President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States will try to take control of the disputed Strait of Hormuz waterway following a fresh round of strikes against Iranian military assets overnight.
“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. And we should be reimbursed for that,” he told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” show on Monday morning.
Trump added that “we’re going to be reimbursed, because the other nations are very wealthy. They’re on our side, and we can’t be expected to do that for nothing.”
He added that the United States had “guarded it for nothing” and put “our people in danger.”
Regarding negotiations with Iran, Trump said: “We had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard.”
The latest round of strikes marks an escalation in a conflict following the U.S.–Iran signing of a memorandum of understanding to end hostilities, open the strait, and allow for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program as well as its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran has said on multiple occasions through state-run media that Tehran should control the strait, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passes, and that commercial vessels transiting the waterway must follow its pre-approved routes.
Over the weekend, a newly created Iranian agency, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, said that the waterway is shut. It reiterated that claim in a post on X on Monday, saying that transit through the strait is “currently unfeasible” and blaming the U.S. strikes.
But U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has disputed Tehran’s assertions. On Sunday, CENTCOM said Iran does not have any control over the Strait of Hormuz and that American forces are now “positioned and prepared to keep” the strait open to international transit.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Monday that the only way to restore shipping traffic through the strait was to stop U.S. military strikes in the waterway, and it further warned that “continued interference could lead to greater incidents in the global oil and gas sector,” according to state-run PressTV.
The paramilitary organization also claimed that the strait is Tehran’s “territory” and said that it will not allow the United States to “continue its illegal interference there.”
Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei, responded to Trump’s recent comment by saying on Monday that Tehran will fight for the Strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Tasnim News agency.
