Washington.- The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said this Monday that his country will become the “guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz and asserted that Washington should be compensated for protecting the strategic trade route, the center of the current escalation in the conflict with Iran.
“We are going to hit them very hard (Iran), and we are going to keep the strait safe, and we are probably going to manage it. We will become the guardian of the strait (…) And we should be compensated for that,” Trump stated in a telephone interview with the Fox News network.
According to Trump, the United States will be compensated because the “other nations” that benefit from maritime traffic, through which 20% of the world’s crude oil passed, “are very rich.”
“They are on our side, and you can’t expect us to do that for free (…) What we want is to be reimbursed for doing all of this, for putting our people in danger,” he insisted.
The president accused Tehran of breaking an agreement to end the conflict, which was reignited after Trump declared the ceasefire broken and U.S. forces bombed Iranian targets in retaliation for shots fired at attacks attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
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“We hit them very hard last night. Every time they send a drone, we hit them very hard. What nobody knows is that we had an agreement. It was a closed deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We have had ten agreements with these people, so we are simply going to hit them very hard,” he insisted.
In response, Tehran has bombed Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, countries allied with Washington that host a U.S. military presence. Iran also declared the sea route closed “until further notice.”
The U.S. launched a new offensive on Sunday night against Iran with the goal of “continuing to degrade” Tehran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
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The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) specified that the targets included Iranian missile and drone facilities, naval capabilities, ammunition depots, communications networks, and coastal surveillance posts.
