Iran’s regime is “going crazy” over President Trump’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, according to an insider, as the leadership still refuses to come to the negotiating table.
“A source who spoke to the Iranians summed it up to me in one line, ‘The Iranians are going crazy about the blockade,’” Axios correspondent Barak Ravid told CNN on Wednesday.
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He was speaking after Trump said the Iranian government is in disarray following almost eight weeks of conflict.
“They’re all messed up. They have no idea who their leader is. You know, we took out, really, three levels of leaders. And everybody that was even close behind him,” Trump told MS NOW, referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of Operation Epic Fury.
“So they have a hard time figuring out who the hell can speak for the country. They just don’t know,” he added.
The US is stopping Iranian-linked ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which were previously the only ones able to get through the crucial chokepoint of the global oil industry, thanks to Tehran’s threats.
Speaking to Jake Tapper, Ravid also highlighted the internal power struggle underway in Iran, between the pragmatists pushing for negotiations and hardliners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Council (IRGC) who refuse to reopen the Strait.
Follow The Post’s latest coverage on the blocked Strait of Hormuz and its lasting effects
Sources have said President Trump is willing to extend the ceasefire between three to five days to allow the Iranian factions to resolve their internal disputes, Ravid said.
However, Trump has emphasized that there is no “open-ended” truce and threatened further military action targeting Iran’s power plants and infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz is not immediately and verifiably opened.
It comes as the US Navy recently seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, which Ravid said is complicating the buildup to proposed future peace talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
