Donald Trump has announced that “other countries” are expected to join a blockade effort and declared that the U.S. military is “locked and loaded” for potential further strikes on Iran.
“Any Iranian who targets us or peaceful vessels will be BLOWN TO HELL!” he asserted.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that Australia has not been approached to take part in the U.S.-led blockade.
“We haven’t been asked to participate. We’ve received no requests that we haven’t agreed to,” Albanese mentioned during an interview with Today this morning.
He characterized the Trump administration’s blockade as being conducted in a “unilateral way.”
Trump further claimed that the U.S. had completely eliminated sea mines in the Strait.
“Our Military will finish up the little that is left of Iran!” he wrote on Truth Social.
He again urged Iran to open the Strait before the looming deadline.
“As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY OPEN AND FAST!” he added.
Questions linger over whether this maritime war strategy will achieve Trump’s objective of reopening the Strait to commercial vessels.
Virginia senator Mark Warner, a ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN he did not “understand how blockading the Strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that any warship approaching the Strait would be regarded as a breach of the ceasefire agreement and would be responded to “harshly and decisively”.
Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said any US blockade would only push oil prices higher.
“Enjoy the current pump figures,” he said in a post on X, noting the current fuel prices in the US.
“With the so-called ‘blockade’, soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.”
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