April 30, 2026

Iran’s new supreme leader slapped down U.S. pressure Thursday, vowing to defend the Islamic Republic’s “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset even as Trump pushes for a broader deal to lock in the fragile three-week ceasefire. In a blistering statement read on state TV, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei—absent from public view since taking power after his father’s killing—declared Americans belong “at the bottom” of the Persian Gulf, while a U.S. Navy blockade squeezes Iran’s oil lifeline and the regime keeps a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, sending Brent crude as high as $126 a barrel.

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