Iran-US war latest: Tehran allows Iraqi tankers through Hormuz after Trump declares Strait as ‘American territory’

US president Donald Trump has claimed that Iran was not ready “to make the right deal” after promising to wage "Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” on Tehran.

"They would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion," Trump said of Iran on Friday.

Iran has accused Trump of threatening "economic terrorism" after the US treasury said it would introduce the “toughest sanctions in history" against Tehran .

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Saturday said that the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions on Iran was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations".

"Such secondary sanctions ⁠find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X.

Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian has said that it is now time to end the war between Tehran and the US on Friday. "It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity," Pezeshkian said in a meeting with doctors in the country.

US energy secretary Chris Wright has claimed that the US military has helped transit more than 15 million barrels of oil out of Hormuz on Tuesday.

"Combined with pipelines, the total oil leaving the region was close to 20 million barrels," he said on X.

He added: "Make no mistake, thanks to the US Navy, oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. The seven-day average of oil leaving the Strait is over 8 million barrels a day."

US president Donald Trump declared the Strait of Hormuz as an "American territory" and said Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump told reporters last night: “We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon; we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, or you will see some very bad things."

“They want to make a deal so badly, we don’t even know if we want [a deal] because I view the Strait of Hormuz as an American territory right now, it’s an American territory,” Trump added.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has plunged to single digits as US-Iran peace talks have ground to a complete halt.

Only seven commodity vessels passed through the waterway on Thursday, some of the lowest numbers seen in weeks, according to Kpler data. Four ships entered the Gulf while only three exited.