Trump-Iran threats strain Hormuz truce as Oman talks continue

Donald Trump and Iranian leaders exchanged fresh threats as mediators pushed talks through Oman and Qatar. The clash underscored how the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear stockpile remain the central obstacles to any durable deal.

In Short

• Washington wants Tehran to guarantee safe passage for commercial vessels
• Iran insists the strategic waterway remains under its authority for passage
• Oman and Qatar pressed diplomacy, but neither side softened core demands

US President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders traded fresh threats on Saturday as an interim deal meant to end the war came under renewed strain in the Middle East. The latest tensions centred on the Strait of Hormuz, where Washington wants Tehran to publicly assure that shipping will not be attacked, while Iran has insisted the route will remain under its control.

The exchange came even as talks continued. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to Oman for more discussions, a day after Qatari mediators visited Iran, but both sides also hardened their positions on shipping in the strait and on Iran's nuclear programme.

Trump escalated his warnings in a series of posts on Truth Social after senior US officials demanded that Iran state publicly that the Strait of Hormuz is open and that ships using the corridor will not be targeted. The comments also came after funeral events for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei featured open calls for Trump's killing. Later on Saturday, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Iranians would continue to avenge his father's killing, saying such revenge "is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out".

So far, Tehran has not accepted the US demand over the strait. Instead, it has said the route must remain under its control and that it should be allowed to charge ships passing through it. The latest round of conflict followed several days of US airstrikes on Iran and Iranian retaliatory fire across the Middle East. Those strikes were triggered by Iran's attack on three ships in the strait earlier this week.

On Friday, Trump declared the ceasefire over but said negotiations would continue. In another post, he wrote that a thousand "missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat". He said he was responding to threats "to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate" him. Mourners at Khamenei's funeral repeatedly held posters and banners calling for Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be killed.

The war began on February 28 with an airstrike that killed Khamenei, 86. Iran buried him only this week after several days of funeral ceremonies in cities across Iran and Iraq. Trump also wrote that the US military would "completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran - PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!".

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the latest resumption of strikes this week followed what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hardliners trying to sabotage the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington. Iran, however, has said its system remains united after the war under the country's new supreme leader. The officials said Trump was giving US negotiators limited time to secure a deal with Iran and stressed that he still had a wide range of options if talks failed.

Just before the US officials spoke, Iran's envoy to the United Nations told reporters that any activity in the Strait of Hormuz, including its reopening or demining, "rests exclusively with Iran". Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Qatari mediators separately travelled to Iran on Friday to meet officials. Iran has also said vessels should begin paying fees to Tehran, even though the waterway has long been regarded globally as an international route. Before the war, about a fifth of traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait. Iran's control of the waterway during the conflict triggered a global energy crisis, although oil prices have since fallen sharply from wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel.

Tensions across the region remained high after the US completed its latest strikes on Thursday. More attacks were later reported inside Iran, raising fresh questions over who carried them out. Israel did not claim them, and there were questions over whether Gulf Arab states were behind them to deter Iran from attacking again. Iran had retaliated on Thursday for US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said the strikes inside Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others.

Across the Strait of Hormuz, Araghchi was due to meet his Omani counterpart on Saturday. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state broadcaster TRT that he believed "a solution can be reached" this weekend between Iran and Oman, which sit on opposite sides of the narrow waterway. But Araghchi also accused the US of violating the interim deal by ending waivers that had allowed Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. Washington took that step in response to the attacks on ships in the strait. "Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance," Araghchi wrote on X.

The US has continued advising mariners to use a southern route through Oman's territorial waters to avoid Iranian waters and the orders of the Revolutionary Guard, a move that has angered Tehran and contributed to the attacks in the strait. US officials also said any nuclear deal would require Iran to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, something Tehran has repeatedly refused to do. They said the US had military options if no agreement was reached, though they gave no details. The uranium, enriched to near weapons-grade levels, is believed to be at nuclear sites bombed by the US in 2025. Iran has long said its nuclear programme is peaceful, despite the International Atomic Energy Agency saying it is the only country enriching uranium to that level without a weapons programme. The officials added that Washington would not agree to any nuclear deal unless Iran first stopped attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

In sum, Saturday brought a further hardening of positions, with threats from both sides, continued diplomacy through Oman and Qatar, and no breakthrough on the two central disputes: security in the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran's nuclear stockpile.

With PTI Inputs

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