Trump discusses months-long blockade in talks with oil companies

With oil markets on edge and diplomacy stalled, US President Donald Trump has been weighing how to cushion the fallout from a potential months-long US blockade of Iran’s ports, according to a White House official, while pressing Tehran to “get smart soon” and agree to a deal.

The discussion with US oil executives yesterday came after several days of impasse in efforts to end the conflict, which has prompted the United States to squeeze Iran’s oil exports through a naval blockade in an attempt to force Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.

Before news of the meeting surfaced, Mr Trump signalled his frustration in a Truth Social post, despite previously saying Iran could reach out if it wanted talks, declaring that the country “couldn’t get its act together”.

According to the White House official, Mr Trump’s meeting with energy executives focused on ways to steady oil markets if the blockade of Iranian ports needs to remain in place for months. The talks covered US oil production, oil futures, shipping and natural gas.

Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted that Iran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, while Tehran denies seeking one and says it is entitled to maintain a civilian nuclear programme.

“They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They’d better get smart soon!” Mr Trump wrote, offering no details on what such an agreement would involve.

The post included a mock-up image of him wearing dark glasses and holding a machine gun beneath the caption “No more Mr. Nice Guy”.

Donald Trump shared an AI-generated image depicting him with a rifle

Oil prices climbed more than 5% today, pushing the Brent contract to a one-month high, after an initial Wall Street Journal report said the US may prolong its blockade.

Iran has vowed to keep disrupting traffic through the strait for as long as it remains under threat, raising the prospect of further interruptions to Middle East oil supplies in a conflict that has killed thousands and sent shockwaves through the global economy.

Tehran also warned of “unprecedented military action” if the United States continues blockading Iran-linked vessels.

Trump discusses Middle East and Ukraine wars with Putin

Mr Trump said he had a “very good conversation” with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, adding that their exchange centred more on the war in Ukraine than on Iran.

“We talked about more about the war in Ukraine,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after the two men spoke by phone.

Mr Trump said Mr Putin wanted to “help” bring the US-Israeli war on Iran to an end, but that he told the Russian leader to stop the invasion of Ukraine first.

A Kremlin aide said Mr Putin cautioned his US counterpart about the “damaging consequences” of fresh military action in Iran,

Putin “highlighted the inevitable and extremely damaging consequences not only for Iran and its neighbours, but also for the entire international community, should the US and Israel resort to military action once again,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

Iran parliament speaker says US blockade aims at ‘internal division’

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has become a leading public figure since the Middle East war began, said the United States was using its naval blockade to sow division and “make us collapse from within”.

He said US President Donald Trump “divides the country into two groups: hardliners and moderates, and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran into submission through economic pressure and internal discord,” Iranian state TV reported.

After the killing of numerous Iranian leaders in US-Israeli strikes, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei, speculation has intensified over who now holds power inside the Islamic republic.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump said Iran’s government was “seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so”.

Mr Ghalibaf, a powerful political figure, has gained stature since the war began and served as the lead negotiator in what remains the only round of direct US-Iranian talks so far.

“The enemy has entered a new phase and wants to activate economic pressure and internal division through naval blockade and media hype to weaken or even make us collapse from within,” he said.

He said the only answer was to “maintain unity”.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Donald Trump splits Iran into ‘hardliners and moderates’

Iranian currency plunges

Iran is seeking US recognition of its right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful civilian purposes.

It holds a stockpile of about 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, material that could be used for several nuclear weapons if enriched further.

Iranian officials said the country could endure the blockade by relying on alternative trade routes, and that the Islamic Republic did not regard the war as over.

Underscoring the economic damage from the conflict, Iran’s currency slid to a record low of 1,810,000 rials to the US dollar today, the Iranian Students’ News Agency said, as pent-up demand for foreign currency during six weeks of fighting spilled into the open market.

The rial has lost nearly 15% of its value in the last two days alone, ISNA reported.

Inflation for the Iranian month from 20 March to 20 April stood at 65.8%, the central bank said, a trend likely to worsen as the currency sinks further.

Iran wants formal end to conflict first

Iran’s latest proposal to resolve the war, which has been suspended since 8 April under a ceasefire agreement, would postpone any discussion of its nuclear programme until the conflict is formally over and shipping issues are settled.

That fell short of Mr Trump’s demand that the nuclear issue be addressed from the outset.

At the request of senior administration officials, US intelligence agencies are examining how Iran might react if Mr Trump were to declare a unilateral victory, two US officials and a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Iranian proposal, conveyed by Pakistan and reviewed by Trump administration officials at a meeting on Monday, set out red lines on nuclear issues and Hormuz, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

Under the reported plan, Iran would loosen its grip on the strait and the US would lift its retaliatory blockade while broader negotiations continued, including talks on the nuclear programme.

Since the war began on 28 February, Tehran has largely blocked all shipping through the Strait of Hormuz from the Gulf except its own, tightening pressure on a chokepoint vital to global energy supplies.

This month, the United States began blockading Iranian ships.

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Pressure grows on Trump to end costly war

Iran no longer has a single, uncontested clerical authority at the top of the state after several senior political and military figures, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were killed in US-Israeli strikes.

The rise of Khamenei’s wounded son, Mojtaba, as his successor has shifted greater influence to hardline commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say.

At the same time, Mr Trump is facing pressure at home to bring the war to a close after offering shifting explanations for a conflict that has coincided with surging gasoline prices for US consumers.

His approval rating dropped to the lowest point of his current term, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, which found that 34% of Americans approve of his performance, down from 36% in the previous survey.

Governments, especially in Asia, are trying to conserve fuel while spending billions of dollars on subsidies. The European Union loosened state aid rules to allow member states to compensate agriculture, fisheries and transport firms for higher fuel and fertiliser costs until the end of 2026, though it has not yet moved to curb use.

Lebanese soldier and brother killed in Israeli attack

Israeli tanks and military vehicles in a southern Lebanon town destroyed by the IDF

The confrontation between Iran and the United States comes as Israel presses ahead with attacks across Lebanon.

A Lebanese soldier and his brother were killed in an Israeli strike in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said.

It said the two men were riding a motorcycle from the soldier’s post to his home when the strike hit.

The Israeli military said it was examining the report.

In a separate incident, the Israeli military said a contractor working for an engineering company on behalf of Israel’s defence ministry was killed yesterday in southern Lebanon in a drone attack claimed by Hezbollah.

The group fired two rockets into Israel on Wednesday, the military said, one of which was intercepted. No casualties were reported.