President Donald Trump closed the week by stepping back from a bargain with Tehran even as the Strait of Hormuz stayed contested. On Thursday he wrote on Truth Social, “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money,” NPR reported from Dubai, adding that he was pointing to billions of Iranian dollars frozen in overseas accounts. CBS News carried a longer version of the same post, in which Trump also wrote, “we’ve got their Strait!” Hours earlier, in a Veterans Day address, he again declared victory but said the conflict was “just a question of when we want to end it,” CBS reported. After meeting Qatar’s prime minister at the White House this week, Trump said Gulf Arab allies prefer “the status quo” of continued economic pressure, and he wrote that while the United States remains “locked and loaded,” an attack “seems to be quite unlikely,” NPR said.

The maritime file did not freeze with that message. The U.S. military said Friday it shot down two Iranian attack drones headed toward Bahrain and denied Iran’s claim that it had struck a U.S. radar system in the kingdom, with U.S. Central Command reporting no injuries or damage, the Associated Press said. Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited a Revolutionary Guard statement that the claimed radar attack followed a U.S. strike on a telecommunications pole in the southern Iranian port of Sirik — Iran’s first reported targeting of a facility in Bahrain since September, AP said. Separately, the Guard said Friday that a liquefied natural gas ship hit a mine east of the strait and “exploded violently,” without naming the vessel; CBS noted that the U.S. military has said it has cleared mines from the waterway’s routes. On Thursday, British maritime risk firm Ambrey said a commercial ship was hit the previous day by an unknown projectile 14 nautical miles off Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, causing an engine-room fire but no known injuries or pollution, CBS reported.

Diplomacy remains stuck on conditions. Iran says it could pause attacks on ships in the strait but only after seven demands are met, including lifting sanctions, ending the naval blockade, unfreezing Iranian funds and a ceasefire on all fronts, NPR reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described those conditions as “absurd.” Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told state television Wednesday, “We will not remove even a shred of enriched nuclear material from Iran.” NPR also reported that the U.S. military says a naval blockade has cut Iran off from at least $25 billion in revenue.

Why it matters

Insurers, shippers and energy markets are watching whether Trump’s “status quo” of economic pressure, Qatar’s unfinished mediation and continued clashes in and near the Strait of Hormuz narrow or widen a conflict that still sits on a global oil chokepoint as a new U.S. Congress prepares to take its seats.

Sources

• NPR, "Gulf in limbo as Trump says no Iran deal needed" (Nov. 13, 2026)
• CBS News, "Trump says \"we don't need a deal with Iran,\" as Tehran sticks to its demands" (updated Nov. 13, 2026)
• Associated Press, "US military downs 2 Iranian attack drones as Iran claims a strike on a US radar in Bahrain" (Nov. 13, 2026)

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