![\"WASHINGTON,](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/tm9hN27XW.dXYO2ztxZc5A--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/uu\/api\/res\/1.2\/4BipXpoSrKCch7rIzcnikQ--~B\/aD0zMzM0O3c9NTAwMzthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/2026-03\/2310ee5c-ae7d-4e32-aa80-749c61974d8f\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nTrump also described an exchange in the ongoing peace talks where the Iranian representatives said they would allow \u201ceight big boats of oil\u201d to pass through the strait \u2014 and then kept their promise.<\/p>\n
It clearly impressed the president and was a frank acknowledgement just a few days after he demanded Iran \u201cfully open\u201d the strait.<\/p>\n
At another point in recent weeks, he mused, \u201cAt a certain point, [the Strait] will open itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s resilience in this arena poses a major problem for the White House\u2019s efforts to end the war quickly and calm energy markets upended by what is increasingly described\u00a0as the biggest oil shock in history.<\/p>\n
Read more:\u00a0<\/em>How oil price shocks ripple through your wallet, from gas to groceries<\/em><\/p>\n Trump has also floated the notion of simply ending hostilities and leaving others to deal with the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 but observers have warned of dire economic consequences in such a move.<\/p>\n BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said this week\u00a0during an interview with the BBC\u00a0that oil prices could reach $150 a \u200bbarrel and cause a global recession if Iran remains \u201ca threat \u200bto the Strait of Hormuz\u201d after the end of hostilities.<\/p>\n Prices are currently about $100 per barrel. Since the war began, futures for both the international oil benchmark Brent crude (BZ=F) and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CL=F) have gained roughly 40%.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s shifting rhetoric on the strait reflects a key reality in the region: Shipping traffic has plunged as Iran has been able to exercise a veto power over who passes.<\/p>\n As ship tracking service MarineTraffic\u00a0put it in a Wednesday update, traffic in the Strait appears to be open only to those “preapproved” by Iran. Some ships have even been turned away.<\/p>\n The tankers that moved this week, Trump said, passed under Pakistan\u2019s flag (Pakistan is operating as mediator in the talks) and were followed by two additional boats for a total of 10.<\/p>\n The movement was notable but remained far below prewar levels, when more than 100 ships would make their way through the strait on any given day.<\/p>\n But it led President Trump to conclude, \u201cI guess we were dealing with the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s semiofficial state media Fars reported that Iran continues to allow passage to \u201cfriendly countries,\u201d as senior Iranian officials touted their burgeoning plans to\u00a0charge a fee to ships making passage.<\/p>\n About 20% of the world\u2019s oil and many other key products passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war. Those shipments have virtually ground to a halt since the US and Israeli attacks began on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n The bottom line appears to be \u2014 as Trump put it Thursday \u2014 that complete relief for energy markets and shippers may only be in the offing \u201cif they make the right deal, then the strait will open up.\u201d<\/p>\n It was about 10 days into the war that the rising problem at the Strait of Hormuz was fully on the president\u2019s radar \u2014 and that\u2019s when he started issuing ultimatums.<\/p>\n On March 9, just a few hours after\u00a0contending that the Strait would \u201cremain safe,\u201d\u00a0Trump posted that if Iran \u201cdoes anything\u201d to impede the flow of oil, \u201cthey will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n A second ultimatum followed on March 10,\u00a0focused on mines.<\/p>\n A third\u00a0followed on March 13, when Trump announced attacks on military targets on Kharg Island but then promised to go further and take out oil infrastructure there \u201cshould Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n The following days saw the president\u00a0launch an effort\u00a0to get other nations\u2019 assistance in the strait, before then declaring\u00a0on Truth social\u00a0a few days later, \u201cWE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE.\u201d<\/p>\n Last Saturday, Trump promised that “if Iran doesn\u2019t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time,\u201d then he will\u00a0\u201chit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS.\u201d<\/p>\n He later\u00a0backed away from that latest ultimatum, citing productive conversations.<\/p>\n After Thursday\u2019s appearance with his Cabinet, Trump\u00a0announced that\u00a0he would back away further from what he called plans for \u201cthe period of Energy Plant destruction\u201d by an additional 10 days and let talks continue until April 6 at 8 PM ET.<\/p>\n This story has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Trump has been issuing ultimatums for weeks about the Strait of Hormuz, demanding full freedom of travel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,62,7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-iran","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2895,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/2895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Traffic limited to those \u2018preapproved\u2019 by Iran<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"STRAIT](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/ovOhraOdjkuQCee7B5d.sg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazonaws.com\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-03\/afb42a60-169e-11f1-9cff-c201cdb271a6\")
4 previous Hormuz ultimatums from Trump (and plenty of other promises)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"President](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/OeC2hNURMeMzwLlbUpOIjA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzOTtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/d29szjachogqwa.cloudfront.net\/images\/2026-03\/3ac79b0d-996e-4e4c-a4f5-15d0569ef101\")