live Trump: US Warships Will Blockade Strait Of Hormuz 'Immediately'

US President Donald Trump accused Iranian officials of violating pledges to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and said he was ordering US warships to start ‌blockading the critical shipping strait and ‌interdict every vessel that had paid ‌a toll to ‌Iran.

In a lengthy social media post on April 12, Trump also suggested Tehran's unwillingness to curtail its nuclear programs was the reason high-level talks in Pakistan broke down.

Hours earlier, US negotiators including Vice President JD Vance departed Pakistan without reaching a deal. Vance suggested the lack of a deal was "bad news" for Tehran, while Iran centered blame on US officials.

"Iran promised to open the Strait of Hormuz, and they knowingly failed to do so. This caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and Countries throughout the World," Trump wrote. "There is great dishonor and permanent harm to the reputation of Iran."

US warships, meanwhile, would begin blockading any ships trying to sail through the strait "effective immediately," Trump said.

"I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas," he wrote.

A day earlier, US warships sailed through the strait in what appeared to be a bold signal to Iranian officials to allow global shipping traffic to resume through the narrow waterway.

A marathon negotiating session between US and Iranian officials in Islamabad broke down after the two sides failed to reach agreement on several major points. Vance said Iran's nuclear ambitions were among the critical obstacles.

It was unclear how the breakdown in talks would affect the cease-fire that Trump announced last week, and is set to last until April 21.

Iran has effectively halted all shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a move that has sent global energy prices skyrocketing. Tehran said it would start collecting tolls from ships seeking to pass the waterway.

In comments to Fox News later on April 12, Trump said the issue of Iran seeking to retain aspects of its nuclear program was central to the talks' failure.

"We didn't get there on the important issue," he said. "They want to have nuclear weapons. They're not going to have nuclear weapons."

Trump also said he was ordering minesweepers to the Persian Gulf, where Iran is believed to have released an unnamed number of mines. He also asserted that other NATO members were willing to help US efforts to resume shipping traffic, though it was unclear what nations he was referring to.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on the United States and Iran "to find a way through" after high-level talks between the two countries failed despite marathon negotiations.

In a statement released in London on April 12, Starmer also called for the tenuous cease-fire to remain in place.

"It was vital there was a continuation of the cease-fire, and that all parties avoided any further escalation," Starmer said during a phone call with the leader of the Gulf nation of Oman.

The two leaders also discussed efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed to all oil tanker traffic by Iran, a move that has sent energy prices in Britain, and around the world, soaring.

The call came hours after US and Iranian leaders ended their talks with no breakthrough. Departing for the United States, US Vice President JD Vance said, "We've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news."

"The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States," he continued.

Iranian officials signaled they could be open to future talks but placed blame for the breakdown on the Americans.

Britain, one of Washington's closest allies, has reacted coolly to the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Britain was set to host further talks next week on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian authorities said they had identified nearly 3,400 people it said had been killed during US-Israeli strikes on the country that began on February 28.

The Forensic Medicine Organization, which is a part of Iran's judiciary, announced on April 12 that it has "identified and determined the identities of 3,375 people through scientific and specialized methods" of the citizens who died in the US and Israeli strikes.

According to the head of the Forensic Medicine Organization, this total includes 2,875 men and 496 women.

This is the latest official count of civilian deaths in the US-Israeli war with Iran. However, this is the only "identified" death toll from the war.

Previously, several official sources, including the Iranian Red Crescent Organization, have provided sporadic statistics on war deaths in the country, but these statistics did not include a breakdown by gender.

The US-based human rights group HRANA had previously reported the death toll at 3,636, saying of 1,701 -- including 254 children -- were civilians.

Iran’s Internet blackout entered its 44th day, activists said, as the government continued muzzling Iranians' connectivity to the outside world.

The government of Tehran shut down access to the worldwide Internet on February 28, the day that the United States and Israel attack the country.

The watchdog group NetBlocks said on April 12 that the blackout had surpassed 1,000 hours.

"The human and economic impacts of the extended censorship measure continue to pile up, breaking global records for shutdowns in a connected society," it said in the post on X.

During massive anti-government protests in January, authorities also throttled Iranians' Internet access, sharply limiting people’s ability to communicate and share information about the brutal crackdown. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people are believed to have been killed by security forces, rights activists said.

Some Iranians have turned to Starlink, the US-built satellite Internet provider, to get information. An estimated 50,000 Starlink terminals are in the country, according to Bloomberg, though the government has banned them and aggressively sought out people using them.

Iranians are also relying shortwave radio, which can transmit over long distances.

The lead negotiator in Iran's talks with the United States said Washington was "unable" to win Tehran's trust during the discussions.

