Iran Speaker urges unity in “new phase” as Trump keeps naval blockade
Shafaq News- Tehran/ Washington
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that US pressure on Iran has entered a “new phase,” calling for national cohesion as the central response to growing external challenges.
In an audio message, Ghalibaf outlined what he portrayed as repeated failed attempts to destabilize the country, including plans to target senior leadership, weaken missile and drone capabilities, “Venezuelanize” Iran, and activate separatist groups in western regions.
Adversaries, he added, are now shifting tactics toward a naval blockade, media pressure, economic strain, and internal division to “weaken or even collapse the country from within,” confirming that “the only solution to confront the enemy’s new conspiracy is one thing: preserving unity.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, in a phone call with Axios, defended maintaining a naval blockade on Iran as his primary leverage to secure a nuclear agreement, describing it as “more effective than the bombing.”
Trump alleged that Iran wants to reach a deal to lift the blockade. "They want to settle. They don't want me to keep the blockade. I don't want to, because I don't want them to have a nuclear weapon," he clarified.
Iran has maintained that lifting the blockade is a prerequisite for any meaningful talks, a position that continues to stall diplomatic progress, as Washington earlier extended a two-week ceasefire set to expire on April 22, citing internal divisions in Tehran and a request from Pakistani mediators for more time to allow negotiations to proceed.
A senior Iranian security source quoted by English-language state media PRESS TV said the blockade “will soon be met with practical and unprecedented action,” adding that restraint so far was intended to give diplomacy a chance.
