Trump holds talks on prolonged Iran blockade

WASHINGTON/DUBAI/ISLAMABAD:

Donald Trump discussed how to mitigate the impact of a possible months-long US blockade of Iran's ports with oil companies, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the US president urged Tehran to "get smart soon" and sign a deal.

Tuesday's talks with oil executives followed a deadlock in efforts to resolve the conflict, which has led the United States to try to squeeze Iran's oil exports with a naval blockade aimed at forcing it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.

While Washington and Tehran traded public threats, mediator Pakistan was trying to avoid escalation while the two sides continue to exchange messages on a potential deal, a Pakistani source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Trump has said Iran can call if it wants to talk and, in a post on Truth Social earlier on Wednesday, said Tehran "couldn't get its act together."

The president and the oil executives "discussed the steps President Trump has taken to alleviate global oil markets and steps we could take to continue the current blockade for months if needed and minimize impact on American consumers," the White House official said.

US President Donald Trump said he discussed a possible ceasefire in the four-year war in Ukraine in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He spoke after the Kremlin reported the two leaders discussed a temporary Ukraine ceasefire to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two next month.

"We had a good talk, I've known him a long time," said Trump. The two leaders had their last publicly reported phone call on March 9, although Trump has indicated they speak regularly.

Oil prices rose more than 6% on Wednesday, with the Brent contract hitting a one-month high, on the prospect of a lengthy blockade.

The war has cost the US military $25 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday, providing the first official estimate of the price tag for the conflict.

Iran has pledged to continue disrupting traffic through the strait as long as it is threatened, which may mean more Middle East oil supply disruptions from the conflict, which has killed thousands and caused global economic upheaval.

Tehran warned on Wednesday of "unprecedented military action" against continued US blockading of Iran-linked vessels. Trump has said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, while Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

"They don't know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They'd better get smart soon!" Trump said in the social media post, without explaining what such a deal would entail.

The post featured a mock-up image of him in dark glasses and wielding a machine gun with the caption "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

Iran wants US acknowledgment of its right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful, civilian purposes. It has a stockpile of about 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60%, material that could be used for several nuclear weapons if further enriched.

Iran's parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Trump was trying to divide Iranians and force Iran to surrender through the blockade.

"The solution for confronting the enemy's new conspiracy is only one thing: maintaining unity, which has been the bane of all the enemy's conspiracies," Qalibaf said in an audio message on Telegram.

Iran has executed at least 21 people since the start of the war with the United States and Israel two months ago, and arrested more than 4,000 on national security-related charges, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday.

In a sign of the economic toll the war is taking on Iran's economy, its currency fell to a record low on Wednesday, the Iranian Students' News Agency said. Inflation for the month from March 20 to April 20 was 65.8%, the central bank said, a trend likely to be exacerbated by the currency's plunge.

Iran's latest offer for resolving the war, suspended since April 8 under a ceasefire agreement, would set aside discussion of its nuclear program until the conflict is formally ended and shipping issues resolved. That did not meet Trump's demand to address the nuclear issue at the outset.

The Pakistani source said the US had shared "observations" on the Iranian proposal and it was now up to Iran to respond. "Iranians asked for time till the end of the week," the source told Reuters.

US intelligence agencies, at the request of senior administration officials, are studying how Iran would respond if Trump were to declare a unilateral victory, two US officials and a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Tehran has largely blocked all shipping apart from its own from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies, since the US and Israel began airstrikes on Iran on February 28. This month, the US began blockading Iranian ships.

Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power since several senior Iranian political and military figures, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were killed in US-Israeli strikes.

The elevation of Khamenei's wounded son, Mojtaba, to replace him has handed more power to hardline commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say.

Meanwhile, Trump is under domestic pressure to end a war for which he has given shifting rationales to a US public struggling with surging gasoline prices. His approval rating fell to the lowest level of his current term, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, which showed 34% of Americans approve of his performance, down from 36% in the prior survey.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to defend the Iran war in fiery remarks to Congress, saying it was not a quagmire and attacking Democratic lawmakers as "feckless" for criticizing the unpopular conflict.