United States President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely on Wednesday, hours after declaring the Islamic Republic was financially collapsing under the weight of the American naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by seizing two commercial vessels in the waterway, further straining the fragile truce.
Trump posted on Truth Social late Tuesday that Iran was “collapsing financially,” describing Tehran as “starving for cash” and losing $500 million a day as a direct result of restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz. He claimed the country’s military and police were complaining of not being paid.
In a separate post, Trump argued that Iran’s public insistence on keeping the strait closed was misleading, saying Tehran actually wanted it open to collect revenue from shipping. He said unnamed contacts had approached him four days earlier requesting that the US reopen the strait, but that doing so without a deal would only make a future agreement impossible without further military action.
Trump said he was extending the ceasefire to give Iran’s leaders time to “come up with a unified proposal,” but made clear the US naval blockade would continue unchanged. The truce had been set to expire Wednesday, and Trump had previously vowed not to extend it.
Iran attacked at least three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, just hours after the ceasefire extension was announced. Vice President JD Vance had been due to lead a US delegation to Islamabad for a second round of peace talks, but those plans collapsed after Tehran said it would not be attending. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran welcomed dialogue but that the blockade and US threats remained the main obstacles to genuine negotiations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced the economic pressure campaign, warning that Kharg Island’s oil storage facilities would be full within days and that Iran’s oil wells would then be forced to shut down. He said the blockade was directly targeting the regime’s primary revenue sources.
Iran’s Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri pushed back against the financial pressure narrative, claiming the naval blockade had had little practical impact on the country’s food and basic goods supply, citing domestic production and alternative import routes. Iran supplies approximately 85 percent of its agricultural products domestically, he said.
The White House said Trump did not view Iran’s seizure of the two non-US ships as a ceasefire violation, and that no firm deadline had been set for Tehran to respond with a peace proposal.
NewsGhana previously reported that Iran had refused to attend the Islamabad talks, citing the US naval blockade imposed on April 13 as a violation of the original ceasefire understanding.
