Trump says U.S. “going to keep” Strait of Hormuz and “probably run it”

President Trump told Fox News on Monday that the U.S. was “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 reiterated during the phone interview, a few times, that the U.S. should be paid for securing the Middle Eastern waterway, which Iran insists it has control over.

The two countries’ dispute over control of the shipping lanes, through which maritime traffic has been significantly reduced since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war on Iran on Feb. 28, has derailed attempts to reach a lasting peace deal.

Referring to the latest round of U.S. strikes on Iran, Mr. Trump said “we hit them very hard last night,” adding: “Every time they send a drone, we hit them very hard … We have them on the run.”

U.S. strikes killed two people Monday in southwest Iran, in an oil-producing region near Kuwait and Iraq, Iran’s semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported.

“At this time, two people have been reported dead and three wounded,” the agencies said, citing a Khuzestan province official, who mentioned strikes in “three different locations” on the outskirts of the city of Abadan.

Meanwhile, Iranian state TV reported Iranian forces fired “warning shots” at two ships attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s embassy in the U.K. said Monday that the Islamic Republic had “established a temporary safe & secure maritime corridor, free of technical & military barriers” through the Strait of Hormuz, indicating a reopening of the crucial shipping lanes from Tehran’s perspective. 

It was not clear if the embassy’s post on social media, in referring to a lack of “technical & military barriers,” was suggesting an easing of Iran’s own demand for ships to coordinate with its military to use a northern route, close to its coast, through the strait, or speaking about a more southerly route that the U.S. has urged vessels to use over the last couple weeks. 

The U.S. military on Sunday contradicted a claim by Tehran’ that the Strait of Hormuz was again closed, insisting that “Iran does not control” the vital shipping lanes amid an ongoing disagreement between the nations over commercial access to the waterway.

In its statement, the embassy accused the U.S. of having “done nothing but violate the MoU since day one,” specifically by “pushing vessels toward a dangerous southern parallel route” through the strait, close to Oman’s coast, that it called “not only legally questionable but also unsafe, unreliable, and prone to accidents.”

Iran attacked several ships attempting to use that southern route last week, and on Saturday it also struck a container vessel near the western entrance to the strait, prompting the U.S. to launch multiple rounds of airstrikes on Iranian targets. 

Iran has long argued that the vaguely worded MoU signed in mid-June with the U.S. gave it the right to control shipping through the strait, and it balked at the U.S. government and military’s calls for ships to use the southern route close to Oman, which President Trump has insisted is open.

“U.S. military aggression, including attacks on Iran’s port & tower infrastructure, has turned the Strait of Hormuz into a tense, high-risk zone for maritime traffic,” the Iranian embassy in London said Monday, adding a jab that appeared to be directed at Oman: “Those who enabled this perilous situation must reconsider their stance, if they truly seek safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Security is a two-way street.” 

Bahrain’s military on Monday accused Iran of targeting civilians with its latest attacks on the kingdom, after Tehran said it had struck U.S. military facilities and infrastructure there.

“Iran continues its systematic hostile approach through its heinous attacks with missiles and drones that target civilians in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” the general command of Bahrain’s military said in a statement, adding that air defences “intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial attacks” on Monday morning.

Iran said Monday it would not agree to a resumption of international inspections at some of the country’s nuclear facilities.

In response to a question on whether Iran would accept theUnited Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) request to access nuclear facilities, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said the regime would not.

The memorandum of understanding signed with the U.S. calls for negotiations to take place between both parties on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program, but it doesn’t bind the regime to any specific terms or schedule.

After the first of just two days of direct negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials since the MoU was signed, Vice President JD Vance said he expected IAEA inspections to resume within days. But two days later, a senior Iranian negotiator said any such arrangements would only be solidified as part of a final agreement with the U.S.

The IAEA regularly carried out inspections and had cameras installed to monitor Iran’s enrichment work for years under the previous nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration, known as the JCPOA. 

Iran slowly denied that access in the wake of President Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the JCPOA during his first term, while ramping up its uranium enrichment to produce its first-ever near-weapons-grade material.

Explosions of unknown origin were heard in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a news agency reported, following an exchange of attacks between Tehran and Washington.

“Media and residents reported having heard on Monday at midday explosions near Bandar Abbas and the island of Qeshm,” the semi-official Mehr news agency said, adding that the blasts “appear to be coming from the West Coast of Bandar Abbas.”  

Iran said Monday it was continuing talks with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman in an effort to prevent any further escalation with the United States.

“The role of the mediators is to continue their efforts to prevent an escalation of tensions,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, stressing that Tehran would pursue diplomacy along with military measures.

“Wherever necessary, we will use military means to defend our interests, and wherever circumstances require, wherever the country’s interests dictate, we will use the tool of diplomacy,” the spokesperson said.

Iran’s foreign ministry said Sunday the latest wave of U.S. attacks on its territory had rendered recent diplomatic efforts “futile.”

Iran has blamed the U.S. for escalation of attacks over the last week over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

“Everything that has happened over the past several weeks, especially in the past few days, is the direct responsibility of the United States, because they cheated from the very first day,” Esmail Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said Monday.

He claimed the U.S. did not allow Iran to carry out the work which would make the Strait of Hormuz safe to transit, as set out in the fifth clause of the memorandum of understanding, and instead created other routes in the waterway that Tehran claims are not safe.

The U.S. resumed major strikes on Iran on June 7, calling them retaliation for Iranian attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which were hit in the south of the strategic waterway, near the Omani coast.

The United Nations Secretary-General warned of “catastrophic consequences” for the region if fighting resumes.

“A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences – for the peoples of the region, for international peace & security & for the global economy,” António Guterres said in a statement.

The UN chief expressed his concern for the recent escalation and said the attacks “must all stop.”

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, gained 4.7% to $79.59 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude oil added 4.8% to $74.85 per barrel.

Prices for both types of crude oil recently had slipped back to around the levels they were at before the war with Iran began, after the two sides set an interim agreement on ending the conflict and ships resumed transporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the United States launched several waves of strikes on Iran into Monday morning over an Iranian attack on a container ship in the strait that set it ablaze and left a crew member missing over the weekend. Iran retaliated by targeting countries across the Middle East.

Iran has condemned the latest wave of U.S. attacks on its territory, saying they had “rendered futile” all the diplomatic efforts of the last few months.

The United States has also “caused the return of insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz and disruption of international commercial shipping by openly interfering in the process of Iran implementing the necessary arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz,” a foreign ministry statement said Sunday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday claimed strikes against Bahrain and Oman, saying they destroyed radar systems in Oman and targeted U.S. military facilities on the southern edge of Manama.

Additionally, the Jordanian military said on Monday it had shot down four Iranian missiles over the country, which Tehran said were intended as retaliation for U.S. strikes.

“At dawn today, air defence systems intercepted and shot down four missiles that had entered Jordanian airspace from Iranian territory,” an official source from the Jordanian General Staff said, adding that there were no reports of injuries or damage to property.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck dozens of Iranian targets on Sunday.

“Forces struck Iranian military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats using U.S. fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones, and one-way attack sea drones for the first time,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

It added that Iran “does not control” the Strait of Hormuz, in response to earlier claims by Tehran that the vital waterway was effectively closed.