President Donald Trump said today the US Navy will begin blockading ships in the Strait of Hormuz and interdicting every ship that has paid a toll to Iran, after US peace talks with the country collapsed.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere,’ that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION.”
Trump also said the US will prevent passage for any ship that has paid a toll to Iran and will begin removing mines from the strait.
“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” he wrote. “No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran caused global economic turmoil, and a key condition for the US reaching a peace deal with Iran was for them to allow free passage through the waterway.
In a second post, Trump even reiterated the condition, saying, “As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY OPEN AND FAST!”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump issued a series of social media posts a while ago, saying the only point that “really mattered” in talks with the Iranians was the nuclear issue.
It comes following 21 hours of negotiations between the US and Iran, after which Vice President JD Vance said the two sides had failed to reach an agreement.
“So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only one point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday morning.
“I could go into great detail, and talk about much that has been gotten but, there is only one thing that matters — IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS! In many ways, the points that were agreed to are better than us continuing our Military Operations to conclusion, but all of those points don’t matter compared to allowing Nuclear Power to be in the hands of such volatile, difficult, unpredictable people,” he said in a second post on social media.
CNN previously reported that for the US, Tehran’s refusal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium were nonstarters during talks.
Source: CNN
-- Agencies
