UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE

Washington, May 22, 2026. American diplomacy advances on two simultaneous tracks: Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly acknowledges 'good signs' in talks with Tehran, while President Donald Trump maintains an assumed language of coercion. 'If we don't get a good deal, the president has other options,' Rubio said from Miami, without specifying which ones. This dual track — signals of openness and veiled threat — constitutes the framework in which Washington manages an open crisis since the US-Israeli airstrikes on February 28.

The ceasefire in place remains fragile. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group, positioned in the Arabian Sea, maintains what the US Central Command (CENTCOM) describes as 'maximum readiness' while applying the blockade of Iranian ports. Washington blocks Iranian exports by sea; Tehran controls the Strait of Hormuz, through which normally 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supply passes — a traffic almost interrupted since the start of the conflict.

On the issue of tolls, the US position is unambiguous. Trump rejected any idea of a traffic control system in the strait, after information suggesting discussions between Tehran and Oman on this subject. 'We want it open. We want it free. No tolls. It's an international route,' Trump hammered home. Rubio drove the point home: such a system would be 'unacceptable' and make any agreement 'unfeasible.'

The dossier on enriched uranium constitutes the other point of rupture. Trump asserted that the US will obtain the Iranian stockpile — enriched to 60%, a threshold considered far beyond civilian needs — and likely destroy it. 'We'll get it. We don't need it, we don't want it,' he said at the White House. This demand is directly supported by Israel: Israeli officials confirmed to Reuters that Netanyahu conditions the end of the war on the removal of this uranium from Iran, the elimination of the Iranian ballistic missile program, and the severing of ties with proxy militias.

Facing this pressure, Tehran has hardened its position. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued a directive ordering that enriched uranium not leave Iranian territory, according to two Iranian sources cited by Reuters. Iranian officials justify this refusal by the fear that such a concession would expose the country to future attacks.