US President Donald Trump addressed tensions with Iran in a telephone interview with Fox News today (Monday). He claimed that the regime is serially violating every agreement - 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 manage it. We will be the protectors of the strait. We will be compensated and we will receive money for it, we cannot be expected to do it for nothing.".
The president added and threatened: "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 very hard.".
Trump also revealed that an 11-hour negotiation meeting with Iranian representatives took place yesterday, and criticized their tendency to try and change clauses at the last minute.
The president attacked Iran's leadership and made it clear: "They will return the compensation for violating the deal, all their resources now belong to the United States. Iran's leaders are professional negotiators, but Iran has received nothing from me. We are taking everything from Iran - oil, gold, land, food, everything belongs to the United States.".
The president repeated his claim that Iran was a short distance away from going nuclear: "If we hadn't bombed them and hadn't killed Soleimani, they would already have a nuclear weapon.".
He listed the war's achievements again: "All their leaders were killed. Khamenei was eliminated, and his son has already been eliminated." Regarding Mojtaba, Trump meant that he was not functioning, not that there was a chance of 90% being eliminated.
Last night, after the Revolutionary Guards announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United States military rejected Iranian attempts to take control of the strategic shipping lane and made it clear that passage through international waters remains open to all vessels seeking to pass through it legally.
US officials emphasized that despite the announcements from Tehran, the reality on the ground remains different – maritime traffic in the route continues to flow without interruption.
