{"id":18255,"date":"2026-06-14T04:48:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=18255"},"modified":"2026-06-15T04:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:56:41","slug":"in-a-call-to-the-times-trump-claims-that-the-strait-of-hormuz-will-be-permanently-toll-free-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=18255","title":{"rendered":"“In a call to The Times, Trump claims that the Strait of Hormuz will be \u2018permanently toll-free.\u2019”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back to News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
President Trump insisted on Sunday that if Iran failed to reach a final nuclear accord with the United States, he would restart military attacks on Tehran. Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

David E. Sanger<\/a>, June 14, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David E. Sanger has covered five American presidents and written on the Iranian nuclear program for more than 20 years. He reported from London, where President Trump reached him to describe the administration\u2019s agreement with Tehran.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump said in an interview on Sunday afternoon that the agreement he had reached with Iran would ultimately assure that the Strait of Hormuz was \u201cpermanently toll-free,\u201d and asserted that, despite the objections of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, he had saved Israel from nuclear obliteration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump also insisted that if Iran failed to reach a final nuclear accord with the United States \u2014 a process that his aides say they expect will begin on Friday in Switzerland \u2014 he would restart military attacks on Tehran or make the United States \u201cthe guardian of the Middle East\u201d in return for 20 percent of the region\u2019s revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 28-minute phone conversation that Mr. Trump initiated from the White House residence, and a brief follow-up call, the president contended that his decision to attack Iran in late February, and his subsequent naval blockade of its ports after Tehran closed the strait, had remade the Middle East in America\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on his 80th birthday, as his family could be heard gathering in the background for a celebratory dinner, he praised two authoritarians \u2014 Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia \u2014 for aiding in the settlement, or at least not interfering in the blockade of the Strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a total gentleman,\u201d Mr. Trump said of Mr. Xi, whom he visited in China last month. \u201cHe didn\u2019t send a tanker, along with 20 destroyers on each side of it, to try and break up the blockade,\u2019\u2019 an act that would have put the Chinese and American navies into potential conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he excoriated Mr. Netanyahu for mounting attacks that nearly derailed the final agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very difficult guy,\u201d Mr. Trump said of the Israeli prime minister, \u201cand to be honest with you, he should be very thankful to us for doing this. Because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, Israel wouldn\u2019t be around for two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s assertion that the United States would, if necessary, become a paid police force for the Middle East would be a striking, if very Trumpian, departure. The president would, in effect, be turning American protection of the region \u2014 and the U.S. nuclear umbrella \u2014 into a mercenary force, there in return for profit. The arrangement would essentially reject the post-World War II American tradition, in which the United States used its power to assure global peace and prosperity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not the first time Mr. Trump has suggested such arrangements in various parts of the world. But pressed on Sunday on whether he had won the agreement of Gulf states to such an arrangement \u2014 including American allies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates \u2014 he did not offer a direct answer, suggesting instead that he had just begun to discuss the issue. It would only happen, he suggested, if Iran remained an adversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump described Iran\u2019s current leadership, including the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, as pragmatists. It was a vastly different tone from the one he took on the opening day of the war, when he urged the Iranian people to rise up and take over their government once the American and Israeli bombing was complete. He acknowledged that he had said that, but went on to note that the Iranian people did not have access to arms \u2014 and would be slaughtered if they tried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he insisted that if Iran\u2019s leaders killed protesters, it would prevent them from getting full sanctions relief and access to $25 billion in frozen funds. That requirement, however, is apparently nowhere in the current text of the memorandum of understanding, and it is not clear how central it would be to the next negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the text of the agreement has not yet been published, Mr. Trump seemed to be describing Iranian concessions that the country has not yet made, or that have been kicked to the follow-up negotiations. The memorandum of understanding, for example, suspends tolls in the strait for only 60 days, and then promises a regional dialogue about the future. Iran had never charged tolls before the war, so the president is essentially celebrating a return to the prewar status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump repeatedly compared his new memorandum of understanding to the 2015 agreement reached between President Barack Obama and Iran\u2019s leadership, maintaining that his agreement would assure that Iran \u201ccannot develop or purchase a nuclear weapon.