President Donald Trump said Monday that the standoff with Iran will end in a U.S. victory “very soon,” telling reporters in the Oval Office that the matter would be settled “one way or the other” and “pretty quickly.”
“We’re going to win,” Trump said.
His comments came as mediated talks between Washington and Tehran continued through Qatari intermediaries, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meeting go-betweens in New York. There have been no direct U.S.-Iran talks. The renewed contact follows Trump’s rejection last week of an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days in exchange for lifting the U.S. naval blockade and easing sanctions.
U.S. officials had said Trump was prepared to offer sanctions relief and release frozen Iranian funds in exchange for progress on the nuclear issue, calling the latest round of talks “positive and constructive.” Trump directly disputed that characterization Monday evening, writing, “I offered them NOTHING!”
The two governments remain divided over sequencing — which side must act first — after the collapse of their earlier memorandum of understanding this summer. A Trump administration official told Politico that Tehran is seeking major U.S. concessions upfront while asking Washington to trust that Iran will follow through afterward.
“That’s crazy. How can we trust them?” the official said.
The same official said Washington also objects to terms it believes could leave Iran in effective control of the Strait of Hormuz and able to profit from it, after months of Iranian attacks and efforts to restrict commercial shipping there.
Disagreement Over Nuclear Concessions
The deeper dispute is over whether Iran will make any nuclear concessions at all. U.S. officials said Monday that Tehran had signaled flexibility on the nuclear issue, but Iran pushed back. An Iranian official told the state-run Press TV that such reports were “false,” and ABC News separately reported Iran had not indicated willingness to put the nuclear program on the table.
Iran’s latest proposal centers on reopening the Strait of Hormuz in return for an end to the U.S. blockade, sanctions relief and access to its frozen assets. Washington, meanwhile, is pushing to fold nuclear concessions — including renewed access for international inspectors, according to the Associated Press — into any broader deal.
Trump linked those demands Monday to his original decision to strike Iran militarily, arguing that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel, the wider Middle East, Europe and the United States.
“If you want to see turmoil and a travesty, let them take out a city with a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “They cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Economic Pressure Mounts
Administration officials argue the pressure campaign is working. “The Strait of Hormuz traffic continues to rise and the blockade and sanctions continue to degrade Iran’s position,” a U.S. official told Fox News Monday. “The U.S. position gets stronger every day.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed to the Iranian rial’s collapse to roughly 2.44 million to the dollar as evidence of that pressure. “Operation Economic Outcast has caused the rial to hit record lows,” Bessent said. “We will continue to degrade the Iranian regime’s ability to fund terrorism and develop a nuclear weapon.”
Bessent said Sunday that Iran has roughly 15 million barrels of oil left on the water headed to China, and estimated Tehran would have “nothing left to trade for anything” within about two weeks.
The Pentagon’s Central Command also pushed back Monday on an Iranian commander’s claim that Tehran has “full control” of the Strait, noting thousands of ships and more than one billion barrels of oil have passed through the waterway in recent months. “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.
Trump has left the diplomatic channel open even as he rejected Iran’s latest proposal, saying Sunday he expects further talks. But his statements Monday underscored that the administration’s core demand — that Iran be barred from obtaining a nuclear weapon — has not changed, and that the possibility of renewed U.S. military action remains on the table if Tehran does not agree to nuclear concessions.
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