President Donald Trump said his administration has “very good conversations going on” with Iran on April 18 after a possible breakthrough in peace negotiations was dashed hours earlier when Iran announced the country will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian leaders have not said that they are not open to restarting talks so long as the U.S. military continues to blockade the country’s ports. “They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either,” said Mohammad B. Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of Parliament and one of the country’s top negotiators.
“With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.”
Ghalibaf’s announcement came hours after both Iranian leaders had said the critical shipping lane was “completely open” and Trump said it was “READY FOR BUSINESS.” The Iranian leader said the country decided to reverse its decision in response to Trump saying he would not call off the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump, meanwhile, doubled down on comments that peace talks were progressing well.
“Most of the points are already negotiated and agreed to,” the president told a crowd at a political rally in Arizona Friday evening. Trump claimed Iran had conceded on several key negotiating points, including that “the USA will get all nuclear dust,” referring to the country’s highly enriched uranium.
The president has been saying further peace talks with Iran will happen imminently, though none have been announced.
The White House has not responded to questions about the discrepancy between Trump and Ghalibaf’s comments.
Trump also threatened to let the current ceasefire expire Wednesday if no deal had been reached.
“Maybe I won’t extend it, but the blockade is going to remain,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “So you have a blockade, and unfortunately we have to start dropping bombs again.”
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Two ships attacked by the Iranian military on April 18 as they attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz were India-flagged, the Indian government confirmed in a statement.
India’s foreign minister summoned Iran’s ambassador hours later and “conveyed India’s deep concern,” the country’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
“He noted the importance that India attached to the safety of merchant shipping and mariners and recalled that India had earlier facilitated the safe passage of several ships bound for India,” the statement read.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
President Trump said “we have very good conversations going on” with Iran, hours after the country said it would not open the Strait of Hormuz so long as the U.S. blockade of its ports continues. “It’s working out very well.”
“The ships are coming up. They got used to it,” he told reporters at the White House on April 18 while signing an executive order on psychedelic drugs.
“We’ll have some information by the end of the day,” he said. “We’re talking to them and, you know, we’re taking a tough stand.”
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
French President Emmanuel Macron demanded that Lebanese authorities take action after he said a French soldier was killed in what he called a Hezbollah attack against the United Nations’ Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL.
“Sergeant-Chef Florian Montorio of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment from Montauban fell this morning in southern Lebanon during an attack against UNIFIL,” Macron said in an April 18 X post. “Three of his brothers-in-arms are wounded and have been evacuated.”
“Everything suggests that responsibility for this attack lies with Hezbollah. France demands that the Lebanese authorities immediately arrest the perpetrators and take their responsibilities alongside UNIFIL,” he added.
UNIFIL said one of its patrols “clearing explosive ordnance along a road” in Ghanduriyah, a village in southern Lebanon “came under small-arms fire from non-state-actors” on the morning of April 18.
“Tragically, one peacekeeper succumbed to his injuries and three others were injured, two of them seriously. The injured peacekeepers have been taken to medical facilities for treatment,” UNIFIL said on X.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Two Iranian military gun boats approached and fired on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in a warning issued early April 18, hours after Iran said it would not open the key shipping channel.
The incident occurred 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman, and authorities are investigating, according to the center.