Trump: “We don’t need a deal with Iran, we have their Strait” – and tells Vance to turn to other issues

Donald Trump said publicly that the United States does not need an agreement with Tehran, a day after reports that Vice President JD Vance had taken a leading role in contacts with Iran. “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days are long gone. We have their money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we have their Strait!”, the American president wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, November 12, at 15:07 Greek time.

The phrase about Iran came at the end of a message that opened with a reference to Vance. Trump said he had asked the vice president to turn “his full and total attention” to “massive corruption and crime” in states and cities run by Democrats, naming Minnesota, California and Illinois. He claimed that “billions of dollars are stolen every month” and that the federal budget could be balanced quickly if this “large-scale criminal activity” were fixed.

Reports that Vance had the lead on Iran

The post carries weight because of its timing. On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal, citing American officials, wrote that Vance had overshadowed envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the Iran file. In mid-October the vice president had sent a message through Qatar to resume talks and was even considering a direct meeting with Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, with Doha as a possible venue. Two American officials said Trump considers the June memorandum of understanding a mistake, because in his view it let Iran recover and regain oil revenue. We covered the announced Vance–Rezaei meeting earlier.

Trump’s message thus appears to move Vance away from the Iran file and to favour the line of pressure. According to the same newspaper, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tells foreign interlocutors that the American blockade of Iran must be maintained so that Tehran is forced to make concessions. He had argued publicly in Paris that economic pressure is such that major military operations against Iran are not needed now.

Tehran: no negotiations, and a threat of a “tenfold” response

The Iranian side does not show willingness to talk either. Rezaei said on Wednesday that “we are holding no talks with the Americans at this moment” and called the reports of contacts in Qatar “lies and slander” aimed at easing economic pressure and bringing oil prices down. He insists that for the Strait of Hormuz to open the US must accept all seven main Iranian positions, among them lifting the blockade and sanctions, compensation for war damage and Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. He has made clear that enriched uranium will not leave the country.

On Thursday Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a senior spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, warned, in remarks carried by the WANA agency, that any attack on Iran would meet a response “ten times stronger”. He added that in a conflict with Washington every point where American interests lie within reach of Iranian forces would be considered a potential target, and that the production of strategic weapons did not stop throughout the war.

The post follows Trump’s speech at Arlington National Cemetery, where he spoke of “victory” in Iran and called for “total victory”. With the American blockade in force and Tehran setting conditions for opening the Strait of Hormuz, the American president shows he is in no hurry to close a deal.