WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday brushed off Iran’s attack Thursday on three US Navy ships as the White House clung to what’s left of an increasingly challenged cease-fire and burgeoning framework for peace talks.
“Three World Class American Destroyers just transited, very successfully, out of the Strait of Hormuz, under fire,” he posted to Truth Social. “There was no damage done to the three Destroyers.”
The president poetically described the event as an overwhelming loss for the “Iranian attackers,” who he said were “completely destroyed along with numerous small boats, which are being used to take the place of their fully decapitated Navy.”
“These boats went to the bottom of the Sea, quickly and efficiently. Missiles were shot at our Destroyers, and were easily knocked down,” he said. “Likewise, drones came, and were incinerated while in the air. They dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave!”
The attack came as the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason attempted to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, but were met with attacks by “multiple missiles, drones and small boats,” US Central Command said in a statement.
Despite the attack, the US is still adhering to the monthlong cease-fire with Iran and has not declared it broken — with Trump downplaying the US response as “just a love tap” in a brief phone interview with ABC News.
“The ceasefire is going. It’s in effect,” Trump said.
Trump called the leaders of Iran “lunatics” who wouldn’t hesitate to use a nuclear weapon.
“But they’ll never have that opportunity,” Trump said on social media, “and, just like we knocked them out again today, we’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST!”
However, critics noted that just because the US has thwarted the attack from causing American casualties, Iran’s intent was there.
“The U.S. may have been successful in defending against them but Iran fired drones, missiles, and launched small boats at U.S. Navy warships with the intention to kill U.S. service members in direct violation of the ceasefire agreement,” former Pentagon official and Atlantic Council fellow Alex Plitsas posted to X.
Trump has been reticent to define what kind of attack, exactly, Iran would have to launch to qualify as a break of the cease-fire, declining to provide specifics to reporters who asked him at the White House earlier this week.
So far, he has held off from launching offensive strikes on Iran in hopes that the current negotiations for a deal with Iran will win out.
Negotiators spent Wednesday and Thursday quietly hammering out the details of a 14-point framework that could lead to talks to reach a deal — and nuclear elements were finally on the table for discussion.
The emerging memorandum of understanding — described as a one-page agreement — would serve as the foundation for a broader treaty to be negotiated later, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The US has offered provisions that would see Iran halting uranium enrichment, the easing of some US sanctions and the reopening of commercial shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has repeatedly threatened during the conflict, sources familiar with negotiation efforts have told The Post.
Talks could resume as early as next week in Islamabad, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, but multiple draft proposals have so far been passed back and forth between Washington and Tehran. Mediator Pakistan is now attempting to consolidate agreed-upon terms into a single-page framework.
“If the framework of issues for debate is accepted, it would trigger a 30-day window for negotiators to hammer out the details,” a source familiar with mediations said.
But major sticking points remain — especially over Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and whether or when Tehran would be allowed to resume any enrichment activity in the future.
“The main hurdle is the duration of enrichment restrictions,” a Pakistani source told The Post on Wednesday. “There’s no final deal yet.”
Trump has said any remaining enriched uranium must be turned over to the United States, rejecting alternatives that would place the material under the control of a third country.
Tehran is likely to refuse such a measure, holding meetings recently in Moscow. Iranians would prefer their nuclear-armed ally Russia to take the material if forced to give it up — something US officials have already refused, a US source familiar with the negotiating process told The Post.
Washington may be open to offering Iran a moratorium on uranium enrichment if Iran agrees to halt that activity for the next 15 to 20 years, but Trump has previously — and fervently — rejected the idea that Iran should ever have the opportunity to enrich again in the future.
The US has also proposed a gradual lift on its blockade of Iran’s ports if Tehran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz during a 30-day negotiation period, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A Pakistani source confirmed the one-page document outlines “Hormuz de-escalation” and a plan to “restore shipping.”
As of Thursday, Iran was still committed to claiming “sovereignty” over the strait — and as recently as Wednesday was still pushing to collect tolls from ships for its usage and asserting the authority to do as it wishes in the waterway.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Iran of violating international law through its mining and “tolling” operations in the Strait of Hormuz — demanding the UN Security Council force Tehran to back down.
“Cease attacks on commercial shipping, cease mining and remove its mines from an international waterway. Cease tolling — charging illegal tolls in the Strait of Hormuz — and allow the UN to move forward with humanitarian aid, lifesaving aid through that international corridor,” he demanded of Iran.
“It’s really that simple,” he added.
His words came after announcements this week from Iranian state media touted the launch of what Tehran called the “Persian Gulf Straits Authority” — an effort Waltz said would effectively force international commercial ships to pay fees to transit the waterway.
Iran’s insistence on maintaining some permanent role overseeing the Strait of Hormuz is also expected to complicate any final agreement, according to the Wall Street Journal.
To entice Iran to make a deal, the proposed agreement includes potential economic “sweeteners” — such as some sanctions relief and unfreezing of assets — but dollar figures have not been formally determined. In previous proposals, the financial benefits were to have been rolled out in phases.
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