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US President Donald Trump has asserted that Washington is now controlling the Strait of Hormuz, as the US intensifies its military operations against Iran for the third consecutive day on Monday.
Speaking to Newsmax, Trump gave a blunt response when asked who controls the strategic waterway, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. “We do,” Trump said.
His remarks came as tensions escalated following Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on US assets in the region.
“We control it. They can make trouble. They can do things that are not nice, but we control it,” Trump said.
He further claimed that the recent US military operations had managed to cripple Tehran’s military capabilities.
“We’ve knocked out most of their radar, a lot of their ammunition, a lot of their weapon launchers, you know, the missile launchers. We’ve knocked out drones. We’ve knocked out missiles,” he said.
“And we control it. And we’re going to keep doing it.”
Earlier on Monday, CENTCOM announced that Washington would resume its blockade of Iranian ports, oil terminals and coastal facilities beginning at 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday.
According to the announcement, the blockade would apply to any vessel engaged in trade with Iran regardless of the flag it flies.
The US first imposed the blockade on April 13 before suspending it after signing a memorandum of understanding with Iran on June 17.
“And we’re putting our blockade … you know, the blockade was a tremendous success. It was there for two months and nobody got through,” Trump said.
“We’re putting that there. We’re going to let everyone get through, except if you’re doing business with Iran.”
Trump also argued that Gulf Arab states were now less concerned about Iran because of the damage inflicted on Tehran’s military infrastructure, which is reportedly substantial.
“Their power has been largely taken away,” he said. “Now, they have some left, but it’s been largely damaged.”
The US president claimed Iran had suffered major losses across multiple branches of its military.
“As an example, their military, they had 159 ships; 159 ships are under the sea. They had 200 airplanes. Their airplanes are all gone. Their radar is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their weapon-making capability is largely gone,” he said.
“So, they’re a much different country than they were four months ago. In four months, we’ve brought them back to the Stone Ages to a large extent.”
Nonetheless, Trump acknowledged that Iran still retained some potent military capabilities.
“Now, with that being said, they’ve got some missiles, and they’ve got a little capability. They’ve been largely brought back into a different period of time,” he said.
“Iran was the bully of the Middle East, and they weren’t going to be bullying me.”