\u201d Iran agreed to that when it first ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970, and reaffirmed that agreement on the first page of the Obama-era accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past three months of negotiations, led by the president\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the Iranians insisted that they would never give up their right to enrich uranium under that treaty. Mr. Trump said they were still negotiating over whether Iran would suspend its enrichment for 20 years. Mr. Trump hinted that he might settle for a 15-year suspension, but did not want to negotiate via the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also insisted that Iran would be forever limited to enriching at low levels that \u201ccould never be used by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can never go beyond a certain amount,\u201d he said. But when asked whether that limit was the same as in the Obama-era agreement \u2014 which limited enrichment to 3.67 percent, a level that is usable in power reactors but not weaponry \u2014 he said only that the new accord would assure that \u201cthey can only enrich for nonmilitary purposes. Forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both of these areas, Mr. Trump appeared to be celebrating Iranian concessions on issues that will be on the negotiating table in Switzerland \u2014 as they were in February, when Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner were conducting negotiations nearly until the bombing started on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Mr. Trump knows that the details will be compared with what the Obama administration negotiated, without launching a war that killed hundreds or thousands of Iranians (and more than a dozen Americans). It is clearly an issue that Mr. Trump is sensitive about: Just before calling The Times he posted a criticism of Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, for suggesting that Mr. Obama got more out of his negotiation than Mr. Trump did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe negotiated from strength,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cHe was basically paying them off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump insisted, as his aides have, that Iran would receive no relief from sanctions or release of its frozen financial assets until it delivered on its commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He maintained that he was in no rush to get the near-bomb-grade fuel out of its underground sites, where much of it is buried after the United States dropped bunker-busting bombs on Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, all major nuclear facilities, a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the United States would, over time, join with Iran in \u201cdown-blending\u201d the enriched nuclear material, which would bring it to reactor-grade. But he offered no deadline and sounded vague about the timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump insisted that it was the missile and bombing attacks on Iran that had made the difference. \u201cThey did not want the third attack,\u201d he said. \u201cThey do care about living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that those attacks that we made had a huge impact on having this deal made, a huge impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran complied with that enrichment limit during Mr. Obama\u2019s time in office and into Mr. Trump\u2019s first term. But after Mr. Trump terminated the deal, Tehran\u2019s leader ordered enrichment at far higher levels \u2014 including near-bomb-grade uranium enriched to 60 percent that became the focus of the deepest concerns. It could be turned quickly into fuel for 10 to 12 nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interview, Mr. Trump insisted that the United States would ultimately work with Iran to excavate, down-blend and remove all 12 tons of enriched nuclear fuel that it possesses. In the Obama deal, 97 percent of the country\u2019s stockpile was shipped to Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump also suggested that the United States would have what he called \u201cstrong policing powers\u201d to make sure that Iran was not conducting nuclear work in violation of any of its commitments. He said that the previous deal allowed inspection demands to stretch out for months, but that the accord he is striking would provide for near-instant access. Iran has not spoken publicly about any such agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the course of the conversation, the president sounded in a celebratory mood, talking about the Ultimate Fighting Championship event being held on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday evening and the possibility that it could be interrupted by rain. \u201cThis happens in wartime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump spoke just hours before he was scheduled to leave for the Group of 7 summit in France, and the announcement is bound to transform the tenor of the meeting. While American allies almost universally opposed the American and Israeli attack \u2014 and Britain initially triggered Mr. Trump\u2019s ire by not allowing bombers to participate in the first waves from its bases \u2014 the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Britain welcomed the new agreement in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a moment of opportunity to restore regional stability and stabilize the global economy,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIt is now vital that the detailed negotiations are concluded and this agreement is implemented rapidly and comprehensively. We are ready to support that effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his conversation, Mr. Trump was dismissive of the European allies\u2019 initial responses, but said he would welcome them to join now, even while suggesting that it was a little late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to News David E. Sanger, June 14, 2026 David E. Sanger has covered five American presidents and written on the Iranian nuclear program for more than 20 years. He reported from London, where President Trump reached him to describe the administration\u2019s agreement with Tehran. President Trump said in an interview on Sunday afternoon that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18256,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18255\/revisions\/18256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}