Iran-US battle newest: Trump newest risk is to ‘take out’ Tehran’s vitality infrastructure if peace deal not reached

US Central Command has said it will implement a blockade on Iranian ports on Monday at 10am.

It comes after Donald Trump announced the US Navy would start ​blockading the Strait of Hormuz.

“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the military announced.

“CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” it added in a statement on social media.

Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice before the blockade starts, it said.

The president resumed his bombastic threats just hours after negotiations in Islamabad failed, warning that the US military was “locked and loaded to finish Iran”.

Delegations from Washington and Tehran – including vice-president JD Vance and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi – had been locked in crucial negotiations that insiders said were marred by mood swings and tense exchanges.

But Mr Vance announced the talks, which aimed to bring an end to six weeks of costly warfare and to find a solution to Iran’s closure of the shipping lane, had failed after just 21 hours.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned that any US warships approaching the Strait to carry out a blockade will be considered in breach of the ceasefire and be dealt with “strongly”, prompting fears that the conflict could reignite just days after a two-week ceasefire was agreed.

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Donald Trump has said price of oil and gasoline may remain high through November’s midterm elections.

The US president’s remarks mark a rare acknowledgement of the potential political fallout from his decision to attack Iran six weeks ago.

“It could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same,” Trump, who is in Miami for the weekend, told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” when asked whether the cost of oil and gas would be lower by the fall.

The average price for regular gas at U.S. service stations has exceeded $4 per gallon for most of April, according to data from GasBuddy.

Trump’s comments on Sunday came after weeks of asserting that the spike in prices is a short-term phenomenon, though his top advisers are cognizant of the war’s economic impacts, officials have said.

Our reporter Nicole Wootoon-Cane writes:

US vice president JD Vance told reporters following the talks the Americans were leaving with a “final and best offer” on the table, adding: “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it”.

But with no further talks tabled, Washington will need to consider its options if it hopes to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring an end to volatility in oil and gas prices.

Reopening negotiations centred around Tehran’s nuclear capabilities could be an option. But Vice President Vance declared the country’s nuclear disarmament a “core goal” of the US, suggesting the American stance is unlikely to change.

Instead, a lack of agreement could see the US abandon the fragile ceasefire agreement and resume attacks on Iran – a move that is unlikely to unlock safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Following the conclusion of the talks, President Trump also posted a news article on social media, which suggested he may consider launching a naval blockade in the region.

Senior military officials have also shed light on the president’s previous comments over “clearing the strait”, suggesting a build-up of US naval power in the region.

On Saturday, US central command commander admiral Brad Cooper said: “Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage, and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon.”

The motivation on the part of the Americans to seek a peace deal is weak because their negotiating position is weak. Agreement means compromise and concessions, and Mr Trump and his proud colleagues cannot bring themselves to admit what looks very much like defeat.

As Mr Trump might put it, if he were being candid for a change, Tehran now has most of the cards in this game, and that is because Washington has played its own hand badly. After all, before Mr Trump was persuaded by Benjamin Netanyahu and some reckless Republican sycophants in Congress to launch this war, the Strait of Hormuz was free to international maritime traffic, the Gulf states were dedicating themselves to peace, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness, and Lebanon was not under virtual Israeli occupation, creating another intractable problem for another set of negotiators over in Washington. More to the point, the Islamic Republic of Iran has survived, and still has somewhere a well-hidden stockpile of partially enriched uranium from which to develop a nuclear weapon. That qualifies as victory.

Mr Trump says of the talks that “regardless what happens we win…Let’s see what happens – maybe they make a deal maybe they don’t. It doesn’t matter. From the standpoint of America, we win.” That is precisely and diametrically wrong. Whatever happens now, America has lost this war, whether it ends with some kind of deal or whether Mr Trump decides to escalate the military effort.

Iran ​had very good initiatives to show goodwill ⁠in talks with the United States which led ⁠to progress ​in ⁠the negotiations, the country’s ⁠top negotiator Mohammad Baqer ​Qalibaf ⁠said in ‌comments carried by state media on ‌Sunday.

Qalibaf said ‌US President Donald Trump’s new ⁠threats will have no effect on the Iranian nation.

“If you fight, we will fight, ‌and if ​you come ‌forward with logic, ⁠we will ⁠deal with logic,” ‌he ​said.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday ⁠it had summoned Iraq’s ambassador over what ⁠it ​described ⁠as threats targeting the ⁠kingdom and ​other ⁠Gulf ‌states from drones launched from Iraqi ‌territory.

The Saudi ‌foreign ministry said ⁠in a statement that it had “emphasised the importance of Iraq ‌dealing responsibly ​with these ‌threats ⁠and attacks”.

Donald Trump has again criticised Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on Washington’s war against Iran, comparing the Prime Minister to Neville Chamberlain – whose premiership was defined by his 1930s appeasement of Adolf Hitler.

“Nato is shameful,” the US president told Fox News.

“I mean, look at the United Kingdom… PM Starmer said ‘we’ll send the equipment after the war is over’.

“I said ‘you don’t need equipment when the war is over. You need the equipment before the war starts, or during the war’…

“He made a public statement that ‘we will send equipment after the war is over’, that’s a Neville Chamberlain statement.”