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President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Iran as Vice President JD Vance traveled to Pakistan for talks to end the war, with Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz’s effective closure looming over diplomatic efforts.

Trump posted on social media Friday that Tehran’s only leverage is “short term extortion of the world by using International Waterways” — a reference to Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for oil and natural gas that remains largely shut, raising global energy prices. Trump declared that the “Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards.”

While the two-week ceasefire was broadly holding across the Middle East, the situation with the strait and continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon threatened to complicate negotiations due to begin over the weekend in Islamabad.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf insisted in a social media post that a ceasefire in Lebanon is one measure that “must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.” The other is the “release of Iran’s blocked assets,” he added, without being more specific.

This episode features:

• Jeff Mason, Bloomberg News Washington and White House Correspondent
• Humayun Tai, McKinsey Global Energy & Materials Practice Senior Partner & Leader
• Todd Gillespie, Bloomberg News Banking Reporter on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell convening an urgent meeting with Wall Street leaders on the latest AI model from Anthropic
• Drive to the Close with Jed Ellerbroek, Argent Capital Management Portfolio Manager

Hosted by Tim Stenovec and Emily Graffeo, in for Carol Massar

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