ByREUTERS

United States President Donald Trump said that Iran was letting ten oil tankers transit the Strait of Hormuz as an apparent goodwill gesture in negotiations on Thursday.

Trump made the comments at a Cabinet meeting in the White House, elaborating on what he had previously described as a "present" from Iran.

"They said, to show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil," Trump said. "I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they were Pakistani-flagged... It ended up being ten boats."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details on the vessels.

Trump pressed Iran to clear Strait of Hormuz

Trump's comments came as he pressed Iran to agree to a deal that would clear the maritime chokepoint and end its nuclear program.

Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026.
Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo/File Photo)

The US president on Tuesday had baffled some observers when he said that Iran had given the United States an expensive, energy-related concession. At the time, he declined to say what exactly he meant.

"They gave us a present and the ⁠present arrived today, and it was a very big present, ​worth a tremendous amount of money," Trump told reporters then.