The United States on Thursday said that it could maintain a naval blockade ​of Iran indefinitely and would ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran as ceasefire talks have floundered, global oil supply is dropping and regional tensions are rising, Reuters reported.

Defense ‌Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. military has the capability to maintain a naval presence in the region to enforce its blockade of Iran, which has inflicted severe economic damage on the country.

“Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters during a trip to Panama.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday ​that the United States planned to inflict more financial damage on Iran.

“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like ​have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” he said in an interview on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program.

With a ⁠tentative June deal to end the war in tatters, Iran has sought to exert leverage on Washington in return by controlling the Strait of Hormuz.

It has attacked some vessels trying to ​transit the strategic waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas traveled before the war began in February.

Two vessels from the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ​were attacked transiting the strait on Thursday evening, UAE state news agency WAM reported. The United Arab Emirates government condemned it as an Iranian attack.

U.S. President Donald Trump is under pressure at home to end a war that is deeply unpopular, with high fuel prices dragging down his approval ratings and potentially eroding his party’s control of Congress in midterm elections in November, read the report.

Trump has repeatedly asserted that the U.S. has “total control” over ​the strait, prompting Iranian denials. Tehran has said it will not allow the waterway to reopen until its conditions are met. These include removing economic sanctions and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

Shipping ​traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to eight vessels on Tuesday, compared with a 10-day average of about 12 vessels, and 130 to 140 ships before the war.

The U.S. lifted its blockade of ‌Iran’s shipping and ⁠ports for a month in mid-June but has since reimposed it, cutting off Tehran’s primary source of hard currency and compounding earlier losses from wartime strikes on its energy infrastructure.

Washington previously said it would lift the Iranian blockade once Iran and Oman, which sit on either side of the strait, reach an agreement to restore commercial shipping.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to escalate military strikes and “hit Iran hard,” although he has thus far resisted deploying ground troops or seizing strategic islands and bombing desalination plants. Earlier this week, Trump suggested he would rely on economic ​means, rather than military action.

The U.S. has tightened ​economic sanctions against Iran and other individuals ⁠and entities that it says are helping it procure weapons, but the pressure campaign has failed to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table.

Stress is mounting on the global economy. The International Energy Agency on Wednesday forecast that global oil supply would fall by 4.3 million barrels per ​day, or around 4%, this year.

Just a month ago, the agency had forecast a drop of 3.7 million barrels per day.

Oil prices ​settled down more than 2% on ⁠Thursday after a week of gain, as investors focused on signs of weaker global demand and a sharp increase in U.S. crude inventories, Reuters reported.

But reports that Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis had targeted a Saudi Aramco refinery with drones unsettled the market, renewing concerns about a widening regional war.

Global economists have forecast a sharp drop in global growth as a result of the war, and potentially a swing into recession in ⁠some areas, ​warning that the impact will grow if the war is not ended soon.

Hegseth declined to comment on a question ​about whether, in retrospect, it was a mistake to declare a ceasefire in April, a move that ended high-tempo bombing of Iran in exchange for peace negotiations that have failed to resolve the conflict.

“I’m never going to comment on ​that. We’re doing exactly what we need to, to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.

U.S. military operations killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in 2025, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, citing Pentagon assessments.

According to Reuters, the figures represent a sharp increase from 2024, when Pentagon assessments recorded two civilian deaths and two injuries linked to U.S. military operations.

A Pentagon report submitted to the U.S. Congress and published by U.S. media said all civilian deaths and injuries recorded in 2025 resulted from three U.S. strikes in Yemen.

The report said the U.S. Central Command assessed that the three strikes carried out in April 2025 in Yemen “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm.

As of February 2026, the report said, 15 other incidents in Yemen were still being assessed by U.S. Central Command following reports received through non-governmental organizations.

The U.S. military says its operations in Yemen aim to degrade the capabilities of Iran-backed Houthi militants.

The Pentagon report did not include casualties from U.S. strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. It said that as of February 1, 2026, the U.S. Southern Command had assessed that no incidents in its area of responsibility in 2025 “more likely than not” resulted in civilian casualties.

The Trump administration has also carried out strikes on vessels it accuses of transporting narcotics in the Eastern Pacific, describing the targets as “narco-terrorists.” According to a Reuters tally based on death tolls published after each strike, more than 200 people have been killed in such operations since September 2025.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings, while the American Civil Liberties Union has called the Trump administration’s claims about those targeted “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

U.S. President Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard Air Force One, an extraordinary move prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, the Washington ​Post reported Monday.

Trump had taken the newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but he unexpectedly used ‌an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security, Reuters reported.

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth ​Social that he would use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to RAF Mildenhall in Britain while ​the new plane stopped at the same base so U.S. service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.

After Trump ⁠boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, ​an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material it reviewed.

The deception operation was triggered by ​a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when President Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.

On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One, which was effectively ​used as a decoy, reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from reporters, some ​White House staff also believed that the president was on board.

When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said ‌it was ⁠because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”

The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain and arrived at around 10:20 p.m. while the older Air Force One and media, arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One.

Trump’s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the ​older Air Force One at 10:56 p.m. ​UK local time.

He gave press ⁠a peace sign but didn’t walk over to talk to them. He then spent some time greeting service members before walking to the new, Qatar-donated plane.

When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a ​third plane, the White House provided a statement from Communications Director Steve Cheung saying the Qatari-donated jet ​has been fitted with ⁠high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.

The ⁠Pentagon did ​not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new plane, with red, white, dark blue ​and gold livery chosen by Trump, is a Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar last year and refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. It was intended to serve ​as a temporary placement while Boeing (BA.N) struggled to deliver long-delayed next-generation Air Force One planes.