Trump may declare ‘victory’ in Iran without nuclear deal if Hormuz reopens – report

US President Donald Trump is focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and has been “laying the groundwork to declare victory” on Iran, possibly even without a nuclear deal, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing US officials.

The report came as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps doubled down on new conditions for reopening the key waterway, which the IRGC called a “theater of war.”

Trump had previously insisted that any deal to end the war include measures to ensure Iran cannot revive its nuclear program. But he has also told top advisers that he believes Tehran would struggle to restart its nuclear program after the US bombed Iran’s three main nuclear sites during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025, according to The Journal.

In recent meetings, the report said, Trump has insisted that Iran could not attempt to revive its program or build a bomb without US intelligence finding out. He reportedly believes the threat of US military action has deterred Iran from even trying to go nuclear.

In private conversations with senior aides, Trump has even been “floating the idea… that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal,” the report said.

One White House official cited in the report said Washington has achieved all its military objectives against Iran, and is focused on opening the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, which before the war began five and a half months ago carried about one-fifth of the world’s commercial oil shipments.

If there is no discernible advance in Iran’s nuclear program, and the strait reopens, Trump is likely to keep the current ceasefire going and lift the US naval blockade on Iran, US officials were cited as saying.

Meanwhile, the IRGC said Sunday that it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States met Tehran’s conditions set out the day before, including compensation for war damages.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with Oman over transit and management of the strait were “approaching the final stages,” but added that the reopening of Hormuz “is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation” of the June agreement.

He denied on Sunday that Iran was negotiating with the United States, saying the sides were merely “exchanging messages” via intermediaries.

Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel attacked in late February, and wants to charge tolls for passage.

Continued attacks in the waterway, where transit was free before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire. Mediators have urged both sides to return to the terms of a subsequent June memorandum that set out a path for peace talks.

Iran’s security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Saturday laid out a list of demands for reopening the strait, including an end to the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq.”

He also demanded the lifting of a US counterblockade of Iranian ports, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by the Tasnim news agency.

The IRGC on Sunday said its strategy was to maintain the closure “until the enemy accepts all our conditions… the strait is now actually a theater of war for us and not just a waterway.”

The comments came as transit through Hormuz has dropped significantly, with Iran targeting ships it accuses of skirting its preferred route through Iranian waters.

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry on Saturday condemned what it called a “hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties.”

Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a ship was hit by a projectile off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished but no casualties. It was unclear whether they were referring to the same ship.

Oman’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned “repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” without naming Iran.

It also said that “ongoing negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere,” and urged against any actions that might jeopardize progress.

The previous Iran-US deal — meant to serve as a jumping-off point for negotiations on a permanent settlement — had said Tehran and Muscat would hash out future arrangements for the strait in discussion with other Gulf countries and “in line with the applicable international law.”

International law generally forbids tolling in such waterways.

Houthis strike Saudi oil facility, sparking fire

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced on Sunday that they had struck a Saudi oil facility on the country’s Red Sea coast, and the Gulf kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site, as the Iranian-allied movement attempted to cut off a second vital waterway.

The group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said the Houthis had “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jazan with a drone, and the strike was precise.”

He added the attack on the facility operated by Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil firm was launched in response to incursions by drones from the Gulf monarchy into northwest Yemen.

The Houthis attacked the port of Mocha in western Yemen, causing several explosions and a large pillar of smoke. Earlier, the Houthis said they attacked a Saudi Aramco oil facility in Jazan. pic.twitter.com/oNm7ZLvami

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) August 9, 2026

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said civil response teams had brought under control a fire at Jazan refinery without giving the cause of the blaze.

“Saudi Aramco’s industrial security firefighting teams extinguished a fire that broke out at dawn today, Sunday, at one of the facilities belonging to the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan, without any injuries,” the ministry said.

The facility was also targeted by the Houthis in July, as the Iran-backed rebels also announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.

The latest attack came after Riyadh signed a defense pact Friday with Pakistan and Turkey.

The accord is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all.

It was not clear whether or how either Pakistan or Turkey would join in any Saudi response to the latest attacks.

Inside Yemen, a 2022 truce in the civil war, which Saudi Arabia entered more than a decade ago, appeared to collapse last month.

Fayed al-Noman, assistant undersecretary of the information ministry for the internationally recognized, Aden-based government, said the Houthis fired missiles and drones on the Mokha port on Sunday.

It’s one of the main ports under the government, renovated in recent years to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held ports in Hodeida.

The Houthis later claimed the attack, saying they fired “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones” that targeted military enforcement and warehouses in the area.

A government military source said air defenses had engaged the Houthi attacks.