President Donald Trump announced today (Monday) that the United States is reinstating a naval blockade on Iran, which will prevent Iranian ships or the Islamic Republic's customers from entering or leaving.
""The Strait of Hormuz is open and will remain open, with or without Iran," Trump wrote. "We are calling back the Iranian blockade, as it will be called because it only stops Iran's ships or their customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will enjoy free and fair use of the Strait.".
Trump added that the United States would now be called the "Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz" and announced that it would charge a 20% fee on all cargo moving through the strait, as reimbursement for the costs associated with securing the shipping lane. He said that the implementation of the measure would begin immediately.
The declaration effectively restores the situation that existed before the signing of the memorandum of understanding, in which the United States military prevents ships and vessels from entering or leaving Iranian ports, while the maritime traffic of other countries through the Strait of Hormuz continues unchanged.
Earlier, Trump said that Iran is serially violating every agreement with it, and therefore the US is taking control of the Strait of Hormuz. "We are taking control of the Strait of Hormuz, they have nothing. We will run it," he declared in a telephone interview with Fox News.
He added: "The US will become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we'll call it 'the guardian angel of the strait.' We need to be compensated for that and someone will pay it.".
He added a threat to Iran: "We had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We had 10 deals with these people, so we're just going to hit them really hard.".
