New York.- US President Donald Trump said this Friday that he plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz a “United States territory” after “defeating Iran,” raising the tone against Tehran as his negotiations remain stalled and the expiration of the ceasefire agreed in June approaches.
“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being defeated very badly, very soon I will declare the Strait of Hormuz United States territory, in essence. We have a blockade. No ship passes unless we want it to pass,” declared Trump at a political rally in Long Island (New York).
Next Monday, August 17, marks the end of the 60-day deadline that the U.S. and Iran set for themselves with the signing of a memorandum of understanding on June 17, which declared an “immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts” as part of a process to negotiate an end to the war in the Middle East.
“We will keep it”
This week, the Republican leader already referred to the possibility of the United States “keeping” the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that it already controls the maritime route because U.S. strikes carried out since February decimated Iranian military capabilities, something Tehran has rejected.
«The United States has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. I think we’ll keep it!», Trump wrote on Wednesday on his Truth Social network, asserting that «there is nothing Iran can do about it».
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated yesterday, Thursday, that the U.S. intends to impose “economic isolation and a continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz” on Iran, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth threatened to maintain the latter “indefinitely.”
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In contrast, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezai, stated on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened until the United States ends the war and the naval blockade against Iran, releases its frozen assets, and accepts a ceasefire that also includes Lebanon and Gaza.
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The Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and Oman, is one of the world’s main routes for oil and gas transport and has become one of the main flashpoints in the conflict between the United States and Iran.
