Iranian Talks Break Down After Trump Threatens Strikes, Hormuz Move

Iranian media said its negotiating team abruptly left a talks session after what it called unprecedented threats from U.S. President Donald Trump. The report, carried by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar channel and Iran’s Tasnim news agency, said the breakdown came soon after the discussions began and followed a Fox News interview in which Trump warned Tehran that the United States could act against Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

In the interview, Trump said, “We may take over the Strait of Hormuz. If we need to, we will blow them away and impose a tariff on passage through the shipping lane.” He added that the United States could become the “guardian angel” of the Strait of Hormuz and receive “20% of the oil.” He also warned, “We will strike Iran harder than last week.”

Trump escalated the pressure minutes later in a post on his Truth Social platform, linking the negotiations to Hezbollah’s activity against Israel. “Iran must immediately stop their well-funded proxies in Lebanon (Hezbollah) from causing trouble,” he wrote, warning, “If they do not, we will strike Iran very hard again, exactly as we did last week, only stronger.”

Tehran responded defiantly. Ibrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, dismissed the threats and said, “Empty threats have expired. If you had the ability, you would have taken over the Strait of Hormuz during the war. You wanted to, but you could not.” Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also leading the Iranian delegation to the talks, said the side in question had reached a dead end and warned that Iranian armed forces were ready to respond. “Let them talk as much as they want, we are the ones acting,” he said.