It’s clear the US president, with a chuckle as he said that, even himself is not taking this particularly seriously, given the fact that there is already an international waterway in the Strait of Hormuz where ships are traversing back and forth. Also, these are territorial waters of Iran and Oman. But what the US president likes to do is to get under the skin of adversaries, and, in this case, it’s Iran.
What we should point out, though, is what the US president is not backing down on is the fact that there is a naval blockade by the United States in effect in the Strait of Hormuz, and that is ongoing. In fact, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said that there will be ships that will be interchanged in order to continue and prolong that naval blockade. So, the US president is trying to exert control.
What is important to point out, however, is that he said no ships are going in and out of the strait unless the US wants them to. That’s not entirely true. What we know is that there is some traffic that is going through, but it has slowed down significantly.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
