US President Donald Trump is pushing Iran to reach a deal with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz as soon as Tuesday, or face devastating air strikes. “I want to give them every last chance before decapitation,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “You’ll find out today or tomorrow. I mean, they’re going to go quickly, one way or the other. It’s not very complex.”
This is a “last chance” for Iran to come to an agreement, the president said, after he called off what he described as a major attack on the Islamic Republic over the weekend that would have likely involved Israel.
A diplomatic resolution appears to hinge on talks between Oman and Iran to get more ships sailing through the strait. There’s little sign of progress in those negotiations and Iran continues to take a hard line on the waterway. It insists it has the right to manage maritime traffic and attack vessels that try to sail through the chokepoint without seeking its permission. President Donald Trump said his latest offer of talks is a “last chance” for Iran after he called off an attack on the Islamic Republic. Bloomberg’s Stuart Livingstone-Wallace breaks down the latest developments. Iran’s stance underscores the difficulty Trump has faced in wrapping up a war he started in late February and that’s sent energy prices soaring, hurting the US leader and his Republican Party ahead of midterm elections in November. The chokepoint, a vital conduit for supplies of oil, liquefied natural gas and other commodities such as fertilizers, remains all but shut. Hardly any ships are sailing through, at least with their transponders turned on. Most that do are going on a northern route close to Iran’s shores with Iranian permission, or on a southern one nearby Omani territory. Trump said “there’s not going to be charging” for access to the strait, something Tehran has set as a key condition of any deal.