Washington - US President Donald Trump ordered the US military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, he said Thursday, a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the channel. Trump’s post on social media came shortly after the U.S. military seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Tehran over the strait through which 20% of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be … that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted, adding that U.S. minesweepers “are clearing the Strait right now.” “I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!” he added.
The US military announced Thursday that a third aircraft carrier arrived in the Middle East, amid the fragile truce with Iran. In a post on X, the US Central Command published a photo showing USS George H.W. Bush sailing in the Indian Ocean, in the CENTCOM “area of responsibility.” According to the US Naval Institute, the other two aircraft carriers, USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln, are stationed in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, respectively.
Meanwhile, it was still unclear when, or if, the two sides would meet again in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where mediators are trying to bring the countries together to reach a diplomatic deal. Negotiations initially planned for this week have not happened. Iran insists it will not attend until the U.S. ends its blockade on Iranian ports and ships. America insists it will not take part until Tehran opens the strait to international traffic.
Pope Leo XIV, returning home from a trip to Africa, urged the U.S. and Iran to return to talks to end the war. The Defense Department released video footage earlier Thursday of U.S. forces on the deck of the Guinea-flagged oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.
The footage emerged a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard attacked three cargo ships in the strait, capturing two of them, in an assault that raised new concerns about the safety of shipping through the waterway. The powerful head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, said three “violating ships” in the strait were “subject to enforcement” on Wednesday.
“The show of strength by the armed forces of Islamic Iran in the Strait of Hormuz is a source of pride,” he wrote Thursday on X, claiming that the Americans “lack the courage” to approach the strait. Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, roughly the same location as the oil tanker Tifani, which was seized earlier by American forces. It had been bound for Zhoushan, China.
The vessel previously had been named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil in contravention of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic. There was no immediate response from Iran about the seizure.
Trump this week extended a ceasefire to give the battered Iranian leadership more time to come up with a “unified proposal” on ending the war, while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is under no pressure to quickly reach a deal with Iran to end the war, arguing that time favors the United States and not Iran.
“I am possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position. I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social about ending the conflict. The president again described Iran’s military position as significantly weakened, saying: “Iran’s Navy is lying at the bottom of the Sea, their Air Force is demolished, their Anti Aircraft and Radar Weaponry is gone, their leaders are no longer with us, the Blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse — Time is not on their side!”
The president continued to say that any agreement to end the war would be made on US terms and his timeline, emphasizing that a deal will come only “when it’s appropriate and good” for the United States, as well as “our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World.” Earlier Thursday, Trump expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership as he awaits a “unified” proposal to end the war.
Israel is ready “to return Iran to the dark ages,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday. Speaking at a situation assessment at the Defense Ministry, Katz said the Israeli military is ready to restart the war against Iran. “The targets are marked,” he said. Katz said Israel is “awaiting a green light” from the United States to resume the war and “complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty and to return Iran to the dark ages.”
On Thursday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene a meeting with top security officials to discuss Israel and Lebanon, an Israeli source told CNN. A new round of direct talks between the US and Iran seems uncertain as both sides escalate rhetoric and actions. The US has seized vessels it says are carrying Iranian oil, while Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, with neither country showing any intent of backing down.
“This time, the attack will be different and deadly and will add devastating blows in the most painful places — following the tremendous blows the Iranian terror regime has already sustained — blows that will shake and collapse its foundations,” Katz said. Though Israel has assassinated many of Iran’s top leaders, the regime appears to have survived the heaviest blows so far.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iranians are “united, more than ever before” in a statement posted on X. It follows a similar joint statement posted a few moments prior by Iran’s president and top negotiator, in which they described Iran’s “iron unity.” In his statement, Araghchi says Iran’s “state institutions continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline.” “The battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war. Iranians are all united, more than ever before,” it reads.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf say there “are no radicals or moderates” in Iran hours after Donald Trump claimed the country’s leadership was embroiled in factional infighting. Pezeshkian and Ghalibaf - who is also the Iranian parliament’s speaker - say there “are no radicals or moderates” in Iran. “We are all ‘Iranian’ and ‘revolutionary,’ and with the iron unity of the nation and government, with complete obedience to the Supreme Leader,” the statement reads. “We will make the aggressor criminal regret his actions.”
