U.S. President Donald Trump described the scale of American airstrikes targeting Iran on Monday and called for more countries to assist in re-opening maritime energy supply routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House at a meeting of the board of the Kennedy Center, Trump said that the U.S. military had carried out more than 7,000 strikes on the Islamic Republic since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28.
“These have been mostly commercial and military targets,” Trump said. “We have achieved a 90% reduction in their ballistic missile launches and a 95% reduction in drone attacks. The missiles are trickling in now at very low levels, because they don’t have too many missiles left.”
The president said that the military was carrying out strikes on Monday against Iran’s missile and drone manufacturing sites and had sunk or destroyed more than 100 Iranian naval vessels.
Despite the reduction in Iranian attacks and the sinking of much of Iran’s navy, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula remains largely stopped.
Oil prices declined slightly on Monday to around $100 a barrel amid signals from the Trump administration that it was increasing efforts to open the strait, which normally carries about 20% of the world’s energy supplies.
Trump pointed to the asymmetric nature of the threat, in which even the threat of inexpensive Iranian mines or anti-ship missiles can prevent the crossing of oil tankers that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“It’s a little unfair, you know. You win a war, but they have no right to be doing what they’re doing,” Trump said. “Today is a big day where we’re pounding a certain area that has very much to do with the strait, and I think we’ll get it going very soon.”
The president also claimed there are “numerous countries” on the way to assist in re-opening the strait but declined to name them. Other countries, he said, “weren’t that enthusiastic” about helping.
He singled out the United Kingdom as one country that has been “terrible,” while rating France’s President Emmanuel Macron an “eight” out of 10 in his handling of the conflict.
Australia and Japan, two countries that Trump has said should help with re-opening the Strait of Hormuz, have both said that they do not have plans to send naval forces to the Persian Gulf.
“We strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm,” Trump said. “It wouldn’t matter if you’re targeted or not, because this is a paper tiger that we’re dealing with now.”
“It wasn’t a paper tiger two weeks ago,” he said. “It’s a paper tiger now.”
