US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that talks with Iran have been taking place over the phone in recent days, after he canceled a trip over the weekend for US negotiators to travel to Pakistan to speak with Iranian officials.

He made the comments hours after rejecting an Iranian proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz and lift Washington’s blockade on Iran while pushing off nuclear talks to a later date. He had insisted that Tehran would have to agree to give up its nuclear ambitions if it wished to bring the war to an end.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appeared before the US Congress to defend the war and dismiss accusations that the Trump administration had led the US into a “quagmire.” He said the war has so far cost the US $25 billion.

Trump, speaking to Axios on Wednesday, stressed that the US would not lift its blockade of Iranian ports until a nuclear deal is reached.

“They want to settle,” he said. “They don’t want me to keep the blockade. I don’t want to [end the blockade] because I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.”

“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” Trump assessed. “They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it is going to be worse for them. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran’s energy infrastructure is going to “explode soon” if it isn’t able to export oil, the president predicted.

Later, while taking questions in the Oval Office, Trump claimed that Iran had moved closer to Washington’s positions in recent conversations, but said the question was “whether they will go far enough.”

At this moment, there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons,” Trump said.

The president declined to clarify whether the talks that he said were being held remotely were being conducted through mediators, as is assumed to be the case.

He argued, as he has previously done, that it is not necessary for his negotiators to fly all the way to Pakistan, which hosted previous talks, in order to hold discussions that can be conducted over the phone.

Yet despite his assessment that the blockade was doing more to pressure Iran than the roughly six-week bombing campaign launched by Israel and the US on February 28, Axios reported that the president had not entirely ruled out the possibility of returning to fighting.

Three sources with knowledge of the matter told the outlet that US Central Command had prepared a “short and powerful” bombing campaign in order to push Iran to accept US demands.

The strikes would include infrastructure targets, said the officials.

Despite Trump’s remarks and his earlier comments warning Iran that it “better get smart soon,” posted alongside an AI image of himself carrying a weapon in a war zone, saying “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY,” Tehran showed no signs of giving in on Wednesday.

Instead, Iran has pledged to continue disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key pathway for oil and gas shipments, as long as it is threatened, which may mean more Middle East oil supply disruptions from the conflict, which has killed thousands and caused global economic upheaval.

In remarks carried by state media, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has emerged as a key point of contact for Washington, accused the US of trying to create division with its naval blockade and “make us collapse from within.”

Trump, he said, “divides the country into two groups: hardliners and moderates, and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran into submission through economic pressure and internal discord.”

With the killing of numerous Iranian leaders by US-Israeli strikes, including former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, there has been widespread speculation over the balance of power within the Islamic Republic. The current supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, hasn’t been publicly seen or heard since he was appointed in March.

Trump said earlier this month that the government of Iran was “seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so.”

Ghalibaf, a powerful figure, has grown in prominence since the start of the war and was the lead negotiator in the so far only round of direct US-Iranian talks.

“The enemy has entered a new phase and wants to activate economic pressure and internal division through naval blockade and media hype to weaken or even make us collapse from within,” he said.

He called for “maintaining unity” as the only solution.

Nuclear watchdog floats Russia taking Iran’s uranium

As progress toward an agreement between Washington and Tehran appeared to reach a standstill, the head of the UN nuclear agency urged both sides to come back to the table, stressing that it would take “political will” to make a deal.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Associated Press that his agency has been in discussions separately with the US and informally with Iran.

He suggested that Iran’s proposal to lift the blockade but postpone discussions on its nuclear program was an indication that Tehran wants to sequence how it confronts the objectives mandated by the US, including curbing its ballistic missile program and dealing with its proxy terror groups Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.

Anticipating future nuclear talks, Grossi said that the IAEA has discussed with Russia and others the possibility of sending Iran’s highly enriched uranium out of the country — a complex operation that would require either a political agreement or a major US military operation in hostile territory.

“What’s going to be important is that that material leaves Iran,” or is blended to reduce its enrichment, he said.

The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely still at its Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombarded by US airstrikes last year and faced less intense attacks in this year’s US-Israeli war, Grossi said, adding that the IAEA has satellite images showing the effects of the latest airstrikes against Iran and that “we continue to get information.”

Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, which has no peaceful applications and is a short, technical step from nuclear weapons-grade levels of 90%. Grossi has said the IAEA believes roughly 200 kilograms (about 440 pounds) is stored in tunnels at the Isfahan site.

Trump appears to confuse Russia and Ukraine

Addressing the possibility of Moscow taking Iran’s uranium, Trump confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his help on the issue in a phone call between the two leaders on Wednesday.

But Trump said he told Putin that he’d “much rather have you be involved with ending the war with Ukraine.”

“I said, before you help me, I want to end your war,” said Trump.

While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump appeared to mix up Iran and Ukraine when answering a question from CNN about the timelines of the two wars.

“I think Ukraine militarily they’re defeated,” he said. “Their navy — they had 159 ships, every ship right now is underwater, typically that’s pretty good.”

The US targeted Iran’s navy repeatedly during the fighting, destroying much of its fleet. The US has largely supported Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Wait, what? Say that again? pic.twitter.com/RYFEITNKdz — Shaun Pinner (@ShaunPinnerUA) April 29, 2026

Say that again? pic.twitter.com/RYFEITNKdz

— Shaun Pinner (@ShaunPinnerUA) April 29, 2026

Pentagon says war has cost $25 billion and counting

In Washington, Hegseth claimed that congressional Democrats were “the biggest adversary we face,” as he parried questioning from lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee for the first time since the US and Israel launched the war with Iran on February 28.

And the Pentagon’s chief financial officer released a figure Democrats have been demanding, saying the war has cost an estimated $25 billion and counting.

Jules Hurst, who is performing the duties of the comptroller, told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee that most of that money was for munitions.

Hurst did not detail what that cost estimate included and whether it took into account the projected costs of rebuilding and repairing base infrastructure in the Middle East that was damaged in the conflict.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, responded to Hurst: “I’m glad you answered that question. Because we’ve been asking for a hell of a long time, and no one’s given us the number.”

But it is unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the $25 billion amount given that a source had told Reuters last month that President Donald Trump’s administration estimated that the first six days of the war had cost the United States at least $11.3 billion.

Hegseth told lawmakers that the cost was justified given the US goal of ensuring Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

“What would you pay to ensure Iran does not get a nuclear bomb? What would you pay?” Hegseth asked.

Hegseth sought to defend the Iran war more broadly in fiery remarks, saying it was not a quagmire and attacking Democratic lawmakers as “feckless” for criticizing the unpopular conflict.

“You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement,” Hegseth said in response to one lawmaker, and slammed “reckless, feckless, and defeatist” congressional Democrats.

Thirteen US troops have been killed in the conflict and hundreds wounded.

Despite Hegseth’s defense of the war, Trump is under domestic pressure to end it, after giving shifting rationales to a US public struggling with surging gasoline prices. His approval rating fell to the lowest level of his current term, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, which showed 34% of Americans approve of his performance, down from 36% in the prior survey.

On Wednesday, oil prices spiked sharply again after a report that the US president had told national security officials to prepare for a long blockade of Iran’s ports and the Strait of Hormuz.

At around 1:35 p.m. GMT, a barrel of Brent crude for June delivery was up 5.16 percent at $117, its highest level since the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran came into effect.

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