Tehran in ‘weak position’, says White House as Iran tightens grip on strait

Donald Trump is holding the cards, the White House has insisted as Iran tightened its hold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz by seizing two ships.

While the US president extended the fragile truce to enable Tehran to come up with a “unified” proposal, he has maintained the naval blockade of the country’s ports.

This has led Iran to accuse the White House of a “flagrant breach of the ceasefire”.

The stand-off means the strait – a maritime pinchpoint – is still effectively closed meaning ongoing pain to the global economy.

The conflict, triggered by joint US-Israeli strikes at the end of February, had already sent energy prices soaring and hiked the cost of other goods.

The impasse has cast further doubt on the prospect of talks aimed at securing a lasting end to hostilities.

Meanwhile, military planners from a coalition of countries were due to continue meeting in London on Thursday as part of plans for a UK and France-led defensive mission to keep the critical waterway open once the Iran war is over.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has said Britain wanted to see a “comprehensive settlement” and a “full reopening” of the key shipping route without restrictions or tolls.

In a separate development, it was also reported a top envoy to the US president has asked Fifa to replace Iran with Italy in the upcoming World Cup.

The Financial Times said the move was aimed at repairing relations between Mr Trump and the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni after his attacks on the Pope over the war.

In a late social media post on Tuesday, Mr Trump said the Tehran regime was “seriously fractured” and had agreed to a request by Pakistani mediators “to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal”.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “There’s obviously a lot of internal division. This is a battle between the pragmatists and the hardliners in Iran right now and the president wants a unified response.”

Hailing the success of the US blockade, she said: “We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade. They’re losing 500 million dollars a day.”

She said the country’s main oil export terminal was “completely full”, as a result of the bar on shipping.

With no new end date set for the extended ceasefire, Ms Leavitt added: “The United States maintains control over this situation, leverage over the Iranian regime.

“Not only have they been significantly weakened and obliterated militarily, but they are losing economically and financially every single moment that passes with this blockade.”

She went on: “Ultimately, he (Mr Trump) will dictate the timetable. He is satisfied with the naval blockade, and he understands that Iran is in a very weak position and the cards are in President Trump’s hands right now on.

“The president chose to extend the ceasefire because it’s Iran who need to get their act together.”

But Tehran has insisted the blockade must be lifted.

The speaker of Iran’s ​parliament and the country’s chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said: “You did not achieve your goals through military aggression and you will not achieve them by bullying either. The only way is recognising the Iranian people’s rights.”

In a further show of defiance, large crowds turned out for a parade in Tehran, where the regime put on show some of its ballistic missiles, while banners proclaimed the strait was “Indefinitely under Iran’s Control” and “Trump could not do a damn thing”.