US team ordered to halt Iran contacts as Trump tries a new approach in war

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON —US President Donald Trump has instructed members of his administration to end contacts with Iran and increase economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.

US government officials said that the United States has already informed its political allies of the change in its approach to Iran. Washington no longer expects to quickly secure concessions from Tehran and instead plans to increase pressure gradually.

The new strategy calls for longer-term economic and political pressure on Iran’s leadership. Previously, Trump repeatedly spoke of positive progress in contacts and the possibility of quickly reaching a new agreement. He now says there are no diplomatic efforts underway on the Iranian track.

According to a source in the US government, Trump ordered his team, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Vice President J.D. Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff, not to engage with Tehran.

The decision to halt contacts was made after talks that had previously been viewed positively. At the same time, the US president is frustrated by the Iranian side’s unwillingness to agree to the demands he has put forward.

Before diplomatic contacts can potentially resume, Washington expects clear signals from the leadership of the Islamic Republic that it is ready to conclude the agreement sought by the United States. The day before, Trump stressed that the United States is not holding and does not plan to hold negotiations with Tehran.

For weeks, Trump has tried willing positive developments with Iran into existence, without much success.

And instead of claiming talks were proceeding well, and that a new deal was just around the corner as he’s asserted repeatedly since the ceasefire signed in June fell apart, Trump announced there was no diplomacy underway whatsoever.

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote on social media. “The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

In fact, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains at a trickle, and ships transiting the key waterway continue to come under fire from Iranian projectiles.

Yet frustrated at deadlocked attempts to reopen the channel and facing intensifying questions about the toll the unpopular war has taken on the US military, Trump is signaling he is ready to put the conflict at arm’s length.

Officials said Tuesday that Trump’s instruction to his negotiating team to not engage with Tehran came after some “positive discussions” with the country.

But Trump has still been unsatisfied with Tehran’s unwillingness to bend to his demands, the officials said.

A day before Trump’s social media post, Kushner offered a more optimistic assessment of the negotiations during a trip to the Middle East. He said in an interview on Fox News that conversations between the US and Iran were “probably more robust” than ever, adding the American team was talking with various figures within the regime.

“They’re engaging in a very strong way and that’s quite positive,” he said, adding: “We are having very positive and active conversations.”

Iran officials have repeatedly declared it untrue that they are engaging in direct talks with the United States. Trump had previously vented anger at the denials, saying Iran was playing games and that officials were eager to strike a deal in more private conversations.

And behind the scenes, Trump has grown displeased at the emerging contours of the arrangement Iran is attempting to strike with Oman on managing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, according to people familiar with the matter. He lashed out at Oman this week, threatening to hit the Gulf nation with bombs even though it has acted as a strategic partner to the US for decades.

“I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily — just like we do others,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.

Both Iran and Oman have coastlines along the strait, and the deal as described by regional officials would denote control to each country on traffic going in and coming out of the Arabian Gulf.

There are concerns inside the White House that the plan, which hasn’t been finalized, could harden Iran’s control over the waterway. Some officials believe Oman has been more favorable to Iran than to the US in the negotiations, rather than acting as a neutral partner.

Restoring traffic in the strait has become the central challenge of the war, even though Trump claimed this week his chief goal is still to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The US is expected to soon slap crushing new sanctions on Iran, perhaps as early as this week, US officials have said. Military officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have said American forces in the region are prepared to enforce the US blockade of Iranian ports into perpetuity.

Trump and his team believe the economic pressure on Iran will eventually cause the regime to accept his conditions for ending the war. But Iranian officials similarly view Trump as under political pressure to withdraw, leading to the standoff.

Military pressure has also built on Trump to negotiate an exit to the war. Historically long deployments of US military assets in the region — including of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — have drawn scrutiny for the toll they’ve taken on the ships and the sailors aboard them. And Trump has acknowledged that stockpiles of the most advanced munitions are not where he’d like them to be after six months of war.

But, so far, he has resisted increasing calls from Republicans to find an off-ramp to the war, insisting he feels no time crunch.

And in another social media update Tuesday, Trump posted a map of the strait underneath the words “US Territory” — a proclamation that didn’t suggest an American military withdrawal anytime soon.

More than 80% of vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz over the past two weeks have taken the Omani route – a UN-authorized shipping channel that Iran vehemently opposes. according to Kpler, which tracks ships using transponders and satellite data.

Iran, declaring the strait under its control, has attacked dozens of ships that tried to to travel the waterway via the north coast of Oman. Despite the risk, most ships have recently chosen to ignore Iran’s demands and cross the strait with the promise of protection from US naval forces.

“It increasingly looks like Iran has at least partially lost control of the strait,” said Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler.

That stands in stark contrast to a month ago, when Kpler observed virtually no shipping traffic via the Omani route. The sharp reduction in traffic around Iran’s preferred route has prevented Iran from charging tolls on ship traffic through the strait – as it did in the spring.

“Iran’s request to collect tolls is something that most Middle East folks don’t want to do and haven’t been doing,” said Dan Pickering, founder and chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners. “So the Oman route absolutely makes the most sense.”

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have chartered Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) – the biggest oil tankers – to transit out of the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, then transfering the oil to customers’ tankers outside the danger zone in the Gulf of Oman, according to Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.