President Trump warns Iran to 'make a deal' as Hormuz tensions escalate amid Khamenei's funeral
Speaking at the White House on Monday July 6, Trump said, “We are going to win one way or the other. We’re either going to make a deal, or we’re going to finish the job.”
He maintained that he would rather secure an agreement than harm the Iranian people “I’d rather make a deal because I don’t want to affect 91 million people. We can knock down their bridges in one hour. We can knock out their energy supply, all of those big plants that they’ve built.”
Trump also claimed that the US could dismantle Iran’s infrastructure “in a small part of an afternoon” if diplomacy fails, adding that it “won’t be difficult to finish the job.”
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Indirect US-Iran negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme have reportedly reached a dead end, with both sides divided on uranium enrichment, sanctions relief and inspections.
Trump said the US would ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and would secure Iran’s enriched material as part of any deal, while also claiming that oil prices had fallen below pre-war levels.
Trump’s latest warning followed remarks made days earlier claiming the US could eliminate Iran’s surviving leadership in “one shot,” referring to officials gathered for Khamenei’s funeral. “They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with” he told Axios hinting at Washington’s intent to keep diplomatic channels open. However, Trump later said that he was not looking for a regime change in the country.
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He told Axios that he was surprised by the grief and extent of Khamenei’s funeral, saying that he assummed “they hated him” referring to the people of Iran.
The Iranian Embassy in Armenia condemned Trump’s remarks and said on X that the US would never understand Iran’s grief over Khamenei’s death because it “neither has a civilisation, history, nor honour.”
“You killed Ayatollah Khamenei, but in reality, you broke a perfume bottle whose scent spread everyplace,” the post said.
Separately, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “marked for death,” prompting Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi to warn that Trump “has committed the US to muzzling its pets in Tel Aviv” and that “any threat against Iran and its leadership would receive an immediate response.
Khamenei was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrikes on February 28. His body has since been transported by helicopter to Qom, according to Al Jazeera, with the funeral procession set to continue there on Tuesday before moving to Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.
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A 60-day ceasefire and MoU between Washington and Tehran was meant to create space for diplomacy, though recent indirect talks ended without visible progress.
Trump’s warning signals a broader pressure strategy ahead of further negotiations. His administration maintains that it prefers diplomacy but is prepared to use force if Iran advances toward a nuclear weapon.
In Washington, Senate Armed Services Committee chair Roger Wicker argued that Trump’s original “finish the job” instinct was sound and that pursuing a deal now risks “a perception of weakness,” while Senator Lindsey Graham has warned that ceding Hormuz control to Iran would shift the regional balance of power.
US intelligence assessments have reportedly found Iran restarting some drone production and rebuilding military capabilities degraded during the war.
Tensions have also flared at sea as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired at least two missiles at commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz Monday night, according to Axios, damaging two vessels with no casualties. A tanker was separately hit by an unknown projectile near Oman’s Limah, sparking a fire.
The IRGC had earlier warned ships via maritime radio that “our missiles and drones are ready to fire at you,” according to the Wall Street Journal.