A ship in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Musandam Province in Oman, April 12, 2026. REUTERS
The US military began enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports on Monday, April 13, as the administration clarified the nature of the rapid negotiations it conducted with Iran over the weekend of April 11 and 12 in Pakistan. The focus is nuclear, "the most important issue," Donald Trump highlighted as early as Sunday. Through a series of ultimatums, the White House declared that it is determined to impose what none of its predecessors had achieved with Tehran: a complete "suspension" of uranium enrichment for 20 years, according to the news site Axios and the New York Times.
In February, Tehran proposed a five-year moratorium, which was not enough for Washington. The 2015 international agreement only put the country's centrifuges and enriched uranium stockpile under strict monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It set limited enrichment thresholds for Iran for about 15 years. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance made no mention of the IAEA, stating on Fox News that Washington was seeking "the mechanism" to verify Tehran's implementation of its commitments.
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