In a post to X on April 12, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who is also the speaker of Iran's parliament, said his negotiators raised "forward-looking" initiatives during talks in Pakistan, but the United States failed to gain the ‌trust of the delegation in the talks.

"My colleagues in the Iranian delegation...put forward constructive initiatives but ultimately the other side was unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations," he wrote.

"America has understood our logic and principles, and now it's time for it to decide whether it can earn our trust or not."

Qalibaf's statement came hours after US Vice President JD Vance, who headed the US team, departed Islamabad saying there had been no deal to end the US war with Iran.

Qalibaf appeared to not completely shut the door to more talks in the future, but it was unclear if and when that would happen.

Iran aims to overhaul a majority of its oil refining and distribution facilities -- which have suffered damage in US-Israeli strikes since February 28 -- within the next two months, a senior industry official was quoted as saying.

Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Sadeq Azimifar told the Student News Network -- an Iranian news agency -- that he hopes the facilities will be restored to 70-80 percent of their pre-war capacity.

He said repairs have already begun and ‌that part of the Lavan refinery is ‌expected to resume operations within about 10 days, with other units coming back online gradually.

Oil exports are a critical source of revenue for Iran's economy. The US-Israeli attacks have badly damaged its oil infrastructure, and Iran has all but closed down the Strait of Hormuz, where a huge proportion of global oil tanker traffic passes through.

Global energy prices have skyrocketed as a result.

Tehran has no plans for the next round of peace talks to end the war, Iran's Fars news agency reported, after Islamabad peace talks collapsed and US officials departed for Washington.

The agency, which is closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said "Iran did not accept America's ambitious conditions on the Strait of Hormuz, peaceful nuclear energy and several other issues."

The agency cited "a source close to the Iranian negotiating team" in Islamabad.

"The Americans demanded through negotiations everything they could not obtain through war," the person said, adding that he believed "the American team was looking for an excuse to leave the negotiating table."

Another Iranian news agency, Tasnim, also quoted an "informed source" as saying that "a time and place for the next possible round of negotiations has not yet been determined."

"Iran is in no hurry" the agency, which is also affiliated with the IRGC, quoted the person.

Until the United States "agrees to a reasonable agreement… there will be no change in the situation in the Strait of Hormuz,” Tasnim said.

"The ball is in America's court and Iran is in no hurry to negotiate," Tasmin quoted the unnamed person as saying.

US Vice President JD Vance, who led the US negotiating team, departed the Pakistani capital on the morning of April 12.

The Iranian delegation was led by Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

WASHINGTON -- Marathon talks aimed at halting the war in Iran have failed without a breakthrough, as US Vice President JD Vance flew back to the United States amid major questions what comes next for the 43-day-old conflict.

Before departing Pakistan, Vance called the talks -- the highest-level talks between Washington and Tehran in decades -- "substantive," but said Iran had balked at Washington’s core security demands.

“We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We’ll see if the Iranians accept it," he said.

Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said about the two sides reached understanding "on a number of issues."

However, "there were differences of opinion on two or three important issues, and ultimately the talks did not lead to an agreement," he said in a post to social media.

To read the full report, click here.

WATCH: US Vice President's Statement After Marathon Iran Talks

by RFE/RL

No media source currently available

0:00 0:02:19 0:00

US Vice President JD Vance early on April 12 said that “we have not reached an agreement” and that Iran has "chosen not to accept our terms” after negotiations broke off following 21 hours of talks.

Vance did not go into details, but said the US needed an "affirmative commitment" that Iran would not seek a nuclear weapon and would not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.

"We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms," Vance told reporters at around 6:30 a.m. before heading back to the US after a marathon negotiation session.

"We were quite flexible, quite accommodating," he said.

Vance did not specify the next steps. There was no immediate comment on whether Tehran's refusal to accept US terms would lead to the resumption of US and Israeli air strikes against Iran and, in turn, Iranian retaliatory missile and drone launches against Israel and Gulf states.

Vance was in Islamabad to conduct "in-person" trilateral discussions with Iranian officials and Pakistani mediators. He said other issues, along with the nuclear situation, were also discussed.

"We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We'll see if the Iranians accept it,” he said.

US Vice President JD Vance early on April 12 is scheduled to meet with reporters following a marathon negotiation session with Iranian officials, his office said.

It was not immediately clear if Vance would take questions or solely deliver a statement. It was due to begin shortly after 6 a.m. in Islamabad.

Vance held "in-person" trilateral talks with Iranian officials and Pakistani mediators in Islamabad. The talks lasted more than 15 hours, with occasional breaks, and concluded early in the morning.