JOINT BASE ANDREWS, April 1 (V7N) – US President Donald Trump vowed Friday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “with or without” Iran’s cooperation, stressing that his top priority in peace talks is to ensure Tehran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.  

“We’re going to open up the Gulf with or without them…or the strait as they call it. I think it’s going to go pretty quickly, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be able to finish it off,” Trump told reporters before departing Washington for a domestic trip. “We will have that open fairly soon.”  

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s crude oil passes, will be central to upcoming peace talks in Islamabad. Trump has dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Pakistan to meet top Iranian officials in an effort to secure a deal following a two-week ceasefire agreed Tuesday.  

Asked what a successful agreement would look like, Trump replied: “No nuclear weapon. That’s 99 percent of it.”  

END/WD/RH