Trump says Iran is sending US 20 boats of oil through Strait of Hormuz as a 'sign of respect'

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump says Iran is sending 20 oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday, March 30, as a goodwill gesture amid ongoing negotiations.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, the commander-in-chief said those “big boats” would begin rolling through the narrow shipping lane almost immediately.

"I can't define it exactly, but they gave us, I think, out of a sign of respect, 20 boats of oil. Big, big boats of oil going through the Hormuz Strait, and that's taking place starting tomorrow morning, over the next couple days," he told reporters. "A lot of boats."

Trump added, "I would only say that we're doing extremely well in that negotiation."

The claim follows earlier remarks from Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who first flagged the supposed gesture in a Saturday social media post.

Pakistan has been acting as one of the key intermediaries between Washington and Tehran. The tanker move was pitched as a way to cool oil prices during the ongoing conflict.

Mixed signals about negotiations with Iran

This isn’t the first time Trump has pointed to “gifts” from Iran. Just last week, he claimed Tehran allowed eight Pakistani-flagged vessels, along with two others, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a “present” to signal openness to talks.

Those numbers, however, haven’t been backed up by public reporting or vessel-tracking data.

Over the course of a 20-minute exchange with reporters, Trump sounded both optimistic and cautious when discussing the prospects of a deal.

“We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation. But you never know with Iran, because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,” he said. “I think we’ll make a deal with them, but it’s possible that we won’t. I do see a deal in Iran. It could be soon.”

Despite the claims, Iran has yet to formally respond to Washington’s 15-point proposal, even though US negotiators had hoped for an answer by Friday.

Trump claims Iran has undergone 'regime change'

Trump also claimed that the month-long US-Israel operation had effectively triggered regime change in Iran, even as he insisted a deal was still within reach.

"I think we'll make a deal with them, pretty sure... but we've had regime change," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, citing the number of Iranian leaders killed in the conflict.

"We're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change," he said.

The leadership shake-up comes after Mojtaba Khamenei, son of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the war on February 28, was appointed as the country’s third supreme leader since the 1979 revolution.

Looking ahead, Trump doubled down on his claims that Iran is ready to fall in line with US demands.

“They’re going to give up nuclear weapons. They’re going to give us the nuclear dust,” Trump said, referring to Iran’s stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium.

“They’re going to do everything that we want to do, [and] they’re going to go on and maybe have a great country again. But if they don’t do that, they’re not going to have a country,” he threatened.