US Vice President JD Vance told intermediaries between the US and Iran that President Donald Trump is “impatient" to reach a deal to end the war, a source familiar with the conversations said, according to a CNN report on Wednesday.
Vance, who has adopted a newly prominent role in brokering an end to the conflict, spoke to representatives from the mediating countries which include Pakistan and Turkey as recently as Tuesday.
The source said Vance delivered a “stern message" to relay to Iran: that there would be increased pressure on Iran’s infrastructure sites “unless the Iranians made a deal," the source said.
Trump has previously threatened to target power plants and water desalination facilities in Iran if the country does not agree to allow oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, who is planning to address the nation Wednesday on Iran, instructed Vance in his private communications to convey the president’s willingness to agree to a ceasefire if US demands for the war are met, according to CNN.
That includes reopening the strait, which Trump stated in a social media post Wednesday must be unblocked before the US agrees to halt the war.
In that same post, Trump also said that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had asked for a ceasefire.
Iran denied Trump’s claim, with its Foreign Ministry calling it "false and baseless."
In a separate statement, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps declared that the Strait of Hormuz "is firmly and decisively under the control" of its forces.
"This strait will not be opened to the enemies of this nation through the ridiculous spectacle by the president of the United States," it added.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)