Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday 24 May that the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will stay "in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed"1. He added that talks were "proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner" and told his negotiators "not to rush into a deal" because "time is on our side." No executive order or presidential instrument accompanied the post.
Trump had earlier presented the negotiation as nearly settled; the 24 May post adds an operational condition rather than fresh optimism, and its value lies in what it commits the United States to do rather than say. "Certified, and signed" sets a documentary bar the talks have not met: it rules out the partial or verbal memorandum structure the negotiations had been moving toward.
For the reader arriving cold: the blockade is the US Navy enforcing closure of the strait, the world's busiest oil chokepoint, through which roughly a fifth of seaborne crude moves. Trump's condition means the ships stay regardless of how warm the diplomatic language gets, until a signed text exists. That is why a deal can be reported as close while the strait stays shut.
The condition also bears directly on the sequencing fight. Iran wants its frozen assets freed before it concedes anything operational, while Trump now wants a signed agreement before he lifts the blockade. The two preconditions point in opposite directions, and a verbal understanding satisfies neither. On the day, the only concrete US act was the wording of a social-media post, and the blockade it described needed no signature to stay in force.
