Donald Trump has declared his ambition to make the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States”.
The President said “no ships get through unless we want them to” during a rally in Garden City, New York.
He told a crowd of law enforcement officers war in the Middle East is far from over.
“We have to make a little journey to the Middle East because we have to put out a potential disaster, a potential very big fire, a fire like you’ve never seen,” Mr Trump said. “We can’t let Iran keep going.”
Prior to the US military’s strikes against the Islamic Republic in February, the 104-mile-long Strait served as a crucial shipping lane for oil, gas and fertilisers.
Iran is positioned on the Strait’s north coast, while Oman, a long-standing strategic ally of the West, is on its south side.
Six months since the conflict began, maritime traffic through the Strait has been severely disrupted, making transit a key area of peace negotiations.
Last weekend in Britain, the price of petrol reached a high since fighting commenced at £1.61 a litre.
Despite the impact on the global economy, Iranian forces are expected to ramp up aggression in the Strait to exert pressure on Washington ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.
Tehran said it will not surrender until the US “corrects its behaviour”, “completely compensate(s)” the country for damages and lifts sanctions “unconditionally”.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said whoever owns the Strait does “not change the reality”.
They stated: “The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted”.
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“The false claims of the United States that ships are passing through the Strait of Hormuz normally… are nothing more than lies and fabrications,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for Iran’s central command, Khatam-al Anbiya, added.
Mr Trump admitted the US was now “low-keying” talks after a ceasefire agreement collapsed.
Today, he stressed Americans are having to “pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” to ensure Iran does not have any nuclear weapons.
Mr Trump had previously deployed a naval blockade in the Strait, claiming American supremacy over the transit of exports from the region.
Yesterday, the head of paramilitary Basij forces under Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the Strait was under their control.
“Today, you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic republic, and our country continues on its path in complete security,” cleric and commender Hossein Taeb commented.
The comments come a few days after bombshell details emerged about Mr Trump’s extraordinary getaway from an alleged Iranian threat to his life.
It emerged Mr Trump was smuggled away in a catering vehicle onto a waiting plane following last month’s Nato summit in Turkey.
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