said that a ceasefire extension is unlikely if Iran does not agree to the deal.
“They (Iran) want me to open it (Hormuz). The Iranians desperately want it opened. I’m not opening it until a deal is signed,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to be rushed into making a bad deal. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
US forces have turned back 27 ships from Iranian ports and have captured one named Touska.
Iran says US threatens peace
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that US ‘provocative actions’ and ceasefire violations are major obstacles to continuing peace negotiations between the two countries. Araghchi condemned US actions against Iranian commercial shipping, including the reported seizure of the container vessel Touska and its crew, and cited ‘contradictory positions and rhetoric of threat’ from Washington, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Araghchi said Iran would decide whether to continue diplomacy based on ‘all aspects of the issue’ and US behaviour, adding that Tehran would take steps to protect its interests and national security.
Iran has made it clear that it won’t participate in talks unless the US removes the naval blockade and backs down on its ‘excessive demands’.
Tensions follow joint US-Israeli attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities beginning February 28, which killed Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, senior commanders, and civilians. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes targeting Israel and US assets in the Middle East.
