Ceasefire Over, Talks On, Missiles Loaded: Trump Warning Drags Spotlight Back To Hormuz

Uncertainty loomed over the talks between the US and Iran over finding a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict, with warring parties coming out with confusing claims over the direction of the negotiations.

In a week that saw hostilities being reignited in the strife-torn region, US President Donald Trump has said Washington has agreed to continue talks with Iran, but insisted the ceasefire reached with Tehran in June with much fanfare was over.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue talks,” he said in a post in his Truth Social.

Trump, however, also proclaimed that the United States has told Iran “in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”.

Iran pointed to another direction when it said Tehran just agreed to host Qatari negotiators. The Qatari negotiators reached Iran on Friday after a flare-up during the week in the contentious Strait of Hormuz. The Trump administration has also demanded that Iran should publicly acknowledge that the Strait of Hormuz is open, apart from pledging to stop firing on commercial ships, Axios reported.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said a Qatari delegation visited Iran, reportedly in an effort by Doha to consolidate its role as a mediator. The visit also follows Qatari allegations against Iran over an alleged incident in the strait.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi are slated to hold talks in Muscat on Saturday to discuss the crisis over the Strait of Hormuz, the Axios report said.

Qatari negotiators were meeting Iranian officials to de-escalate tensions after Tehran and the US traded fire. The mediators are reportedly discussing passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.

Three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers were attacked this week, prompting a retaliatory strike by the US on Iranian sites. In response, Tehran claimed it struck installations in its neighboring Gulf nations, which host US military assets and forces.

Trump also did his part to reignite tensions in the Middle East with a direct threat to conduct sweeping strikes on Iran.

In a Truth Social post he claimed that the US is fully loaded to target Iran.

“1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America.”

The threat came in the wake of reports that Israel recently alerted the US that Iran had devised a new plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to a new report.

CNN detailed that the warning took place this week with a source telling the outlet that the US had picked up intelligence about potential plans to target the president, but Israel provided new information about a specific plot.

The intelligence could also be aimed at convincing Trump to make a decision related to the war in Iran as the countries escalated strikes in the Strait of Hormuz this week.

Unclaimed airstrikes on Iran after Washington said it finished its attacks have also raised concerns that Tehran is being targeted by forces inimical to it, adding further concerns about the ceasefire process.

Oil prices that edged up after the renewed strikes in the region eased on Friday, though it remained on track for weekly gains of 5% after the flare-up.

The bumpy road for the peace efforts in the Middle East further reinforces the centrality of reaching a consensus on free passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies passed before the conflict began in February.

Only after that is achieved the next big hurdle in the path to a lasting solution to the Middle East conflict could be taken up: Iran’s controversial nuclear program.