Iran this week allowed a total of 10 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a “gift” to the United States, the president said. Donald Trump said Thursday.
Iran made the move to show the United States “the fact that we are real and solid and we are here,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting.
The comments respond to questions raised two days earlier, when Trump first said Iran “gave us a gift” related to oil and gas, without elaborating.
Trump made the assertion after insisting that the United States had “very substantive talks underway regarding Iran,” even though Tehran denied that direct talks had taken place.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, one of the lead negotiators with Iran, said earlier in the Cabinet meeting that the United States had had “multiple contacts with the region and others who want to play a role in ending this conflict peacefully.”
Witkoff also confirmed that the United States had presented a 15-point framework for a peace agreement, but noted that this agreement was implemented through Pakistan, which acted as mediator.
Iranian state media reported on Wednesday that Tehran had rejected the US ceasefire offer and submitted its own list of conditions to end the war.
The counteroffer would give Tehran sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, the vital oil shipping route that has been effectively closed since the war began nearly four weeks ago.
Trump on Monday raised the possibility that the strait could be jointly controlled by “me and the ayatollah.”
Witkoff said during Thursday’s meeting that Trump had asked him to “maintain confidentiality on specific terms and not negotiate through the media.”
“I can say, we will see where things take us,” he added.
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