Trump says brace for fuel price rise amid Iran deadlock

Iran has called on the US to accept defeat while President Donald Trump blasted Tehran as "very evil" and told Americans to brace for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war.

Progress toward peace talks and oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway remained halted, with no sign the warring parties were moving toward ending the conflict that the US and Israel launched on 28 February.

"This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran's command, and so long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade," Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted on X this morning.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran had not decided to resume talks with the US. He told Iranian news outlet Shahrara News in an interview that Washington must meet conditions on the strait in order for shipping to resume in the waterway that handled one-fifth of the world's oil before the war.

Mr Trump urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices while the conflict with Iran continues.

He told a political rally in Garden City, New York, yesterday that paying "a tiny little bit more for your gasoline" is worth the cost of ensuring "a very evil country" could not have a nuclear weapon, one of the US President's stated rationales for the war.

In a trend that has sparked inflation and disappointed voters, the average US price of a gallon of gasoline was about $4.08 yesterday, up 29% from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association.

Mr Trump, a Republican, campaigned for reelection on a promise to lower energy costs, and Democrats are seeking to make the war's fallout an issue in November congressional elections.

"The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier, by issuing an order or by delivering an election speech," Mr Gharibabadi said.

Despite Iran's defiant tone, though, there were signs of an economic toll there too.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, in remarks on state television, blamed high inflation on a US blockade of Iranian ports and sanctions on Iran's oil exports.

Mr Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent each pledged to inflict more financial damage on Iran.

Mr Bessent said that announcements of more measures against Iran were coming next week.

Tehran calls its enforcement of strait traffic a blockade - the term Washington uses for its threat against Iranian vessels leaving their ports.

"What we're doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves ... and we're really doing a great job," Mr Trump said, adding that a 260-day deployment by a US aircraft carrier supporting the war effort was "not nearly long enough."

Only two vessels passed through strait yesterday

Only two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday with no crude oil shipments visible, according to analysis from ship-tracking firm Kpler.

Some ships may cross the strait undetected with their transponders off, but the figures are nowhere near the more than 130 ships that traversed it daily before the war.

Vessels that dare navigate the strait without Iranian permission risk missile or drone strikes. The United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi National Oil Company said two of its vessels were attacked transiting the strait on Thursday evening, and the Emirati state news agency WAM reported another vessel came under attack yesterday.

A bulk carrier was struck in the hull by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said, adding that the crew were safe, no damage assessment had been reported and that the environmental impact was unknown.

A ⁠tentative June deal to end the war is in tatters.

"We did not have a ceasefire in the first place that we would now want to extend," Mr Araqchi said. "We had 'the end of the war,' and now there is a new situation."

Attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen renewed concerns about a widening regional war. Yemen's internationally recognised government said the Houthis fired six ballistic missiles at the Red Sea port of Mocha yesterday, killing four civilians.

The Houthi-run SABA news agency cited a military source as saying the group had targeted an Aramco facility in the Saudi city of Najran with a drone.