Vice President JD Vance, left, talks to Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, right, and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, center, before boarding Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday the U.S. Navy will “immediately” begin a blockade to stop ships from entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran peace talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement.

Iran has demanded the right to collect tolls from vessels traveling through the strait, but Trump said no one who pays them will “have safe passage on the high seas.”

Earlier in the day, the United States and Iran ended 21 hours of face-to-face talks in Islamabad without reaching a deal, leaving the fate of the fragile, two-week ceasefire still unclear.

“The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters.

The war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets has entered its seventh week.

The U.S. delegation led by Vance and the Iranian delegation led by parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf had discussed how to advance a ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Trump says he is ‘fine’ with his earlier threat to destroy Iran’s civilization and issues new warnings

Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

He told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that his threat brought Iran to the negotiating table. He also said the Islamic Republic has made worse statements, such as “Death to America. Death to Israel. America is a Satan.”

Trump issued new warnings to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure if its leaders don’t agree to give up its nuclear program.

“In one half of a day they wouldn’t have one bridge standing, they wouldn’t have one electric generating plant standing and they’re back in the stone ages,” Trump said.

One U.S. senator questioned the logic of Trump’s threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.

“I don’t understand how blockading the strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it. I don’t get the connection there,” Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Warner, the vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, said he didn’t see “how blockading the strait gets it open suddenly, I don’t get that logic.”