Iran enters peace negotiations with “powerful leverage” due to its control of the Strait of Hormuz, even as its military capabilities have been degraded, Bloomberg reports.

Wall Street Journal: “Tehran has said it intends to charge ships to transit the strait, weaponizing its control over the channel far into the future. It isn’t yet clear if the U.S., its Middle East allies or those in Europe and Asia that depend on energy supplies flowing through the strait will tolerate such interference in what previously was an open waterway, or how they might stop it.”

“In exploiting the economic pinch-point off its coast, Iran is following a trail blazed by the U.S. and China, which for years have used their dominance in key areas of global commerce to pursue their foreign-policy goals.”

New York Times: “Weeks after Vice President JD Vance privately warned President Trump of the costs of a full-scale U.S. war with Iran, he is now leading the charge to negotiate an end to the biggest foreign policy crisis that the president has faced during his time in office.”

“Mr. Vance, along with Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, are expected to travel to Pakistan on Friday to hold talks with the Iranians, as a cease-fire between the United States and Iran is under strain. It would be the highest-level meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials since 1979.”

“The stakes are enormous for Mr. Trump and for Mr. Vance, whose most high-profile assignments from Mr. Trump have involved domestic politics, most recently as the president’s ‘fraud czar.’”

“Shortly after President Donald Trump threatened to erase the “whole civilization” of Iran, all 6,000 years of it, the crowds came out into the streets of Tehran waving flags — and not white ones. They bore the green, white and red banners of the still-standing Islamic Republic,” the Washington Post reports.

“Some set fire to the star-spangled ones of the superpower that, according to state media, they had just ‘humiliated.’”

“President Trump on Thursday demanded Iran stop charging tolls for tankers to cross the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran’s supreme leader promised the country would control the crucial waterway,” Axios reports.

“The already shaky ceasefire between the two countries is getting more strained by the day, even as they prepare for peace talks in Islamabad on Saturday.”

CNN: Ships still aren’t going through the Strait of Hormuz.

CNBC: Trump says Iran “better stop now” if it’s charging oil tankers fees to go through Strait of Hormuz.

“President Trump has hit out at NATO after a tense meeting with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the military alliance, at the White House on Wednesday,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Rutte had traveled to Washington to try to assuage Mr. Trump’s anger that NATO members had refused to participate in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and help open up the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas shipping route. But Mr. Rutte conceded that it was not an easy meeting, calling it ‘very frank’ and ‘very open,’ despite clear disagreements.”

Politico: Trump vented at Rutte over NATO inaction on Iran during turbulent meeting.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is “fed up” seeing energy bills in the U.K. swing up and down because of actions taken by President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, CNBC reports.