{"id":380,"date":"2026-04-18T23:04:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=380"},"modified":"2026-05-17T03:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:26:38","slug":"trump-on-attacks-in-strait-of-hormuz-iran-wont-blackmail-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/trump-on-attacks-in-strait-of-hormuz-iran-wont-blackmail-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump on Attacks in Strait of Hormuz: Iran Won\u2019t Blackmail US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Speaking from the Oval Office on Saturday morning, Trump stated that his administration is having very good talks with Tehran. Yet, the Islamic regime attempted to close the Strait of Hormuz just hours after an agreement was reached for the permanent opening of this critical passageway.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;They cannot blackmail us,&#8221;<\/strong> he said, noting that many international shipping companies have rerouted their routes to source energy from the Gulf of America via the United States instead of the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>The president added that more details about the status of the negotiations with Iran would be provided later in the day.<\/p>\n<h2>Statement from Iranian Official on the Negotiations<\/h2>\n<p>On its side, Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Hatibzadeh stated that no date has yet been set for the next peace talks. An overall framework must first be agreed upon, he explained.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hope that once we finalize that, we will move on to the next step,&#8221; Hatibzadeh said on the sidelines of a forum in Turkey.<\/p>\n<h2>Iranian Threats and Economic Consequences<\/h2>\n<p>Earlier, a spokesperson for the Iranian military announced that Tehran would not allow safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz until Washington lifts the blockade on Iranian vessels.<\/p>\n<p>This move threatens to severely impact Iran\u2019s economy. The country may be forced to permanently shut down some oil sources, as there is no storage capacity available, and halting crude oil production would cause irreparable damage to the equipment.<\/p>\n<h2>New Attacks against Ships<\/h2>\n<p>Following these threats, multiple ships were attacked on Saturday. A container ship was hit by an unknown projectile off the coast of Oman, causing damage to some containers, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, two commercial vessels reported coming under fire, as reported by the Times of London.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is the Course of the Negotiations?<\/h2>\n<p>It remains uncertain how these incidents will affect talks with Washington. On Friday, Trump had stated that Iran is desperate to come to the table and has tentatively agreed to abandon its nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n<h2>The Position of the Europeans and Trump\u2019s Response<\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Saturday\u2019s events will alter the plans of European NATO member states to send ships to the Strait of Hormuz. <strong>Announcements from Britain, France, Germany, and Italy were made on Friday, with the expectation that hostilities had ended\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At a <strong>Turning Point USA<\/strong> event, President Trump <strong>ironically commented on the Europeans\u2019 stance.<\/strong> He said he only received calls from allies <strong>once the situation had calmed down.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is almost over, I got a call from NATO asking if we want help,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I told them I would have wanted that two months ago, but now I no longer want it, because they were useless when we needed them. In fact, <strong>we never needed them. They needed us.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If this has taught us anything, it is that <strong>we must rely only on ourselves,<\/strong>&#8221; Trump concluded. &#8220;We cannot depend on other countries and external sources.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite Trump&#8217;s talks with Tehran, Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting vital oil routes amid rising tensions and attacks on ships, exposing fragile diplomacy and uneasy global stakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[196,96,279,277,328,280,209,278],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-operation-in-iran","tag-said-hatibzadeh","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-united-states","tag-usa","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}