President Donald Trump has ordered his top envoys to halt all conversations with Iran, marking a significant shift in strategy nearly six months into the U.S. war with the Islamic Republic, according to a U.S. official cited by CNN. The move signals a departure from the administration’s earlier posture of pursuing a rapid diplomatic breakthrough, and toward a longer-term campaign of economic and military pressure designed to force Tehran to accept Washington’s terms over time.
White House officials have told political allies that the administration’s approach has moved from an effort to “hammer Iran ASAP” to a strategy to “strangle them,” according to a source familiar with the matter cited by CNN. The shift comes as the Trump administration’s negotiating team — which includes Vice President JD Vance and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — has been instructed to stand down from further engagement with Tehran, at least for now.
Rather than continuing to assert that talks were progressing and that a new agreement was imminent, as Trump had repeatedly claimed since the June ceasefire deal collapsed, the president instead declared Tuesday that no diplomacy with Iran was underway at all. “There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump 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!”
Despite Trump’s assertion that the Hormuz Strait is “open and operating,” traffic through the critical waterway remains reduced to a trickle, and vessels transiting the strait have continued to come under fire from Iranian projectiles.
Trump’s decision to pull back from talks comes as his administration faces deadlocked efforts to reopen the strait and mounting scrutiny over the toll the unpopular war has taken on the U.S. military. Officials said Tuesday that the instruction to halt engagement followed what were characterized as some “positive discussions” with Iran, but that Trump remains unsatisfied with Tehran’s unwillingness to accept his conditions. He is now waiting for Iranian leaders to signal renewed willingness to strike the deal he is seeking before U.S. officials reengage.
The reversal came just one day after Kushner offered a considerably more optimistic account of the negotiations during a trip to the Middle East. In an interview with Fox News, Kushner said conversations between the United States and Iran were “probably more robust” than at any prior point, and that the American team was in contact with multiple figures within the Iranian regime. “They’re engaging in a very strong way and that’s quite positive,” Kushner said, adding, “We are having very positive and active conversations.”
Iranian officials have repeatedly denied that direct talks with the United States are taking place. Trump has previously expressed frustration with those denials, accusing Iran of playing games publicly while remaining eager to reach a deal through private channels.
Behind the scenes, Trump has also grown increasingly displeased with the emerging framework of a deal Iran is attempting to negotiate with Oman over managing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, people familiar with the matter told CNN. Both Iran and Oman have coastlines along the strait, and the arrangement under discussion would reportedly grant each country a degree of control over vessels entering and exiting the Persian Gulf.
Trump lashed out at Oman this week over the negotiations, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, “I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily — just like we do others.” In a separate interview with Fox News’ Trey Yingst published Monday, Trump went further, threatening military action against the longtime U.S. partner nation: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.”
The threat against Oman drew criticism from at least one former U.S. defense official. Jasmine el-Gamal, a former Middle East adviser at the Department of Defense, said Trump’s suggestion that he would bomb Oman if it impedes U.S. efforts in the strait was “not a credible threat in any sense.”
Inside the White House, there is concern that the Iran-Oman arrangement, which has not been finalized, could ultimately strengthen Iran’s control over the waterway rather than restore neutral, unrestricted passage. Some officials believe Oman has favored Iran’s interests over those of the United States during the negotiations, rather than serving as an impartial intermediary.
Among the specific terms opposed by Trump and senior U.S. officials is a proposal to collect fees on vessels transiting the strait. Trump has insisted that no tolls or other payments should be permitted, though some versions of the deal that have circulated include charges tied to environmental protection or security measures. Trump’s vision for the strait is a full restoration to its prewar status, with unrestricted international traffic, and his administration has warned that allowing any nation to assert control over the waterway would set a dangerous precedent.
The dispute over control of the strait has become the central sticking point of the six-month war, even as Trump maintained this week that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons remains his primary objective. The stalemate comes as the two-month negotiating window set under the memorandum of understanding Trump signed with Iran in June — at a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles — has now expired without a clear resolution, according to The Washington Post.
The United States is expected to impose additional sweeping sanctions on Iran, potentially as soon as this week, according to U.S. officials. The move would follow a series of Treasury Department actions this year targeting what officials describe as Iran’s shadow-banking network under the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement this month that “Iran’s shadow banking system is buckling under Economic Fury, and the regime is running out of ways to move money,” pledging to expose and cut off the financial networks from the U.S. system.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has pushed back on the sanctions strategy. Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on social media that Iran had “demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains,” and argued that the latest measures only made a diplomatic resolution less likely.
Military officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have said U.S. forces stationed in the region are prepared to enforce the naval blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely. Trump and members of his administration believe sustained economic pressure will eventually push Tehran to accept his terms for ending the war, while Iranian officials reportedly view Trump as facing his own political pressure to withdraw — a dynamic that has helped drive the current standoff, according to CNN.
Military strain has also factored into the pressure Trump faces to find an exit from the conflict. The prolonged deployment of U.S. military assets in the region, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, has drawn scrutiny over its toll on the ships and sailors involved. Trump has acknowledged that stockpiles of the most advanced U.S. munitions are not at the levels he would prefer after six months of war.
Despite growing calls from Republicans in Congress to identify an off-ramp from the conflict, Trump has so far resisted, insisting he feels no urgency to conclude the war on a fixed timeline. In a separate social media post Tuesday, Trump shared a map of the Strait of Hormuz labeled “US Territory,” a message that gave no indication of an imminent American military withdrawal from the region.
Other regional developments this week have underscored the broader volatility surrounding the conflict. Kushner met for more than four hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pressing him to advance the Trump-backed Gaza ceasefire plan and avoid creating obstacles, according to an Israeli source familiar with the discussions. Separately, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement said it launched ballistic missile strikes on a Saudi military vessel and four escort ships in the Red Sea, part of a weekend of escalating regional violence.
The halt in talks also follows weeks of shifting rhetoric from Trump, who as recently as August 10 said he would require compensation from Iran as a condition for resuming negotiations, arguing that Tehran’s economy was nearing collapse under sanctions pressure. “Yeah, they can make trouble, but they’re broke,” Trump told reporters at the time. “They have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And, they’re not paying their soldiers. They have inflation of 300%.” Inflation in Iran has been running high, though Trump’s estimate exceeded figures administration officials have cited to reporters, according to NPR.