Trump “We Will Get It”; Hormuz “International Waterway”
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that the United States “will get” Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — in direct response to the Khamenei directive. “We will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it,” Trump said. He separately rejected Iran’s proposed Strait of Hormuz transit fees: “We want it open, we want it free. We don’t want tolls. It’s an international waterway.” Trump remains ready to resume strikes “if we don’t get the right answers” from Iran’s leadership.
Reuters reports Iran’s top peace negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told Iranian outlets on Wednesday that “obvious and hidden moves by the enemy” showed the Americans were preparing new attacks. Trump’s week opened with him telling reporters on Tuesday: “I was an hour away from making the decision to go today.” Iran’s leaders are “begging for a deal”, Trump said, adding a new US attack would happen “in coming days” if no agreement was reached. Tehran’s latest offer to Washington largely repeats terms Trump previously rejected: control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, lifting of sanctions, release of frozen assets, withdrawal of US troops. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister restated Tehran’s claims to sovereignty over the strait on Thursday, saying aggression from the US, Israel and some regional states had “fundamentally altered security in the waterway”.