President Donald Trump reportedly assured world leaders that Iran was “about to surrender” hours before its new Supreme Leader vowed revenge on the U.S.
He’s said to have made the claim during a call with G7 leaders on Wednesday morning as he sought to assuage panic over spiraling oil prices. That same day, his administration lifted sanctions on Russia to allow Moscow to sell oil in a bid to relieve the global shortage caused by Iran choking the supply in the Strait of Hormuz.
Officials from three G7 countries have now revealed Trump’s contradictory attempts to allay the concerns of Western nations. Sources told Axios that Trump claimed Iran is “about to surrender” before then saying, “Nobody knows who is the leader, so there is no one that can announce surrender.”
A day later, Tehran vowed to keep fighting. Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after he was killed on the first day of the war, said in a statement read by a state TV broadcaster that the regime is plotting bloody revenge.
He vowed to “avenge the blood” of Iranians and to continue blocking the world’s busiest oil shipping channel, the Strait of Hormuz.
This appeared to directly contradict Trump’s claims. “I got rid of a cancer that was threatening us all,” officials recalled Trump bragging on the call.
Trump then told Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade on his eponymous radio show on Thursday that he believes Mojtaba Khamenei is alive “in some form.”
Leaders on the call stressed that the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane that connects Gulf oil to the rest of the world, must be secured as soon as possible, insiders said. French President Emmanuel Macron led this charge alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
Macron, also on Wednesday, publicly condemned Trump’s decision to turn to Vladimir Putin for help in fixing the oil crisis. He said the shutdown of the shipping lane “in no way” justified the lifting of sanctions.
However, hours after the call, Trump’s favorite diplomatic duo, son-in-law Jared Kushner and real estate developer-turned-Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, met Russian officials for talks in Miami.
A month-long reprieve in sanctions was announced despite reported pushback from three European powers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to change the optics of concession in a statement, stressing that the measure “will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.”
However, it could net the Kremlin billions of dollars.
On Friday, Putin’s top envoy Kirill Dmitriev took a victory lap, declaring on Telegram: “The United States is effectively acknowledging the obvious: without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable.”
On the Wednesday call, insiders said, Trump was confident that the free flow of cargo would soon resume. At least two tankers were attacked that same evening. Indeed, in his Thursday message, Khamenei said Iran should use the “lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz,” as the channel is an area where “the enemy is highly vulnerable.”
Sources told Axios that Trump was “ambiguous and noncommittal” during the call, especially regarding a pathway towards ending the conflict, which he has previously said would take four weeks. It is now approaching its third week.
The White House has been asked to clarify.
