On April 28, 2026, U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the M/V Bluestar III, a commercial vessel suspected of attempting to transit to Iran in violation of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. The U.S. military released the ship after conducting a search and confirming that the ship’s voyage did not include a port call in Iran.
U.S. Marine Corps | Centcom
An Iranian offer, previously rejected by US President Donald Trump, would start shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and lift the US blockade of Iran, while putting talks about Iran’s nuclear program on the back burner, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.
President Trump, who has repeatedly said Iran can never acquire nuclear weapons, said on Friday he was not satisfied with Iran’s latest dialogue offer, while Iran’s foreign minister said Iran was ready for diplomacy if the United States changed its approach.
President Trump said Friday that he did not favor military action against Iran “from a human standpoint” and told Congressional leaders that he did not need authorization to extend the war beyond the legal deadline of the day because the ceasefire “ended” hostilities.
“Do we want to go and blow them up and end them for good? Or do we want to try to make a deal?” he told reporters at the White House when asked about his options.
Later on Friday, in a speech in Florida, President Trump said the United States would not end the conflict with Iran prematurely and did not intend to “create problems for another three years.”
President Trump has repeatedly said he is in no hurry, but has faced domestic pressure to break Iran’s control of the strait, which has cut off 20% of global oil and gas supplies and pushed up U.S. gasoline prices. President Trump’s Republican Party faces the risk of a voter backlash over high prices during the November midterm congressional elections.
President Trump spends the day on the golf course
President Trump spent Saturday at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the Trump National Golf Club in nearby Jupiter. In the evening, he was scheduled to visit another golf resort, Trump National Doral outside Miami, where the PGA Cadillac Championship is being held. Although the United States and Israel halted their bombing campaign against Iran four weeks ago, they still appear no closer to a deal to end the war that has caused the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history, rattled global markets and raised concerns about a possible broader global economic downturn.
For more than two months, Iran has blocked nearly all shipments from the Gulf, except for its own. Last month, the United States imposed its own blockade of ships leaving Iranian ports.
Washington has repeatedly said it cannot end the war that has killed thousands of people without a deal that ensures Iran never obtains nuclear weapons, a key objective cited by President Trump when he launched the strike in February amid nuclear talks. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.
A senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss secret diplomacy, said Tehran believes the latest proposal to shelve nuclear talks to a later stage is an important change aimed at facilitating a deal.
Under this proposal, the war would end with a guarantee that Israel and the United States would not attack again. Iran will open the strait and the US will lift the blockade.
Future talks will be about curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, and Iran will demand that the United States recognize its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes even if it agrees to halt it.
“Under this framework, negotiations on more complex nuclear issues have moved to the final stage and we have been able to create a more favorable atmosphere,” the official said.
Reuters and other news outlets already reported last week that Tehran was proposing to reopen the strait before the nuclear issue was resolved. The official confirmed that the new schedule was specified in the formal proposal conveyed to the United States through a mediator.
