Trump claims control of Strait of Hormuz as stalemate deepens

Shortly before Air Force One took off from Turkey at the end of last month’s NATO summit, President Trump secretly slipped away from the presidential jet and was whisked to another plane with the help of an airport catering truck, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter.

The ruse was employed because the U.S. had learned of a threat from Iran and its allied proxies. U.S. intelligence had detected a credible plot to fire a missile at the plane Mr. Trump was on as he left the Turkish capital of Ankara, CBS News reported exclusively.

The president had expressed awareness of the risks posed by the U.S.-Iran war, calling himself Iran’s “number one target” during the NATO summit.

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Brent crude, the international benchmark for the price of oil, was unchanged at $87.72 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude also was flat at $82.13 a barrel, after surging 5% on Monday.

The price swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

After Iran made compensation for war damage one of its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump responded with his own demand for compensation Monday.

“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The president said the families of the 17 U.S. sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen as well as “thousands of others killed in combat” should be included.

He also said Iran should pay “the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months.”

Mr. Trump said he’s instructed his representatives “to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations.”

President Trump told reporters Monday the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz, calling the U.S. naval blockade on Iran a “steel wall.”

“The only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy. We have a blockade that’s been infallible,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The president said some ships are transiting through the narrow waterway through which around 20% of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began on Feb. 28. 

Iran has previously mirrored those claims, insisting it controls the waterway and occasionally attacking ships that attempt the crossing. Mr. Trump added that Iran “can make trouble, but they’re broke.”