Trump Says He's Nearing a 'Big Decision' on Whether to Annihilate Iran's Regime

Since joint U.S.-Israeli strikes hit Iran on February 28, the war has dragged into its seventh month with no peace deal, a naval blockade still choking the Strait of Hormuz, and now a president publicly weighing whether to go bigger.

Donald Trump told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Thursday that he's approaching a turning point. "I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me," Trump said.

The same day, in an interview with Fox News, Trump described Iran differently: as a country that wants an agreement but isn't there yet. "Iran wants to make a deal. They're not ready, in my opinion," he said. "They're going to either make a deal that's good, or we're not going to make a deal at all." He said B-2 bomber strikes already ended Tehran's path to a nuclear weapon and claimed Iran's inflation has topped 300 percent, with soldiers and police going unpaid.

The two messages, delivered hours apart to different outlets, sum up where this war sits. It's paused on the battlefield since early September, according to U.S. military activity described by the Epoch Times, but nowhere near resolved.

Strait of Hormuz Still Live

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its navy struck a Togo-flagged tanker attempting what it called an "illegal passage" through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran International, saying the vessel caught fire and stopped. Separately, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported an attack on a vessel in the strait Thursday night and said the crew was safe, CBS News reported. It's unclear if the two reports describe the same incident.

U.S. Central Command said in a Thursday X post that 104 ships have been redirected to comply with the American blockade on Iranian oil exports since it began. "Not one ship has gone to Iran since we started. They tried, and we blew them up," Trump said.

Oil markets are still reacting to instability well beyond Iran itself. Brent crude closed at $104.82 a barrel Thursday, down about 1 percent, before slipping further to $103.76 in Friday's Asian trading, according to figures reported by the Epoch Times and Iran International. Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis traded fresh strikes across their border Thursday, with the Houthis having captured Perim Island at the mouth of the Red Sea in recent days, the Times of India reported. Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline, a critical route that lets Gulf exports bypass the blockaded strait, was knocked out by a strike Riyadh blamed on Iran-backed fighters in Iraq. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday the pipeline should be flowing again within days. China has separately asked Tehran to help rein in the Houthis after their recent gains, Iran International reported, citing Reuters.

Sanctions Fight at the UN

Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions reimposed on Iran last year under the 2015 nuclear deal's "snapback" mechanism, CBS News reported. The vote was 11-2, with Somalia and Pakistan abstaining. The underlying sanctions, which freeze Iran's foreign assets and bar arms deals and ballistic missile development, remain in force regardless of the veto. Only the monitoring panel's mandate was at stake.

The Treasury Department expanded its own pressure campaign the same day, designating a digital-assets venture called BitBank and financier Babak Zanjani, among others, under an operation called "Operation Economic Outcast" launched in August targeting Iran's oil trade and shipping networks.

Matt Bell, 52, farms more than 1,000 acres of soybeans, corn and wheat and raises cattle in central North Carolina. He voted for Trump and initially backed the war, telling CBS News he thought higher prices were worth ensuring Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. He's changed his mind. "We're just being strung along as a country, and that's not good," Bell said, adding, "I think we've been misled."

Trump, at a rally in Gastonia, North Carolina, for Senate candidate Michael Whatley, dismissed the cost. "That's a very inexpensive price to pay," he said of higher gas prices. "That's going to come tumbling down. That's going to be like rocket ships in reverse."

Former Pentagon official Brent Sadler told Fox News's America's Newsroom the war could end as early as November, tied to the U.S. blockade and sanctions pressure from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. "The math definitely supports a conclusion of this," Sadler said, while cautioning energy markets won't return to pre-war levels.

Separately, the State Department approved a possible $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets and related equipment to Saudi Arabia, saying the deal would boost Saudi defense capability without altering the regional military balance, according to the Times of India.

Those who back staying the course argue that walking away now, with Iran's economy reportedly cratering and its nuclear capability degraded, would waste the leverage the blockade has built. Those skeptical, like Bell, argue six months of rising fuel and fertilizer costs with no deal in hand is exactly the kind of open-ended commitment voters were promised wouldn't happen.

Trump is expected to meet leaders of six Persian Gulf nations on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next week, according to The Hill. Whether that meeting produces movement toward a deal, or whether Trump's "big decision" means resuming large-scale strikes, remains unresolved.