Trump Insists U.S. Should 'Run' the Strait of Hormuz and Get Paid For It
· Time
President Donald Trump said the U.S. should control the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage through which around a fifth of global oil production typically flows, as renewed hostilities with Iran rage on.
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“We are going to keep the Strait. We will probably run it,” Trump told Fox & Friends Monday morning during a phone-in interview. “We'll become the guardian of the Strait. Maybe we'll call it the ‘guardian angel’ of the Strait.”
He added that the U.S. would ideally then be “reimbursed” for their guardianship of the waterway by “other nations.”
"We're going to guard it. We're going to get paid for guarding it—a lot of money," he insisted.
Trump's remarks came after oil prices soared by more than 3% as the U.S. and Iran continued trading strikes over the weekend amid escalated tensions focused on the vital trade passage.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, neared $80 per barrel, a significant rise from the same time last week, when it traded at $71.99 prior to the renewed hostilities.
Although prices remain well below the $126 peak reached in April, during the height of the war, the surge reflects the concerns over shipments transiting the Strait, which has a threat level of “severe” due to high volatility in the area.
Stocks in Europe and Asia also fell Monday morning, and Wall Street futures dipped amid the geopolitical tensions.
The U.S. military on Saturday evening said it had begun "launching the third round of strikes this week against Iran" after Iranian forces "blatantly attacked" a Cyprus-flagged container ship transiting the Strait.
At 5 p.m. ET Sunday, U.S. forces launched additional strikes against Iran "to continue degrading their ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the Strait" after Tehran said it had disabled a second vessel, this time off the coast of Oman.
Iran retaliated by again targeting U.S. assets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, and Oman.
The hostilities continued into Monday morning, with Bahrain—home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet—reporting it had intercepted multiple Iranian missiles. Jordan also said it had intercepted missiles that entered Jordanian airspace from Iranian territories
Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, argued that Iran had not been the first to violate the agreement and insisted the country had “entered negotiations with meticulousness and seriousness.”
“As a coastal state, a country with the most coastline on the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, we certainly have the right and the duty to take the necessary measures to protect our security and national interests,” he said during a press conference, according to state media.
Tehran, over the weekend, reported it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran's IRGC later stating the only way to fully reopen the waterway was to “end the interventions of the aggressive U.S. military."
Trump has insisted the Strait is open, yet commercial traffic remains well below normal levels.
Ship-tracking data from Kpler, cited by Reuters, showed that only six vessels transited the Strait on Sunday. This is far lower than the 138 vessels that typically passed through the waterway each day prior to the war.
Since U.S. and Iranian officials signed the Memorandum of Understanding on June 17, there has been an attempt to reduce Iran's chokehold over the Strait by routing commercial vessels along a southern corridor hugging Oman's coastline. But Iran has repeatedly warned vessels against using any alternative routes.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-Iran cease-fire appears to be in tatters after Trump last week told NATO summit attendees that the interim agreement was “over.”
The MoU laid out the terms for an extended 60-day cease-fire, allowing time for further technical talks to take place.
That deadline is set to expire in mid-August, but amid flare-ups of violence and accusations of violations from both sides, it seems little progress has been made in negotiations.