Trump says US ‘taking over’ Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. will be “taking over” the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday.

“We’re taking over the strait. They [the leaders of the Iranian regime] have nothing,” Trump said in a phone interview.

“Yesterday, they had an 11-hour meeting. Everything’s 11 hours with these guys,” the president continued. “Everything was agreed to yesterday. And they leave the room and they call back and they say, ‘We had to make a couple of changes.’ I said, ‘Changes? They’re going to make changes? We’re not going to make changes.’

“For 47 years, they’ve been tapping presidents along. Every president got tapped along, didn’t do anything, and they became more and more powerful. This should have been done 47 years ago. It shouldn’t have been allowed to start,” Trump said.

The U.S. military has carried out four rounds of strikes against Iran since the Islamic Republic resumed attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz on July 7.

Overnight on Sunday, the American military struck dozens of targets across Iran. Precision munitions were deployed against “dozens of targets at multiple locations” to degrade Tehran’s ability to disrupt international shipping in the strait, U.S. Central Command said.

The targets included Iranian air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats, according to the statement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday there was “no doubt” that the June 17 Memorandum of Understanding with the United States had entered a “crisis.”

“Whenever the other side violated its commitments, we also did not implement ours” the spokesman told reporters, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. “Going forward, as long as the other side violates its commitments, Iran will also refrain from implementing its obligations.”