Trump says Iran ‘collapsing’ over Hormuz blockade as IRGC attacks ships in key waterway

Iranian minister denies American blockade effective, after US president extended ceasefire indefinitely; Tehran executes man accused of working with Mossad

US President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that Iran was “collapsing financially” over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked three ships in the vital waterway that is blockaded by both Washington and Tehran.

Trump’s comments came hours after he announced he was indefinitely extending the two-week ceasefire with Iran, which had been conditioned on Iran lifting its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran last week briefly lifted its blockade following the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, but reversed course after the US said it would maintain the blockade it had imposed on Iran-linked shipping on April 13, five days into the truce.

“Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The Islamic Republic is “starving for cash” and its military and police were “complaining that they are not getting paid,” he claimed, adding: “SOS!!!”

According to Trump, Iran was “losing 500 Million Dollars a day” because the US closure was preventing Tehran from taxing ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“They want it open so they can make $500 Million a day,” Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post early Wednesday.

Trump suggested the US blockade was crucial as leverage in negotiations with Iran, saying that if he agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, “There can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their country, their leaders included!”

“They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!). They merely want to save face,” he said, in an apparent departure from the Pentagon’s original framing of the US blockade as targeting only Iran-linked ships rather than the entire strait.

Meanwhile, US Treasury Scott Bessent said on X that the US blockade “directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines” by constraining maritime trade.

“Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in,” said Bessent, referring to the Iranian shipping hub that the US has targeted during the war with Iran and through which 90 percent of Tehran’s oil exports pass.

In line with previous statements about economic pressure efforts, Bessent also said Iranian funds will remain frozen and any person or vessel facilitating the flow of funds to Iran will risk US sanctions.

However, Iran’s Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri claimed Tuesday that the US naval blockade had had little impact on Iran’s ability to supply basic goods and food, citing strong domestic production and alternative import routes.

“Despite the US naval blockade, we have no problem in supplying basic goods and food because, due to the size of the country, it is possible to import from different borders,” he said, in comments quoted by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

“About 85 percent of agricultural products and basic goods are produced domestically, so the country’s food security is established,” said Nouri.

IRGC says it seized two vessels for maritime violations

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20% of global oil shipping passes in peacetime, has triggered a sharp rise in energy prices around the world.

In a bid to counter the surge in fuel prices, Trump is considering extending the Jones Act waiver, which allows foreign-flagged cargo ships to move fuel and other goods between domestic ports, according to US officials cited by the Axios news site.

Trump waived Jones Act limitations for 60 days starting March 17, hoping the move would help tame prices by increasing shipments from the US Gulf Coast to other coastal markets in the country.

Iran choked off shipping in the strait, and launched missile and drone attacks across the region, after the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign in the Islamic Republic on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

There have been more than 30 attacks on ships in the Mideast during the war.

Although the US focused much of its fire in the war on Iran’s navy, sinking and heavily damaging dozens of vessels, the IRGC operates a fleet of small attack boats, some of which apparently survived the war. Those vessels typically carry mounted machine guns, and can be used for mining operations.

On Wednesday, Iran opened fire on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and a second was attacked a short time later, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.

Iranian state television later reported that both ships, identified as the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas and Panama-flagged Francesca, were attacked and seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and were being taken to Iran for what the IRGC described as maritime violations.

The semiofficial Nour News, Fars and Mehr news agencies then reported the Guard attacked a third vessel that had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, without elaborating. The vessel was identified as the Panama-flagged Euphoria.

The IRGC had vowed in an earlier statement Wednesday to “deliver crushing blows beyond the enemy’s imagination to its remaining assets in the region.”

The Guard “remains at peak readiness and determination to continue the fight, prepared for a decisive, certain and immediate response to any threat or renewed aggression,” the statement added.

Iran judiciary says man put to death for working with Mossad

The Islamic Republic judiciary’s Mizan news outlet said Wednesday that Iran executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the latest in a string of executions amid the war with the US and Israel.

Mizan identified the man as Mehdi Farid, saying he had held a position in a civil defense unit within a sensitive organization and had used his access to gather and transmit information to the Mossad.

His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out after legal procedures were completed, Mizan said.

Iran is the world’s second most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups based outside the country.

Earlier this month, Iran’s hardline judiciary chief urged courts to speed up verdicts linked to the US-Israeli war, including capital punishment, as activists sounded the alarm about surging hangings of convicts seen as political prisoners.

Most of those executed are young men, including teens, alleged to have been either involved in the nationwide protests in January that were brutally suppressed by the regime — with thousands shot dead in the streets — or members of banned opposition groups.

Amnesty International has said that these executions have shown the judiciary to be “a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on those demanding fundamental political change.”