US President Donald Trump has ordered the American military to “shoot and kill” Iranian small boats choking the Strait of Hormuz. In a social media post Thursday morning, he said the military is intensifying its mine-clearing efforts in the critical waterway. The move intensified the US-Iran standoff in the Persian Gulf and raised questions about efforts to end the war.
Later Thursday, Trump said Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The meeting Thursday was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries since last week. The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire Monday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it seized another tanker Thursday associated with smuggling Iranian oil, the Majestic X, in the Indian Ocean, deepening confusion over efforts to end the war. The seizure comes a day after Iran attacked three cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, capturing two of them. Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 per cent of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.
Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors thank Trump for historic’ moment Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said Israel and Lebanon “have never been next to each other more than today.” Leiter thanked Trump and Vice President JD Vance for a day he said was decades in the making.
“We are going to keep going, working for peace. Let’s hope we will get it as soon as possible,” he said.
Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad thanked Trump for presiding over “this historic moment.”
She added: “I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again.”
Trump says it’s a must’ for Iran to end funding for Hezbollah The president reiterated that the U.S. continues to demand that Iran stop it’s backing of proxy groups in the Mideast, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, as part of any deal between Washington and Tehran to end the U.S. war on Iran.
“Yeah, they’ll have to cut that,” Trump said to a reporter’s question about aiding the militant group. “That’s a must.” US envoy compares Hezbollah to a kid throwing rocks “The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel are neighbors and they want to get along,” said Mike Huckabee, the U.S. envoy to Israel, who was on hand for the White House talks.
“They can get along,” he said.
“But it’s like neighbors who have a rough little kid living in the neighborhood who keeps throwing rocks at everybody’s window. And if the kid will quit throwing rocks, the neighbors can get along and start actually working together.” Trump says the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by 3 weeks. That comes after representatives from both countries met at the White House on Thursday.
The meeting “went very well,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah.” Trump said he will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House in the “near future.”
A 10-day ceasefire was announced on April 16, pausing fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.
As Israel-Lebanon talks are set to start, rocket fire from Hezbollah Israel’s military says its air defenses intercepted rocket fire from Lebanon. It came as talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials were set to begin at the White House. Hezbollah said it had fired at the town of Shtula in response to Israeli attacks on the Lebanese village of Yater.
Trump says he’s not considering using a nuclear weapon against Iran. The president appeared perturbed when asked by a reporter if he’d consider deploying nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic.
“No, I wouldn’t. We don’t need it. Why do I need it? Why would a stupid question like that be asked?” Trump fumed.
He went on, “Why would I use a nuclear weapon, when we’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it. No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.” Trump say he won’t be rushed to end war as Iran negotiations drag on “I don’t want to rush myself,” said Trump, who added that Iran’s leadership is in “turmoil.” Trump, in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office, also pushed back against questions about whether the conflict is exceeding the four-to-six-week timeline he and aides previously set for the war.
“I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks. I took it out militarily,” Trump said. “Now all we’re doing is sitting back and seeing what deal (we make). And if they don’t want to make a deal, then I’ll finish it up militarily.” Iranian officials refute Trump’s claims of a leadership rift in the country. “In Iran, there are no hardliners or moderates’. We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” Iran’s president and Iran’s parliament speaker wrote in an almost identical statement on their social media.
