Trump urges Iran to sign a deal after report suggests US may extend blockade

DUBAI/WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has urged Iran to “get smart soon” and sign a deal, following days of deadlock in efforts to end the conflict and a media report that the US would continue to blockade Iran’s ports.

In an April 29 post on Truth Social, Mr Trump, who has said Iran can call if it wants to talk and has stressed that Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon, said the country “couldn’t get its act together”.

The Wall Street Journal cited US officials as saying the President had instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran’s ports in a bid to force Tehran to capitulate.

Officials said that Mr Trump had opted to continue squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports with the blockade as his other options – resuming bombing or walking away from the conflict – carried more risk, according to the WSJ.

“They don’t know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They’d better get smart soon!” Mr Trump said in the post on April 29, without explaining what such a deal would entail.

Iran wants some kind of US acknowledgment of its right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful, civilian purposes.

It has a stockpile of roughly 440kg of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, material that could be used for several nuclear weapons if further enriched.

Iranian officials said on April 27 the country could withstand the blockade as it was using alternative trade routes, and the Islamic Republic did not consider the war over.

The conflict has killed thousands, thrown energy markets into turmoil and disrupted global trade routes.

In a sign of the economic toll the war is taking on Iran’s economy, its currency fell to a record low of 1,810,000 rials to the US dollar on April 29, the Iranian Student News Agency said, as demand for foreign currency that built up during six weeks of fighting is now flowing into the open market.

The rial has seen its value fall by nearly 15 per cent in the last two days alone, ISNA reported.

Inflation for the Iranian month running from March 20 to April 20 was 65.8 per cent, the central bank said, a trend which is likely to be exacerbated by the currency’s plunge.

Iran wants formal end to conflict first

Iran’s most recent offer for resolving the two-month war, suspended since April 8 under a ceasefire agreement, would set aside discussion of its nuclear programme until the conflict is formally ended and shipping issues are resolved.

That proposal did not meet Mr Trump’s demand to have the nuclear issue discussed from the outset, however.

US intelligence agencies, at the request of senior administration officials, are studying how Iran would respond if Mr Trump were to declare a unilateral victory in the two-month-old war that has become a political liability for the White House, 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 war began on Feb 28. In April, the US began blockading Iranian ships.

Mr Trump’s Truth Social post featured a mock-up image of himself in dark glasses and wielding a machine gun with the caption “No more Mr Nice Guy”.

Iran’s guard take greater role

Hopes of a swift resolution to the conflict have receded since Mr Trump last weekend scrapped a visit by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to mediator Pakistan.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi visited the country twice during the weekend.

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 his wounded son, Mr Mojtaba, to replace him as supreme leader, has handed more power to hardline commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian officials and analysts say.

Mr Trump met top officials from energy companies at the White House on April 28 to discuss US oil production, shipping and gas, an official said.

Mr Trump is under domestic pressure to end a war for which he has given the US public shifting rationales. His approval rating fell to the lowest level of his current term, as Americans increasingly soured on his handling of the cost of living and the unpopular war, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll showed 34 per cent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, down from 36 per cent in the prior survey.

Oil prices rose nearly 3 per cent on April 29, with the Brent contract hitting a one-month high, on concerns that an extended blockade of Iranian ports would prolong supply disruptions.

Governments, particularly in Asia, are looking to conserve fuel and spending billions of dollars in subsidies.

The European Union loosened state aid rules to let member states compensate agriculture, fisheries and transport firms for extra fuel and fertiliser costs till the end of 2026 but has yet to curb use. REUTERS