On Monday, President Donald Trump told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that the United States would “probably run” the Strait of Hormuz and “should be reimbursed” for doing so. “We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait,” he said, adding that other nations “are very wealthy” and “we can’t be expected to do that for nothing.”
A Waterway, Now With A Cover Charge
Control of the strait — the chokepoint for roughly a fifth of global oil shipments — has been one of the main battlegrounds of the Iran conflict. Tehran announced the waterway’s closure on Saturday following what it described as an unauthorized transit, then said Sunday that passage remained suspended pending “stability and calm.” U.S. and Iranian forces exchanged heavy missile and drone attacks over the weekend and into Monday, with Iran saying it struck U.S. facilities across the Gulf and kept the strait closed, driving oil prices higher.
The 60-Day Clock
The latest exchanges mark a sharp escalation in both pace and reach over the past week, casting doubt on an interim U.S.-Iranian agreement signed last month to reopen the strait and halt hostilities while the sides pursued a further 60 days of negotiations. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Monday the only way to restore regular shipping was to end U.S. military interventions in the waterway, warning that “continued interference could lead to greater incidents in the global oil and gas sector.”