U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that a global coalition led by Washington could dispatch warships to the Strait of Hormuz to keep the route “open and safe” amid the fighting with the Islamic Republic.
“We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close-range missile somewhere along, or in, this waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are,” Trump explained in a post on Truth Social.
Trump said he hoped that China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and other nations “that are affected by this artificial constraint” would send vessels.
“In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water,” the president said, vowing: “One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait open, safe and free.”
None of the countries listed by Trump gave any immediate indication they would do so, though France and Britain have been discussing a range of options to secure the Strait, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, said in a written statement on Thursday that the “lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must certainly continue to be used.”
Since the start of “Operation Epic Fury” on Feb. 28, the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes—has seen repeated Iranian attacks on commercial shipping vessels and a sharp drop in maritime traffic.
Amid wild fluctuations in oil prices and Iranian strikes on Gulf states’ petroleum sites, Trump issued a stark warning to Tehran on Tuesday.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America twenty times harder than they have been hit thus far,” the president threatened.
“We will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back,” Trump said. “Death, fire and fury will [rain] upon them. But I hope and pray that it does not happen.”
