Washington:
US President Donald Trump has said that Iran has given America a “present” worth a “tremendous amount of money”, related to the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway that has remained virtually closed since the US-Israeli strikes that started the war on February 28, causing global oil and gas prices to soar. The US leader stressed the gift was not related to Iran’s nuclear programme but to “oil and gas”. However, he did not specify exactly what it was.
The cryptic remark came a day after the American president postponed his threat to attack Iran’s power plants by five days and decided to move back to the negotiation table with Iran for a deal to end the war. Tehran, however, has denied being part of any truce-related talks.
What Trump Said
“They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present, and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize,” Trump said while speaking to reporters at the White House.
“That meant one thing to me — we’re dealing with the right people.”
The American commander-in-chief said the ‘present’ Tehran sent him was related to oil and gas as the countries look toward a potential ceasefire.
“It was oil-and-gas-related,” he added, without offering further details. He described the “gift” as “very significant.”
Asked if it was related to the Strait of Hormuz– a key oil shipping channel through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supply passes– Trump answered affirmatively.
“It was related to the flow and to the strait,” he said.
The US president stressed that the “present” was not related to Iran’s nuclear programme but repeated his claim that the Iranian side “agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon.”
What’s Happening At Hormuz
Shortly after Trump’s claim, Iran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organization, assured safe passage to “non-hostile vessels” going through the strait, the gateway which connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. Iran had already in recent days said it was not targeting friendly nations, although many vessels have shied away as insurance companies refuse to take risks.
Tehran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war with the US and Israel. Iran’s attacks on ships have stopped nearly all tanker traffic.
The US first tried its hand at a diplomatic solution to the Strait of Hormuz problem last week when President Trump called for a new international coalition to send warships to the strait. But America’s closest allies turned him down, resulting in Trump saying the US could manage on its own.
On Friday, he suggested other countries would have to take over as the US eyes an exit from the war. Hours later, he indicated the waterway would somehow “open itself.”
The Truce Talks
The US leader has not yet revealed who the United States is negotiating with in Tehran, saying only that it is a “top person.”
“We’re actually talking to the right people, and they want to make a deal so badly,” Trump said.
Former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the joint Israeli-US air campaign, and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in public.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
But Trump said that the killing of Khamenei senior and a host of other top Iranian officials meant “we have really regime change. The leaders are all very different with the ones that we started off with.”
US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, global envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were all involved in the Iranian talks, Trump said.
But he did not confirm reports that Witkoff and Kushner were headed to Pakistan for talks with Iran, with Vance possibly to follow afterwards if the negotiations appeared serious. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered on Tuesday to act as a mediator to end the conflict.
He said he had spoken with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, promising Islamabad’s help to bring peace to the region.
Trump, meanwhile, joked that Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth “didn’t want it to be settled” because he wanted to keep striking Iranian targets.
“We see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs,” Hegseth said when he was called to the podium by Trump.
