WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on Friday that US negotiators will discuss the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz with the Iranians in Pakistan on Saturday, asserting the crucial global energy waterway will reopen soon and "automatically," with or without Iran's cooperation.
"That will open up automatically," Trump told reporters. He later said he believed the waterway would be open "fairly soon."
"I think it's going to go pretty quickly. And if it doesn't, we'll be able to finish it off one way or the other," Trump said of the strait, which Iran effectively closed during the more than one-month-long US-Israeli war against Iran.
Trump said his main focus in a deal with Iran was ensuring that Tehran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.
"No nuclear weapon. That's 99 percent of it," Trump said.
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Earlier on Friday, Trump told The New York Post in a phone interview that the outcomes of negotiations with Iran will be clear "in about 24 hours," threatening that US warships are being reloaded to resume strikes on Iran if peace talks in Pakistan fail.
Iran on Friday declared that its armed forces remain at full readiness, just as during the 40-day "asymmetric battle," given the "frequent breaches of promises" by the US and Israel.
The US, Iran and Israel have all claimed victory in the war. Analysts believe the current ceasefire is fragile and that competing interests and long-standing differences would make it difficult to reach a permanent peace deal in the upcoming negotiations.
