President Trump has instructed his aides to prepare for an extended blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. officials.

According to the report, after recent meetings, Trump decided that maintaining the blockade and crushing Iran’s economy is the best option to compel Tehran to agree to dismantle its nuclear program, carrying less risk than withdrawing from the war or resuming active strikes.

Following the report, Trump published a threatening photo on Truth Social, commenting: “Iran can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”

On Tuesday, Trump wrote that he is pushing Iran into a “state of collapse.”

A senior US official told the WSJ that the blockade has already succeeded in crushing Iran’s economy and that its oil industry may run out of storage space for the crude it cannot export. According to the official, Iran’s lack of storage space for its unsold oil is what spurred Tehran to offer Washington its recent peace proposal, a plan that called for deferring nuclear negotiations.

However, at this stage, Trump is determined to stick to his demand that Iran suspend uranium enrichment for a minimum of 20 years and accept certain demands even after that period.

The US began imposing a naval blockade on all Iranian ports on April 13.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)