WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has said there is no need to use nuclear weapons against Iran, claiming American strikes have already destroyed 90 per cent of Iran's military strength, while Tehran has rejected Washington's response to its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz as unconvincing — two developments that leave the eight-month war balanced between talks and a possible return to bombing.

Source: Politico interview, Nov 4, 2026, via American Diary

In a telephone interview broadcast on Politico's website on Wednesday, November 4, Trump said the United States would consider further military action if an opportunity arose and it served American interests. Asked whether he would use nuclear weapons against Iran, he replied: "I don't need that. We have already taken out 90% of them. So there is no need for that." The president did not specify what the 90 per cent figure covered, and it has not been independently verified — it is his own assessment of the damage done by previous American operations, not a confirmed measure of Iran's remaining capability.

Source: Politico via Big Breaking Wire, Nov 4, 2026

Tehran calls the US reply on Hormuz 'unconvincing'

On the diplomatic track, Iran said Washington's response to its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz was not convincing. Tehran's reported conditions include the lifting of US sanctions, and Iranian officials have previously spoken of a set of seven conditions and a possible two-day reopening of the waterway if Washington meets them. Qatar, the mediator, has said its efforts have made progress, but Tehran's rejection of the latest US response means no agreement to reopen the strait has been reached.

Source: Big Breaking Wire, Nov 4, 2026

A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday that Iran and the United States remain far from a deal to end their war. Trump, for his part, told the Financial Times on November 3 that the United States had no immediate plans to launch another strike, saying "we seem to be getting everything we want" and that forces were "locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it" — while also telling Fox News a further heavy hit on Iran was possible if he judged it necessary.

Source: Reuters via LSE, Nov 4, 2026

Khamenei's warning, and the war's background

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a written statement on November 4 marking Iran's National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance, accused Washington of seeking regime change, weakening Iran and dividing the country, alleged that the US had supported groups seeking to destabilise the Iranian government, and warned that any renewed American attack would bring retaliation on a much broader scale. He also said anyone expecting US hostility to change after the midterm elections was seriously mistaken. Those claims and counter-claims have not been independently established.

Source: Politico report via American Diary, Nov 4, 2026

Khamenei's full November 4 statement — that a change of party in Washington will not change US hostility, and that a new US attack would widen the war — was reported earlier today. Read: Khamenei warns of much wider response

The war began when the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February 2026. Iran has since asserted control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes; ship transits have fallen by more than 90 per cent since the crisis escalated, according to reporting from the United Nations bureau of Inter Press Service. On November 2-3 the US carried out what officials called defensive, limited strikes on surface-to-air missile sites on Qeshm Island at the mouth of the strait, and US media have reported that Central Command has prepared plans for larger strikes — plans whose existence has kept escalation fears alive even as talks continue.

Source: IPS / Big Breaking Wire, Nov 4, 2026

Oil prices: Brent falls through $101 to about $100

Oil markets moved lower again on Wednesday as traders weighed a deal against renewed strikes. Reuters reported Brent futures down $3.20, or 3.09 per cent, to $100.40 a barrel at 1417 GMT, with US West Texas Intermediate down $3.01, or 3.13 per cent, to $93.08 — a third straight day of losses, extending the fall reported earlier in the day when Brent stood at $101.85. Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, told Reuters the market was moving on the expectation that Trump might move on from Iran, but that bigger headlines on peace talks were still needed to truly settle it. The selling came despite a reported 5.27 million-barrel draw in US crude inventories from the American Petroleum Institute, with official Energy Information Administration figures due Wednesday.

Source: Reuters via LSE / OilPrice, Nov 4, 2026

What it means for Punjabi and Indian workers in the Gulf

For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, the stakes in this standoff are direct: the Strait of Hormuz is the route for the Gulf's oil and gas income that pays their wages, and any renewed bombing campaign or a longer closure pushes up fuel and food prices, threatens flights home and raises safety fears in the countries where they work. A verified reopening of the strait — which Tehran says could happen within two days if its conditions are met — would ease that pressure; a collapse of the Qatar-mediated talks would do the opposite. No Gulf government has announced any change to worker safety arrangements in connection with Wednesday's statements.

What happens next

Three things now decide the direction: whether Qatar's mediators can bridge the gap over Iran's conditions, including sanctions relief and frozen assets; whether Trump acts on the larger strike plans US officials are reported to have prepared, now that the midterm elections — in which Democrats won both houses of Congress, a defeat Trump partly attributed to the Iran war and to high fuel prices — are over; and whether either side tests the other at sea, after Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed four tankers hit mines south of Hormuz, a claim that has not been independently confirmed. Trump has said the war will end when he decides it is time. On Wednesday's evidence, that decision has not yet been taken.