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By Brendan Cole and Jesus Mesa
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President Donald Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend their ceasefire until mid-May following a meeting brokered at the White House on Thursday.
The three-week extension comes as Trump said he was still waiting for the "best deal" with Iran, after proposed peace talks collapsed this week and both Washington and Tehran escalated military actions in the Strait of Hormuz, seizing ships.
On Thursday, the U.S president ruled out a nuclear strike on Iran saying nuclear weapons should never be used, and they weren't necessary given the U.S.'s superior conventional arms power.
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He also escalated threats in the Strait against Iran, saying he had ordered the navy to "shoot and kill" any Iranian boats laying mines in the critical shipping waterway, where traffic has plummeted since the war began two months ago.
There is no clear evidence that Iran has mined the strait so far, but Trump said the U.S. had increased its mine-targeting operations.
The president earlier this week extended Washington's ceasefire on the bombing campaign of Iran for an indefinite period. More than 5,000 people have died in the war so far, mostly in Iran and Lebanon.
"Don't rush me", he told reporters on Thursday, adding that he wanted to "make the best deal... I want to have it everlasting."
'Nuclear Weapons Should Never Be Allowed'
Prior to the ceasefire which began on April 8, Trump had threatened to escalate the U.S and Israel's aerial bombardment of Tehran and other Iranian cities to include strikes on bridges and energy plants.
He wrote on Truth Social “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not meet U.S. demands— a threat many critics interpreted as a possible nuclear strike. He'd also warned at a press conference on April 7 that the entire country of Iran could “be taken out in one night."
But on Thursday in the White House, when asked by a reporter if he would employ nuclear weapons against Tehran, Trump responded: "No. Why would I need it? A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody."
Trump did however reiterate the force of the U.S. naval blockade around Iran, which was enacted on April 13 to pressure Iran's already damaged war-time economy which relies on oil exports.
While Iran's control over the strait has prevented most foreign commercial ships from transiting, its own oil exports have been making it out at volumes similar to before the war, according to analysts.
After a first round of ceasefire talks failed to reach a consensus in early April, Trump ordered a U.S. naval blockade against any ships transiting to and from Iranian ports, which was later expanded to cover any Iranian ships in international waters.
Since then, the U.S navy has turned around at least 28 ships in the Gulf of Oman, as well as forcibly seizing, or interdicting four Iranian-linked vessels, including one tanker in the Indian Ocean, miles away from the Iranian coastline.
Trump said on Thursday he had also given an order to "shoot and kill any boat" caught laying mines in the strait, adding that "there is to be no hesitation" in a U.S. response.
"Our minesweepers are clearing the strait right now," Trump wrote on TruthSocial, suggesting operations would be accelerated to a "tripled up level."
Iran has called the U.S. blockade "an act of war" and a violation of the ceasefire. Tehran cited the U.S. seizure of an Iranian tanker on April 17 as the reason for not engaging in ceasefire talks promoted by Pakistan this week.
Hopes for diplomatic progress were stalled after the Trump administration refused to lift the U.S blockade on the strait, despite Iran announcing last Friday it would re-open the corridor, critical to international flows of oil and gas. Iran shortly after the U.S. refusal said it would reimpose its restrictions.
This week it launched new attacks on commercial ships in the strait. The IRGC said on Wednesday it had seized two container ships in the strait, releasing video of its masked soldiers boarding a ship.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, has seized at least four Iranian-flagged tankers it said were attempting to violate the blockade, including a ship named the Majestic X, interdicted in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, said the Pentagon.
The escalating naval action from both sides have strained the fragile ceasefire in the war which is entering a third month now.
Has Iran Mined The Strait?
Since fighting began on February 28, no commercial vessels have reported damaged by mines in the strait and instead ships have been targeted by Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) through small speedboats firing at their missiles and speedboats firing at their sterns and hulls.
But there has been repeated statements from Trump and the U.S. military noting operations targeting Iranian mine-laying vessels.
Trump has said that all of Iran's minelaying ships have been sunk, and the military has said it has destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers.
Reuters also reported last week that Iran recently deployed about a dozen mines in the strait, citing unnamed US officials, though the location of those devices was not publicly known.
Experts who spoke with Newsweek said there is no clear evidence that Iran has actually laid mines in the strait - noting that if the Islamic Republic were to do that, it would endanger its own ships which are still transporting oil exports, a critical revenue stream for the country.
"There is no evidence and no reason for Iran to lay mines," Ali Vaez from the International Crisis Group, told Newsweek on Thursday.
But he noted that transits had still slowed in the strait because: "No vessel will take the risk as the traffic remains vulnerable to Iranian projectiles or seizure."
Meanwhile, Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said Trump's comments suggested the U.S. was concerned the Iranians were laying small numbers of mines from "vessels of opportunity".
"Although the U.S. military sank all the normal minelayers, the Iranians have practiced using fishing vessels and small transport boats to lay mines also."
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Even without confirmed damage, the Pentagon has told Congress that 20 or more mines may have been placed around the strait.
Officials say clearing them could take as long as six months, and any sustained operation would likely be delayed until a stable ceasefire takes hold.
In the meantime, insurers and shipowners remain reluctant to transit the strait due to the various risks.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Newsweek that the biggest unknown is still how mine-clearing operations will unfold.
“The one area we don’t have insight into yet is the mine clearing,” Cancian said. He added that the U.S. would not send in naval ships to clear mines without protection.
“We’re not sending minesweepers out there alone. There’s going to be a tremendous amount of support for them, such as aircraft overhead.”
So far, the U.S. navy has stayed out of the Strait, in the Gulf of Oman, to avoid coming under firing range from Iran, experts assess.
While technology can enable remote checks and the removal of mines, clearing the Strait of Hormuz would be a slow, multistep process. The U.S. is expected to use drones, explosive‑laden robots and helicopters to reduce risks, but de‑mining crews could still be vulnerable to Iranian attacks.
“Essentially, we’re going to be daring the Iranians to shoot,” Cancian said. “If they shoot, then we’ll shoot back, and we may end up in another shooting war again.”
Lebanon Crisis Deepens
The White House meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli delegations on Thursday was brokered by Trump who posted on Truth Social the truce that ended fighting between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would go on for least another three weeks.
Hezbollah, a militant group supported by Iran, entered the conflict on March 2. However its representatives were not at the meeting on Thursday.
Despite the ceasefire, violence has continued from both sides. Israel said it bombed Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday and also reported that Hezbollah militants had attacked its troops with rockets , and fired volleys into northern Israel.
On Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes also killed at least five people, including promiment Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil of the newspaper Al Akhbar.
Lebanese officials said Khalil had taken shelter during strikes in the town of Tayri when the building she was in was hit in what they described as a “double-tap” strike. Rescue workers initially attempted to reach her but withdrew after coming under Israeli fire, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
A second strike then hit the same building where Khalil and another journalist had sought refuge. Her colleague, freelance photojournalist Zeinab Faraj, was seriously wounded. Khalil is the fourth journalist to have been killed by Israel in the war so far.
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Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel of war crimes following the strike, saying attacks on media workers had become “an established method.”
More than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched its offensive and subsequent invasion of southern Lebanon.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Israel was responsible for two-thirds of journalist and media worker deaths in 2025 and said Israeli forces were responsible for the endangerment of Khalil and the injuries to Faraj. United Nations experts also called for an independent international investigation after Israeli forces killed three reporters in Lebanon earlier this month, including one working for a Hezbollah-run broadcaster.
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