US is taking over the Hormuz Strait: Trump
President Donald Trump said Monday the United States was “taking over” the Strait of Hormuz and would be paid for its operations as fighting over the strategic waterway threatened to derail efforts to permanently end the Middle East war.
“We’ll become the guardian of the Strait,” Trump told “Fox and Friends,” adding that wealthy nations would have to reimburse the United States. “We’re going to get paid for guarding it. A lot of money, but we just want to be reimbursed for doing all of this, for putting our people in danger.”
Iran rejects US takeover of the Strait
Iran’s military warned on Monday that it would not allow the United States to “interfere” in the management of the Strait of Hormuz.
A spokesman for the Khatam Al-Anbiya military command said in a video message that Tehran “under no circumstances will allow… the United States to interfere in the management” of the strategic waterway. The spokesman warned Gulf countries that any cooperation with the United States would be considered “an act of war”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the United States was jeopardizing global oil and gas supplies by interfering in the Strait.
US strikes kill two in Iranian oil city
US strikes killed two people on Monday in southwestern Iran in an oil-producing region near Kuwait and Iraq, the Iranian 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. Media and residents also reported having heard explosions near Bandar Abbas and the island of Qeshm, Mehr news agency said.
Iran fires ‘warning shots’ into the Hormuz Strait
Iran on Monday fired “warning shots” at two ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, state television reported, as Tehran and Washington battle for control of the strategic waterway.
Two ships “illegally” transiting the strait “were targeted and stopped by warning shots fired by the navy of the Revolutionary Guards,” said a correspondent on national television based near the strait.
Iran-US attacks send oil prices higher
World oil prices surged Monday as a fresh flare-up between the United States and Iran rattled investors.
Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, rallied as much as five percent before paring gains to trade around 3.5 percent higher at about $78 a barrel. The main US contract, West Texas Intermediate, also spiked.
Iran strikes Oman, Bahrain, Jordan
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed strikes against Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Oman, saying they destroyed radar systems in Oman and US military facilities elsewhere.
Air raid alerts sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait’s army said its forces were intercepting “hostile aerial targets” on Monday. Jordan’s army said it had intercepted four Iranian missiles. Bahrain’s military accused Iran of targeting “civilians” with its latest attacks.
US strikes Iranian air defense
The US military said it had hit air defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone facilities and small boats in its latest round of strikes in Iran.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had completed their latest barrage, which began overnight, on dozens of Iranian targets. US aircraft, naval vessels, and drones hit “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”.
Iran’s Mehr news agency reported fresh blasts of unknown origin in the south around midday on Monday, adding that they “appear to be coming from the West Coast of Bandar Abbas”.
Iran says it is talking with mediators
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Monday the government was talking with mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Oman in a bid to prevent an escalation in the war with the United States.
Earlier, the ministry said the new US attacks on its territory had “rendered futile” all the diplomatic efforts of the past few months and warned it would no longer abide by a memorandum of understanding signed with the United States if Washington failed to uphold its commitments.
“The US regime 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.
Iran’s Guards accuse the US of endangering the global oil supply
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused the United States on Monday of jeopardizing global oil and gas supplies by interfering in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, as renewed hostilities flared.
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi said Washington had “seriously endangered the security of the world’s oil and gas supply and must be held accountable”, adding in a post on X that Tehran “will continue to exercise sovereignty over and management of the Strait of Hormuz”.
By Agence France-Presse
