Iran threatens to close Hormuz again if US blockade remains

As Trump claims ‘no sticking points’ and that deal possible in days, Iran insists he’s lying

President says US will remove Iran’s enriched uranium ‘at leisurely pace,’ but Iran denies it; also claims Iran will stop backing Hamas, Hezbollah; US and Iranian officials say significant gaps remain

US President Donald Trump signaled growing optimism Friday about a potential deal with Iran to end the war amid a temporary ceasefire, saying negotiators could meet as soon as this weekend and that an agreement may be reached within days. He boldly claimed there were “no sticking points,” even as US and Iranian officials cautioned that major key issues remain unresolved.

The US leader spoke with a series of news outlets Friday and issued a long series of posts on his Truth Social network, following the Iranian announcement that it had opened the Strait of Hormuz as a response to the Israeli-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, with Trump predicting a deal to permanently end the war in a matter of days and saying that the US would “leisurely” remove Iran’s enriched uranium.

Iran swiftly denied one of Trump’s key claims regarding its ostensible readiness to relinquish its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and it did not confirm his claim that it was ready to halt its support for proxy terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah — issues that have hitherto prevented an agreement.

Tehran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf even threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz again if the United States continued its blockade of Iranian ports.

“We’re going to get it by going in with Iran, with lots of excavators,” Trump told the conservative Turning Point USA movement in Phoenix, Arizona. “We’re going to take it back home to the USA very soon.”

Speaking to the Axios news site, Trump said he expects imminent progress following recent contacts with Iranian officials.

“The Iranians want to meet. They want to make a deal. I think a meeting will probably take place over the weekend. I think we will get a deal in the next day or two,” he said in a phone interview.

While speaking to Reuters, Trump said that he thinks the deal “will go very quickly,” saying, “We’re getting along very well with Iran.”

In a separate interview with AFP, Trump struck an even more confident note, claiming there were “no sticking points at all” left in the negotiations, which Iranian sources told CNN could resume Monday in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad.

“We’re very close. Looks like it’s going to be very good for everybody. And we’re very close to having a deal,” Trump said, adding that “things are going very well.”

Trump also pointed to developments in the Strait of Hormuz as a sign of progress.

“The strait’s going to be open, they already are open,” he said, after Iran announced it would allow commercial shipping through the waterway for the duration of the current ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But Ghalibaf tweeted overnight Friday-Saturday that, “With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.”

He added that passage through the waterway would depend on authorization from Iran, as stated in the terms of the ceasefire announced by Pakistan

Ghalibaf said Trump made seven different claims about the war within an hour, all of which were false.

The US “did not win the war with these lies, and they certainly will not get them anywhere in negotiations either,” Ghalibaf said.

Nuclear dust

In remarks to Reuters, Trump outlined a proposal for handling Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, saying the United States would work directly with Iran to retrieve it.

“We’re going to get it together. We’re going to go in with Iran, at a nice leisurely pace, and go down and start excavating with big machinery… We’ll bring it back to the United States,” he said, adding that material he described as “nuclear dust” would be recovered “very soon.”

Iran is believed to hold more than 900 pounds of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent purity — just a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels — making the issue one of the most contentious in the negotiations.

Much of it is believed to be in underground nuclear sites bombed by the US last year, leading Trump to refer to it as “nuclear dust.”

Trump’s claim was swiftly denied by Iran.

“Iran’s enriched uranium is not going to be transferred anywhere,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told state TV.

For his part, Trump pushed back on reports of a potential financial component to the deal, rejecting claims of a $20 billion arrangement involving frozen Iranian funds.

“It’s totally false. No money is changing hands,” he told Reuters.

That denial appeared to contradict reporting by Axios, which said one proposal under discussion involved the US releasing $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for Iran giving up its enriched uranium stockpile and agreeing to a moratorium on enrichment.

Beyond the nuclear issue, Trump emphasized that any deal must address regional tensions, particularly regarding Israel. Speaking with CBS News, he again claimed Iran agreed to halt support for armed proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza, but gave no further details.

Make Israel safe

He told Axios that the potential deal with Iran would “make Israel safe,” stressing that Jerusalem would “come out great” at the end of the war.

In terms of Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, Trump said it “has to stop. They can’t continue to blow buildings up. I am not gonna allow it,” echoing an earlier remark he made on Truth Social, where he said Israel was “PROHIBITED” from continuing to strike Lebanon amid a 10-day ceasefire.

Despite those remarks, Lebanese media reported a strike that killed a motorcyclist after the ceasefire took effect. The IDF did not immediately comment on the reports.

Serious negotiations required

Despite Trump’s optimism, even his aides privately acknowledged that significant gaps remain.

US officials familiar with the talks told Axios that while negotiators are closing in on a three-page peace plan, gaps persist on critical issues, underscoring lingering uncertainty despite the president’s confidence.

And a senior Iranian official told Reuters that significant differences between Iran and the United States remain to reach a deal aimed at ending the war, adding that keeping the Strait of Hormuz open is “conditional on US adherence to the terms of ceasefire.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “no agreement has been reached on the details of the nuclear issues,” and serious negotiations are required to overcome differences.

He said Tehran hoped that a preliminary agreement could be reached in the coming days with mediator Pakistan’s efforts, with the possibility of extending the ceasefire to “create space for more talks on lifting sanctions on Iran and securing compensation for war damages.”

“In exchange, Iran will provide assurances to the international community about the peaceful nature of its nuclear program,” he said, adding that any other “narrative about the ongoing talks is a misrepresentation of the situation.”

Earlier Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire.”

The reopening of the strait — a critical international shipping route — and a parallel ceasefire in Lebanon have been seen as key steps toward a broader agreement, after Tehran insisted that halting fighting there must be part of any deal.

At the same time, Trump made clear that military pressure on Iran would continue until an agreement is finalized, telling both Axios and Reuters that the US naval blockade would remain in place until a deal is reached.

Israel, which launched the military campaign against Iran jointly with the US at the end of February, is not represented at the talks.

The ceasefire declared by Trump came with Israel’s core declared goals of the war largely unfulfilled, including ensuring that Iran does not attain nuclear weapons, destroying its missile program, and creating the conditions for the Iranian public to overthrow the regime.

USS Gerald Ford arrives back in Mideast, as 3rd American aircraft carrier follows suit

As both sides publicly traded accusations on Friday, two US defense officials told the Associated Press that the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, had again entered the waters of the Middle East.

The Ford, which until recently was operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, transited the Suez Canal, along with a pair of destroyers, the USS Mahan and the USS Winston S. Churchill, and is now operating in the Red Sea, one official said.

The Ford is returning to the Red Sea after more than a month in the Mediterranean following a major fire in a laundry space that forced the ship back to port for repairs. The carrier also broke the record for the longest aircraft carrier deployment since the Vietnam war this week.

The Ford’s arrival makes it the second aircraft carrier in the region in addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. The USS George H. W. Bush is also heading toward the region and is currently off the coast of South Africa, according to one defense official.