President Donald Trump issued a major directive Sunday to the U.S. Navy to target vessels of any nation that comply with Iran’s demand for tolls to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
“I have instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.”
Trump’s directive was issued after a U.S. delegation left a grueling 21-hour negotiation with Iranian officials empty-handed, and with no agreement reached to bring about an end to the U.S. war against Iran or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, closed by Iran since the Trump administration’s initial attack on Iran in late February.
Furthermore, Trump also announced a new blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, effective immediately.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote.
“At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere,’ that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.”
As to the negotiations themselves, Trump wrote in a separate social media post that the U.S. delegation – led by Vice President JD Vance – was “very friendly” to the Iranian negotiating team, but that the talks failed because Tehran refused to commit to not pursuing a nuclear weapon.
“My three Representatives, as all of this time went by, became, not surprisingly, very friendly and respectful of Iran’s Representatives, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Abbas Araghchi, and Ali Bagheri, but that doesn’t matter because they were very unyielding as to the single most important issue and, as I have always said, right from the beginning, and many years ago, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” Trump wrote.