President Donald Trump had still not announced a final decision on the proposed Iran peace agreement by Sunday, leaving the next move in Washington’s pressure campaign unsettled after a weekend Situation Room meeting ended without an announcement. The delay matters because Trump had said on Friday he would decide after that meeting, and the White House was still holding the line without saying whether he would back the deal, widen the crackdown, or keep waiting.
Trump has framed the process as a test of patience, not urgency. In an interview with Lara Trump on Sunday, he described Iranian officials as very tough negotiators and said the United States was taking a patient approach to securing a broader agreement. That patience has not slowed the military pressure. On Saturday, the U.S. military disabled a Gambian-flagged cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman as part of Trump’s blockade on Iranian ports, according to U.S. CENTCOM.
Hegseth sharpened the other side of the message on Sunday, saying the U.S. military is more than capable of resuming strikes against Iran’s military if peace talks fail. That leaves the diplomacy under a visible threat of force, with no final determination announced even after the talks Trump had promised to use as his deadline. The open question is not whether Washington has options; it is whether Trump chooses to keep squeezing Iran through sanctions, blockades and the threat of new strikes or move ahead with a broader settlement.
The broader regional backdrop is already moving. The Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday that more than 900 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed since the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect, and it said Israeli troops seized the strategic Beaufort Castle after days of airstrikes and clashes. The IDF also said it attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in Tyre and other areas in southern Lebanon from the early hours of Sunday morning, underscoring how the fighting around Iran’s allies continues even while Washington keeps its own decision in reserve.
There is also a political strain inside Iran that has fed the pressure campaign. In April, Trump said the regime was seriously fractured, citing internal divisions as one reason for extending the ceasefire indefinitely one day before the previous agreement was set to expire. That line helps explain why he has chosen delay over declaration now. But the choice carries its own risk: the longer the decision stays open, the more every blockade order, every strike threat and every failed round of talks becomes part of the answer.
