Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said Monday that pressure on Iran should continue despite President Donald Trump's decision to delay threatened U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants for five days, arguing the regime in Tehran has shown for decades it cannot be trusted.

Murphy made the comments on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" after Trump announced on Truth Social that he would extend his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while what he called "very good and productive conversations" continue, even as Iranian officials denied negotiations were taking place.

"This is just a conflict that goes by minute by minute. Who knows what's going to happen in the next minute? But for right now, I think tempers are calming down a little bit. That said, I don't think the president is going to take his foot off the gas," Murphy said.

Murphy described the standoff as the culmination of a long-running U.S. confrontation with Tehran.

"This is something that has needed to happen since 1979. Tragically, Iran, the Iranian Islamic regime, has defined itself by death to America," the congressman said.

He added that allowing Iran "the ability to put a nuclear bomb on American soil, around our allies' soil, never, never needs to occur. And so, you know, we'll see what happens, what the Iranians do, and we'll see how things progress."

His comments came as the broader conflict entered its fourth week, with the Iranian health ministry reporting that more than 1,500 people have been killed in the fighting, which has included attacks on oil and gas facilities, threats to desalination plants, and concern over the consequences of strikes near nuclear sites.

Murphy also pointed to comments from Adm. Brad Cooper, chief of U.S. Central Command, who said Iran was "operating in a sign of desperation" and had deliberately attacked civilian targets more than 300 times in recent weeks while its missile and drone barrages dropped from dozens at a time to one or two, suggesting a degraded offensive capacity.

Still, Murphy said any apparent softening by Tehran should be treated skeptically, declaring, "The Iranian Islamic regime can never be trusted. And so this is where it's very, very difficult to take things at face value. Many, many different administrations have listened to them and believed them that they were going to do what they said they were going to do. Until I see it, in fact, until I see it occur, I personally don't believe it."

He added that the U.S. had "significantly degraded [Iran's] ability to attack and to push forward offensive weapons on the region. ... I don't think pressure should be let up personally until there is a complete reversal of their policies and removal, really, of these radicals."

Financial markets reacted positively to Trump's delay announcement. Brent crude oil fell more than 10% to $100.37 a barrel, and U.S. benchmark crude briefly dropping to about $84, a sharp reversal after weeks of volatility tied to Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a major share of the world's oil moves.

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