President Trump emphatically insisted Thursday that the United States will not use a nuclear weapon against Iran as the conflict nears its third month.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump called questions about the nuclear option “stupid.”
“Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we’ve totally and in a very conventional way decimated them without it?” he said. “I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”
Earlier Thursday, the president said he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. Navy interdicted another Iranian-linked oil tanker as the U.S. and Iran continued to trade ship seizures near the Strait of Hormuz and in the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. forces carried out a “right-of-visit” boarding mission on the M/T Majestic X, a sanctioned and stateless vessel in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility, the Pentagon said in a statement. The operation was part of a broader enforcement campaign aimed at disrupting “illicit networks” that provide support to Iran.
“International waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors. The Department of War will continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain,” the Defense Department said on X.
The operation is the second of its kind beyond the Strait of Hormuz and underscores the expansiveness of the U.S. Navy’s attempt to strangle Iranian oil exports. U.S. Central Command said its forces have turned around 33 vessels since the operations began.
Mr. Trump announced a U.S. naval blockade last week and declared that naval forces would intercept any ships attempting to leave or enter Iranian ports. The operation is intended as a pressure tactic to curb Tehran’s lucrative energy exports.
Mr. Trump’s “shoot and kill” order could constitute a breach of the ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran. Mr. Trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely Tuesday.
“There is to be no hesitation,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
According to reports this week, clearing the strait of Iranian mines could take at least six months. Iranian authorities have reportedly lost track of the locations of sea mines placed in and around the strait, making the cleanup effort difficult.
The U.S. is waiting for Iran to submit a unified peace proposal to Pakistani mediators seeking to end the conflict.
Mr. Trump said Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon and must reopen the Strait of Hormuz. So far, Tehran has not offered a proposal that meets his demands, he said. However, the U.S. president is giving Iran space to bring its factions together and submit a plan.
“We have no pressure,” Mr. Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office. “I want to make the best deal.”
Meanwhile, Iran has reasserted its de facto control over ships attempting to travel through the Strait of Hormuz from the Persian Gulf.
After a brief period of relative calm in the strait, naval forces from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have begun seizing commercial vessels in nearby waters. Three commercial vessels came under fire Wednesday after attempting to traverse the strait, Iranian state-affiliated media reported.
IRGC forces reportedly seized two of the vessels. A third, a Greek-owned ship, ran aground on Iran’s shores after coming under fire.
Iranian officials have cast the interdictions as retaliation for similar moves by the U.S., which they have labeled war crimes and piracy.
Iran has kept the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed since early March. It has threatened to strike at any Western-linked ships attempting to travel through the waterway.
Its closure has throttled global oil supply and sent international markets tumbling. Although oil prices fell and stocks rose after Iran and the U.S. announced a two-week ceasefire earlier this month, oil prices remain elevated and stocks remain below prewar levels.
Domestic gasoline prices, perhaps Mr. Trump’s largest political hurdle with the Iran war, have remained above $4 a gallon for more than a month.
Iran has contradicted Mr. Trump’s assertion that Iranian officials are divided over negotiations.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Iran’s delegation in negotiations with the U.S. earlier this month, said Thursday that “in Iran, there are no radicals or moderates.”
“We are all ’Iranian’ and ’revolutionary,’ and with the iron unity of the nation and government, with complete obedience to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, we will make the aggressor criminal regret his actions,” he wrote on social media.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued an identical statement on X at the same time.
The post seemed to be a direct response to Mr. Trump’s claim that Iran cannot get on the same page in peace talks.
“The infighting is between the ’Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ’Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY!” Mr. Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social.
Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump said Iran’s factions are “fighting like cats and dogs.”
“They don’t even know who is leading the country,” he said. “They’re in turmoil.”
Mr. Trump has threatened on social media to “blow up the rest” of Iran and “a whole civilization will die tonight,” raising speculation that he was considering using a nuclear weapon against Iran.
On Wednesday, Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, suggested that Mr. Trump should consider using a nuclear bomb against Iran. He compared the situation to Japan’s during World War II. President Truman ultimately dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan to end the war.
“Previous presidents have had the same issues on what to do,” Mr. Marshall said during a Newsmax interview. “Think about President Truman’s decision on dropping the bomb and D-Day for President Eisenhower.”
Since World War II, though, an overwhelming taboo has developed against using nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran escalated, progress was made in negotiations to end the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy, the militant group Hezbollah.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks after a meeting at the White House, Mr. Trump announced.
