Hegseth Calls the Hormuz Blockade Ironclad, Trump Warns of the Hard Way, and Tehran Answers

On Saturday, 3 October, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the American blockade of Iran has been “ironclad”. The same day President Donald Trump said at the White House that Iran would end the conflict “the easy way or the hard way” and declined to say what he would do next.

Within hours the State Department confirmed that two more members of Iran’s delegation to the UN General Assembly had been expelled. By Sunday morning Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had replied on X that Washington’s economic war had not reached its objectives.

The exchange follows the failure of the first US-Iran meetings since June, held on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Earlier coverage is collected in the Iran-US talks tracker and in our report on Araghchi’s Qatar channel.

Hegseth says the blockade already works. Trump says Iran faces the easy way or the hard way. Pezeshkian says the economic war failed. The next markers are a Trump decision on military options and any US answer to Iran’s seven-day plan.

Hegseth spoke to reporters on Saturday. “Iran wants to play games with things like the Strait of Hormuz. They don’t control it, we do,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. He added: “Our blockade has been ironclad and we’re running almost at prewar levels every single night through that.”

On the nuclear file he said: “Iran will never ever ever have a nuclear weapon. President Trump is hell-bent and determined to ensure that they do not.” On what comes next: “The president is going to have all the options he needs on the table. But he is not going to let these things extend unnecessarily.”

Trump’s remarks at the White House the same day, as logged by Fox News, included “Iran has been decimated” and the claim that Tehran has “virtually given up any plans of a nuclear weapon.” Gulf News reported that he declined to disclose his next steps.

The night before, at a rally in Mobile, Alabama, he had said: “We could leave tomorrow, and it would take them years to rebuild from what we did to them because they just wouldn’t negotiate.” He added, “They played their cards too tough.” CBS News reported that Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth, envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine met at Camp David on Friday to discuss the Iran war. Axios reported the meeting first.

The expulsions came after Rubio ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s delegation to leave the United States on Monday. A US official said on Saturday: “Two more members of the Iranian delegation were found still in (New York) long after the United Nations General Assembly had passed. They have now been kicked out of the US.” The official added that Rubio “means business,” per Arab News. One member left on Friday night and the second on Saturday morning. The State Department told JNS that the General Assembly “was over, so it was time for them to go.” Iranian reports said the delegation left New York on Monday evening on a schedule it had communicated to the State Department.

Pezeshkian wrote on X on Sunday: “The enemy’s plan in recent months has been to cut off the country’s vital arteries with the aim of pressuring the noble people of Iran.” He said economic pressure had intensified but that Iran had “not allowed the enemy’s objectives in the economic war to be realized,” and that the government had adopted a “new arrangement” for the country’s special conditions, as carried by IANS.

Mohsen Rezaei, identified by CBS News as a senior Iranian security official, mocked Trump on X: “You can win every day in your own imagination.”

Araghchi said in late September that Iran had conveyed to the United States, through Qatar, “a concrete seven-day plan”. In his words: “If the necessary conditions are met, the strait can be reopened, and normal maritime passage restored within seven days.” The Wall Street Journal reported within hours that Trump had rejected it. The Soufan Center wrote on 1 October that Araghchi left New York on Tuesday without a formal American counteroffer.

Set that beside Hegseth’s Saturday remarks. Iran’s plan puts an end to the blockade among its conditions. Hegseth describes the blockade as ironclad and says the strait is controlled by the United States.

The numbers cited on each side also differ. Hegseth says traffic through the blockade line runs almost at prewar levels. The Soufan Center summarised the administration’s view as one in which energy exports have been restored to more than 80 percent of prewar levels and the focus can move to nuclear concessions. Pezeshkian’s post is aimed at a different measure, the domestic economy, where he says the pressure was absorbed.

Then the expulsions. Reports on Rubio’s order said it followed stalled talks in New York. Iranian accounts said the delegation left on schedule.

Trump has said a decision is close. Hegseth’s phrase that he will not let things “extend unnecessarily” sets a clock without a date. A second marker is whether Washington answers the seven-day plan or lets it lapse. A third is the Iranian “new arrangement” Pezeshkian mentioned, which has not been described. If shipping incidents near the strait continue while the blockade holds, the hard way Trump described will be tested in the water before it is tested in the talks. Silent Dossier’s reading is that neither side has yet offered a step the other can accept.