Iran says forces would act to halt Red Sea trade flows if US blockade continues

“They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “If they don’t, we’re not making a deal.”

Trump said US forces had inflicted heavy damage on Iran, adding: “Everything’s been wiped out… They have no air force… no radar.”

He described Iran’s current leadership as “a new regime” and “pretty reasonable by comparison,” while saying the final outcome of the conflict remains uncertain.

“It only matters the end result… and maybe it’ll happen fairly soon,” he said.

Trump also said the United States has the capability to strike Iran’s infrastructure but does not want to escalate further.

“We could take out every one of their bridges in one hour… every one of their power plants,” he said, adding: “We don’t want to do that.”

He said he had not received pushback from other countries over US actions in the region, including moves affecting the Strait of Hormuz.

'Iran must be stopped from getting nuclear weapon'

Trump added that Iran must be prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon and warn

“You cannot do it. You cannot give Iran a nuclear weapon,” Trump said, adding: “The world will blow up.”

He said the situation could be resolved soon and linked progress in the conflict to lower energy prices.

“Maybe almost immediately… it could be very soon,” he said.

Trump said earlier intervention would have been easier and criticized the nuclear deal reached under Barack Obama.

“That was the worst deal ever made… I terminated it,” he said.

He added that US military action had delayed Iran’s nuclear progress, saying Tehran would otherwise have been close to obtaining a weapon.

“They would have had a nuclear weapon… and they would have used it,” Trump said.

Trump says Xi denies China supplying weapons to Iran

Trump said China’s leader Xi Jinping told him Beijing is not supplying weapons to Iran, following reports of such transfers.

Trump said he wrote to Xi after hearing claims that China was providing arms to Tehran.

“I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that,” Trump said, adding that Xi responded, “saying that essentially he’s not doing that.”

Trump said the exchange would not affect broader discussions between the two sides.

The United States is deploying thousands of additional troops to the Middle East in the coming days as it seeks to pressure Iran into a deal, the Washington Post reported, citing US officials.

The deployment will include sailors and Marines and comes as President Donald Trump’s administration works to enforce a maritime blockade against Iran, the report said.

The move is part of broader efforts to push Tehran toward an agreement to end the conflict, while the United States also considers further military options if a fragile ceasefire does not hold, according to the report.

Iranian authorities have ordered asset confiscations and carried out arrests as part of a crackdown on individuals accused of acting against national security, officials said on Wednesday.

In the western province of Hamedan, the prosecutor said orders had been issued to identify and confiscate the assets of 36 people accused of links with what he described as hostile actors.

He added that similar orders had also been issued for 13 others, for whom criminal cases had been opened and were being reviewed in special branches.

Separately, police in Hormozgan province said five people, including three men and two women, were arrested in connection with alleged contacts via social media with foreign-based media outlets.

Two vessels have passed through the Strait of Hormuz and are heading toward Iranian ports, despite a US maritime blockade, Guards-affiliated Fars news reported on Wednesday.

The report said a bulk carrier carrying food supplies entered the Persian Gulf and is sailing toward Imam Khomeini Port.

It also reported that a very large crude carrier under US sanctions transited the Strait of Hormuz earlier on Wednesday and entered Iranian waters with its tracking system active.

Ships linked to Iran are increasingly using “spoofing” and other deceptive tracking tactics in and around the Strait of Hormuz following the start of a US naval blockade, the New York Times reported, citing maritime experts.

The activity includes vessels going “dark” by switching off transponders or transmitting false identification data to avoid detection, the report said.

“Now, we are starting to see vessels going dark or using ‘zombie’ or random identification,” Ami Daniel, chief executive of maritime intelligence firm Windward, told the newspaper.

The shift suggests operators are becoming more cautious and testing enforcement limits as the blockade disrupts normal shipping patterns, according to the report.

Such tactics, previously used by Russia-linked vessels to evade sanctions, could make it harder to track ship movements and add to uncertainty in the waterway, it said.