ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Washington no longer needs a deal with Tehran, claiming the US has full control of Iran’s assets and the Strait of Hormuz, while adding that “those days have long since passed.”

“We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform on Thursday.

Since late October, several mediators, including Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan, have reached out to Iranian authorities in efforts to broker a possible agreement between Tehran and Washington, with both sides trading several draft proposals.

The US president has repeatedly claimed that February's US-Israeli war on Iran was instrumental in hampering Iranian ambitions to produce a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists that its proliferation efforts are entirely for civilian purposes.

“We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait,” he added.

Washington has rejected Iran’s claims of control over the Strait of Hormuz despite ongoing Iranian attacks on commercial vessels it claims failed to heed Iranian-approved navigation routes through the waterway.

On Wednesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed to have escorted 1.7 billion barrels of oil through the Strait "since summer," adding that all Iranian sea mines have been removed and that its naval blockade has prevented the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from exporting "an estimated +$30 billion in crude oil."

Tehran has demanded that Washington meet its conditions, including the release of frozen Iranian assets and allowing it to continue its nuclear activities, in the latest peace overtures, coming as the US has ramped up an economic campaign comprising extensive sanctions and efforts to hamper both overland and maritime Iranian exports. 

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that efforts by mediators to broker talks between Tehran and Washington had stalled following the Republican Party’s heavy losses in the US midterm elections, adding that Iran would wait to see how the Trump administration responds to the results.

Trump’s Republican Party suffered heavy losses to the Democratic Party in Tuesday’s US midterm elections.

The warring sides reached a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June to end hostilities and resume talks for 60 days. It collapsed only 21 days later after the CENTCOM accused Iran of striking a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.