WASHINGTON, July 13: US President Donald Trump has said the United States intends to take control of security operations in the Strait of Hormuz, describing Washington as the future “guardian” of one of the world’s most strategic maritime chokepoints and arguing that other countries should pay for its protection.
In a telephone interview with Fox News, Trump said the United States would oversee the waterway and ensure its security, adding that wealthy nations benefiting from the route should compensate Washington for the mission.
“We’re going to keep it, and we’ll probably run it. We’ll be the guardian of the Strait,” Trump said. “We’ll get paid a lot of money for protecting it because other countries are very wealthy.”
The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global shipping lane through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies passed before the recent conflict escalated. Tensions have intensified in recent days amid growing military confrontations between US forces and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard over control of the strategic waterway.
Trump also accused Iran of violating an interim agreement and pledged a stronger US response.
“It was a final agreement, and then they broke it,” he said. “They always break agreements. We’ve made many deals with them, and now we’re going to hit them very hard.”
He further described Iran’s leadership as “bad people” who had behaved the same way for a long time.
