Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz

Trump Hormuz war: Trump drops demand to reopen strait, aides say

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

The shift scrambles cease-fire talks after 6 weeks of US-UK strikes that have failed to dislodge Iranian forces from shipping lanes controlling one-fifth of world oil.

The strait closure sent Brent crude above $91 per barrel on Monday, its highest since October, while insurers imposed war-risk premiums topping $600,000 per tanker voyage through the region.

WSJ reporters heard the president speak during a Situation Room meeting Thursday with Acting CIA Director Bob Cardillo, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Waltz asked whether the administration could still claim victory if Hormuz stayed closed and Trump replied: “If we end the war, that’s the win,” according to two officials present. The remarks mark a retreat from the opening position outlined in a 12 February memo that listed “reopening international waterways” as the first US objective.

Advisers left believing Trump now prioritises halting daily Iranian-backed attacks on Red Sea shipping and capping the air campaign that has cost the Pentagon $1.3 billion in munitions while pushing world oil prices up 31 percent since January. The White House never approved plans for a ground assault on the Iranian mainland, but planners kept a Marine Expeditionary Unit afloat in the Gulf as leverage during previous talks.

Oil traders in London and Dubai sold crude futures lower within minutes of the WSJ bulletin, knocking 72 cents off the April Brent contract. “The market had priced in either boots on Iranian beaches or a long siege,” Sara Elnaggi, senior energy analyst at BNP Paribas, told GlobalBeat. “If Trump folds Hormuz into a broader cease-fire, 2 million barrels a day could come back quickly.”

Trump first ordered strikes on 3 March after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seized the Bahamas-flagged tanker SC Taipei and fired on the US-flagged tanker Liberty Bay. More than 60 merchant ships have been hit, damaged or hijacked since then, according to the US Maritime Administration. The Pentagon counts 23 US air raids, 17 of them overnight on coastal radar sites, storage dumps and fast-boat pens around Bandar Abbas and Qeshm Island.

CENTCOM officials confirmed to reporters Saturday that F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman used bunker-busters to collapse three underground missile depots, but radar-guided anti-ship missilies launched hours later struck the Liberia-flagged tanker Ceres I off Fujairah. One Filipino crew member remains missing.

The administration had faced mounting pressure from Republican hawks, including Senator Tom Cotton of the Armed Services Committee, who warned any truce that leaves Iran in control of the chokepoint would embolden Tehran. “We don’t reward pirates with territory,” Cotton posted on X after the WSJ story. Senator Bill Hagerty, another Republican, echoed the concern during a brief call with GlobalBeat. “A closed Hormuz invites copy-cats. China will read this in real time,” Hagerty said.

British Defence Secretary John Healey said London would keep its destroyer HMS Diamond on station whatever Washington decides. “We support the US, but maritime law is clear. Free passage must be restored,” Healey told Sky News from the Gulf. UK pilots have flown 8 percent of the strike sorties to date. France has provided tanker aircraft while Saudi Arabia opened its Tabuk airfield for American drones.

Iran signalled it might accept partial controls. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi repeated Tehran’s offer to allow Gulf-state navies to co-patrol the strait provided the US stops bombing. “Close the file on aggression and we can discuss regional cooperation the same day,” he said on state television. The IRGC-linked newspaper Kayhan warned any deal perceived as surrender would split the conservative camp before parliamentary elections set for 17 April.

Markets remain wary. VLCC charter rates that leapt from $53,000 to $112,000 a day in early March dipped only lightly on the Trump headlines. “Shipowners need security, not talk,” said Plamen Mladenov, marine director at Valkyrie Tankers. “Until insurers sign off, cargoes will keep routing around the Cape of Good Hope, burning an extra 1.4 million barrels of fuel each month.” The longer detour adds 19 days to Asia-Europe voyages and complicates just-in-time refinery schedules from Antwerp to Yokohama.

Trump is expected to brief congressional leaders in closed session on Tuesday, the same day UN envoy Abe Berri convenes indirect talks in Geneva with Iranian diplomats. The administration must also decide whether to renew a 180-day sanctions waiver that lets Iraq buy electricity from Tehran; the waiver expires 18 May and could serve as leverage in any wider bargain. Pentagon accountants meanwhile calculate each continued day of carrier operations and missile launches adds roughly $80 million to the cost line, a figure that has already erased the defence department’s overseas contingency cushion for the fiscal year.

Background

The Strait of Hormuz is a 33-km-wide waterway between Oman and Iran through which an estimated 21 million barrels of oil, or roughly 21 percent of global petroleum liquids, transited daily in 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Iran has threatened to close the strait during previous stand-offs, including a 2019 drone-downing crisis and again during the 2012 EU oil embargo. Tanker attacks in May and June 2019 briefly pulled Brent toward $75 before diplomacy cooled temperatures.

Donald Trump enters this episode after running in 2024 on a platform of ending “forever wars” yet promising “maximum protection” against Iranian threats. In office, he pulled the United States from the 2015 nuclear JCPOA and imposed waves of sanctions but also opened back-channel talks with Tehran in 2023 over prisoner swaps. The current confrontation is his first major overseas shooting conflict since returning to the White House in January.

What’s Next

UN-led proximity negotiations resume on Tuesday in Geneva where US and Iranian envoys will trade proposals through mediators, including the Sultanate of Oman, for a potential phased truce starting with Red Sea de-escalation and moving to Hormuz patrols. Washington must also submit a supplemental defence budget request by 1 May to cover the $1.3 billion already spent, giving lawmakers a fresh occasion to debate US objectives.

If Trump sidesteps the Hormuz reopening demand entirely, he risks rupturing the coalition that includes Britain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, all of which tie their participation to freedom of navigation. Persistent strikes could yet push Tehran to mine the strait outright, industry analysts warn, driving crude past $100 and placing 2024’s fragile economic recovery at risk. All sides now await the president’s televised address expected within 48 hours, billed by aides as the clearest signal yet of whether he sees an exit ramp or plans to double down.