The options discussed during Monday’s meeting in the Situation Room included whether the U.S. military presence in the strait should change — either increase or decrease — and whether the military should become more aggressive in conducting operations there, the U.S. official said.
Trump has not made any decisions about the way forward, the sources said, and it’s not clear when he might make a decision.
The U.S. showed little immediate enthusiasm for a new Iranian proposal that would end the war and reopen the strait without resolving the impasse over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program — a key stumbling block in the stalled peace talks.
Trump weighed in early Wednesday in a 4 a.m. ET post on Truth Social.
“Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” Trump said.
Accompanying the text was an apparently AI-generated image of Trump holding a gun, with the message “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”
It was not clear what Trump meant by a “nonnuclear deal.”
Washington has publicly insisted on Tehran halting its enrichment program, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that any agreement must be one that “definitively prevents them from sprinting toward a nuclear weapon at any point.”
“U.S. negotiators continue to engage with the Iranians, who are struggling to sort out their leadership situation following Operation Epic Fury,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement, referring to the U.S.-Israeli joint military campaign in Iran. “The president will only enter into an agreement that puts U.S. national security first, and he has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”
That sentiment even echoed through the White House East Room last night, where Trump was hosting a state dinner for King Charles III.
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