Trump: "We Don't Need a Deal With Iran"; Says the US Holds Iran's Money and the Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Thursday 12 November 2026 (21 Aban) that "we don't need a deal with Iran", claiming the United States holds "hundreds of billions of dollars" of Iran's money and also holds the Strait of Hormuz. According to Etemad Online, the lines followed a request to his deputy, JD Vance, to focus on corruption and crime in cities and states controlled by Democrats.

Al Jazeera wrote the same day in an analysis that Washington has for now chosen economic pressure: it has tightened sanctions, kept its blockade of Iranian ports and announced an operation to cut the overland routes used to move weapons. Full-scale fighting is on hold, but a deal is not within reach either. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator, told Al Jazeera that "the ball is in the American court". Al Jazeera's live coverage adds that a senior spokesman for Iran's armed forces, after Trump threatened that any new attack would be 5 times stronger than previous ones, said Iran's reply to any new attack would be 10 times more severe.