The White House has said Iran’s “desperation” for a peace deal will grow with the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

The blockade went into effect Monday after peace talks in Pakistan fell apart over the weekend. US President Donald Trump has said he won’t agree on any deal that allows Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

“President Trump, Vice President Vance and the negotiating team have made the U.S. red lines very clear”, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement shared by the Associated Press.

“The Iranians desperation for a deal will only increase with President Trump’s highly effective Naval blockade now in effect”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot that the United States’ “excessive” demands caused peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend to crumble, The New York Times reported, citing Iranian state media.

Araghchi did say that progress was made, which is similar to what US Vice President JD Vance ⁠told Fox ‌News’ Bret Baier Monday.

Vance said earlier that Iran refused to give assurances it would not seek a nuclear weapon, a major reason US President Donald Trump says he launched his military campaign against Iran.

“The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.

The odds are slim that the US and Iran will reach a permanent peace deal by the end of their two-week ceasefire, according to the prediction market, Polymarket.

There’s only a 13 percent chance on Polymarket that the two countries will find an end to the conflict by April 22. It comes after peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend fell through.

Donald Trump has said he “doesn’t care” whether Iran returns to the negotiating table after peace talks in Pakistan broke down without an agreement, threatening to collapse a fragile ceasefire.

On Sunday evening, the US president told reporters it is “fine” if Iran doesn’t return to negotiations despite concerns that a two-week ceasefire was at risk of falling apart.

“I don’t care if they come back or not. If they don’t come back, I’m fine”, he said, adding that the ceasefire is “holding well”.

US Vice President JDVance has said Iran having a nuclear weapon would impose “terrible costs” on the world.

“I 100 per cent agree with the president on the fact that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday.

The vice president led the US delegation in peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend, which ended with a deal to end the Iran war.

“I’ve seen that just in the negotiation we had in the last couple of days that these are tough negotiators, but they are fundamentally the kinds of people where them having a nuclear weapon, would impose terrible costs on the entire world,” he told Baier.

House Republicans have postponed a meeting with Pentagon officials amid the ongoing war in Iran, according to a new report.

The House Armed Services Committee was set to hold a hearing with testimony from Admiral Brad Cooper, the leader of US Central Command, and General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, leader of the US Africa Command, on April 21, according to The New York Times.

But Republicans, who control the House, postponed the session until May 19, the NYT reported.

Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state and the ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, said that the hearing was postponed because of Cooper’s availability.

“We are six weeks into this conflict. And we still haven’t gotten a public briefing from anyone in the administration about the war,” Smith said in a statement shared by the NYT.

Already the cause of a global economic slowdown and surge in the price of oil, gas, fertiliser, helium and dozens of other petrochemicals, the Israel-US war on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation put all three nations squarely in the dock for violations of international law.

These now include America’s threat to violate the Law of the Sea by making threats against international shipping, which moves about a fifth of the world’s fuel through the Strait.

China imports about 31 per cent of the oil shipped, India about 14 per cent. In total, about 86 per cent of all the oil shipped from the Gulf region by this route goes to Asia. So China has called for “restraint” in the latest desperate efforts of both the US and Iran to take their conflict to a place where each can declare some kind of victory.

The United States made a lot of progress in ⁠talks ​with Iran, ⁠vice president JD Vance ⁠said in an ​interview ⁠on Fox ‌News’ Special Report with Bret Baier on ‌Monday.

Vance, asked whether ‌more talks were coming, said the ⁠ball was in Iran’s court.

He added that the US expects Iran will make progress on opening the ‌Strait of Hormuz, ​warning that ‌the ⁠negotiation would change if ⁠Tehran does not.

Vance accused the Iranian regime of engaging in “economic terrorism” by blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

He added that if “engage in economic terrorism” the US will then work on the basis that “no Iranian ships are getting out either”.

The US president ⁠said in a press conference that Iran had “called this morning” and that “they’d like to work a deal.”

“Iran will ‌not have a ​nuclear weapon,” ‌Trump told ⁠reporters at the White House. “We ⁠can’t let a country ‌blackmail ​or extort the ‌world.”

The US said it has begun a blockade of all ships entering and exiting Iranian ports. Trump warned Iranian naval ships approaching it will be “eliminated”.

He warned on that any Iranian “fast-attack” ships that go near a US maritime “blockade” on Iran would be eliminated, and he said the US would not allow Tehran to “extort the world.”

Trump repeated his argument that safeguarding the strait is of greater concern to other parts of the globe than the United States.

Trump said a US blockade on vessels entering and ⁠departing Iran had gone into effect at 3pm UK time on Monday.

The effective closure of the strait since the start of the war, however, impacts global oil prices – which has led to surging prices for motorists and rising inflation on other goods.

“We don’t use this strait,” Trump said. “We have our own oil and gas, much more than we need.”

Earlier on Monday, he posted on Truth Social: “Warning: If any of these ships (from Iran’s navy) come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they ‌will be immediately ELIMINATED.”

Meanwhile, the UK and France are leading political and military planning to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but no mission will begin until hostilities between the US and Iran end, Sir Keir Starmer said.

The prime minister was speaking after Donald Trump’s blockade of Iranian ports came into effect, with the US president threatening to sink Tehran’s fast attack vessels if they come near American warships.

Sir Keir refused to back Mr Trump’s blockade and called for unfettered access to the strait, a vital route for global oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.

In his Commons statement, Sir Keir:

– Said Mr Trump was “wrong” to threaten to wipe out Iran’s civilisation.

– Acknowledged the “significant” economic consequences of the Iran war “will last longer than the conflict itself”.

– Demanded an end to Israeli bombing of Lebanon, saying the attacks were having “devastating humanitarian consequences”.