Trump Says Gulf States Back Iran Blockade After Qatar Talks

WASHINGTON — The naval blockade of Iran and Operation Iron Gate should stay right where they are. That, President Donald Trump said on Monday, is what Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states he named want, and he called his conversation with Qatar’s prime minister “excellent.”

Trump posted the account on Truth Social after his talk with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. Al Thani is Qatar’s prime minister and also serves as its foreign minister. “Much was discussed” about Iran, Trump wrote.

Trump said the countries “would prefer the status quo, in other words, a continuation of the Greatest Naval Blockade in History, and the new Operation Iron Gate — Therefore, Land and Sea.”

On a nuclear weapon, Trump said, the countries were in full agreement. “All have agreed that Iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon,” he wrote. “That is non-negotiable!”

Trump said Washington would respond if the situation in the Middle East changed. The United States is “‘locked and loaded’ and ready to go,” he wrote, adding: “At this point, however, that seems to be quite unlikely.”

“Israel, and the entire Middle East, are protected from Iranian danger and threats,” Trump wrote. He said there was “positive momentum toward an end to this Conflict” and that the United States would make sure its interests “are at all times protected.”

He closed by saying that once the military engagement ends, “the American People, and the World, will be far safer and more secure.”

The post came after Trump’s White House meeting on Monday with Al Thani, who has been mediating between Washington and Tehran in the effort to end the war with Iran. The Gulf governments named in the post have not publicly confirmed Trump’s account of their position.