Donald Trump told the news site Axios by telephone on Sunday that the United States is holding off on further military strikes against Iran and leaning on economic pressure instead. "We're staying quiet," he said, according to Axios. "We're only half-negotiating with them. We're just watching Iran, with its enormous inflation and the fact that they have no money."
He pointed to the American naval blockade of Iranian ports as having made conditions worse, and posted on Truth Social that Iran has "no money." A week earlier he had threatened heavy new strikes, then suspended them, saying there were the "outlines of an agreement" on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran's terms came back over the weekend and they are not small. Iran's National Security Council, its highest decision-making body, set six conditions for reopening the strait, according to Iranian media: an end to all US threats against the Islamic Republic; a permanent halt to the war against Iran and its allies in the region; the lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports along with a withdrawal of US forces from the region; full financial compensation for war damage; the complete removal of all sanctions; and the unconditional release of all frozen Iranian assets.
Trump was unhurried about it. "It'll work out," he said of the back-and-forth. "It always works out. It's like a game of chess."
Oil moved on the uncertainty. Brent crude rose 1.09 percent on Monday to $84.46 a barrel.
Why it is on the board
It was the most-read item on Der Spiegel on Monday. The same story was the second most-read on BFMTV in France, which ran it from the same Axios interview.
Spiegel's piece lists Iran's six conditions in full and carries the Brent price. BFMTV's stays with the interview and adds that Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the strait stays shut until Washington accepts all of Tehran's terms, and that reopening the strait is now Trump's first priority, ahead of the nuclear and missile questions cited in February to justify the Israeli-American offensive.
Sourced from Der Spiegel and BFMTV.