Donald Trump announces the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The US responds to Iran's threats
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the best in the world, will begin the process of BLOCKING all ships attempting to enter or exit the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social social media site.
“At some point we will reach the principle of 'LET ALL IN, EVERYONE LEAVE', but Iran has prevented this from happening, only saying: 'There may be a mine out there somewhere' that no one else knows about,” he added.
The US president considered it blackmail against the world and declared that “leaders of countries, especially the United States of America, will never allow themselves to be blackmailed.”
He also announced that the forces of other countries would take part in the blockade – without naming which ones – and that the American military would begin the process of destroying mines in the strait. He also threatened that any ship that pays illegal tolls to Iran for transit through Hormuz will be pursued and intercepted by the US.
Trump declared that the U.S. military is ready to “finish off what's left of Iran” “at the right moment.”
On Sunday, in an interview with Fox News, he said that Britain and other countries would send mine-countermeasures ships to the Strait of Hormuz. “We have minesweepers now, we have very advanced underwater minesweepers that are the latest and greatest, but we are also bringing in more traditional minesweepers. And from what I understand, the UK and some other countries are sending minesweepers,” Trump said in a telephone interview.
He confirmed that he would block the Strait of Hormuz. — There will come a time when we will have an “everyone in and out” rule. But it won't be a percentage. It won't be your friend, your ally (…) it will be on an “all or nothing” basis. And it won't be too far in time, he declared.
The failure of peace negotiations with Iran
Speaking about the failure of Saturday's over 20-hour talks in Pakistan with Iran, Trump said that although many issues had been agreed and the talks had a friendly tone, Iran had not shown any will to give up its nuclear ambitions, which was the most important problem.
See also: US-Iran peace negotiations completed. The parties blame each other
“In many respects, the agreed points are better than us continuing military operations to the end, but all these points are irrelevant compared to leaving nuclear energy in the hands of such unstable, difficult and unpredictable people,” the US president said.
In an interview with FoxNews, Trump repeated that he was disappointed with NATO's attitude, adding that only now are allies ready to help. “Now they want to come and help in the strait, and it won't take long to clear it,” he assured.
