Washington — President Trump has sent conflicting messages over the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks as the world’s oil supply has been choked by the Iran war.
In his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Trump declared that Iran has been “definitely weakened” and “once the conflict is over, the tide will naturally open.”
“The hard part is done,” said Mr. Trump. But at the same time, he was telling other countries to stand up and “take care” of the strait. “They have to respect it. They have to hold it and respect it. They can do it easily.”
This comment follows weeks of changing plans from the president onwards way to protect the waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula where a fifth of the world’s oil flows.
CBS News national security analyst Aaron MacLean said Thursday that Iran “played the biggest card they had” by closing the Strait of Hormuz, “at some point it’s going to have to be dealt with.” The price of oil in the world, Brent Crude, jumped more than 7% after the speech of Mr.
In a 9 March interview via CBS News, the president said ships were entering the road and he was “thinking about taking it.” But data display that most of the ships that have passed through this crisis last month are connected to Iran as the conditions are still dangerous.
On the same day, Mr. Trump told reporters that the US Navy and its allies would escort oil tankers to the crisis “if needed.” He added that the US would provide “political risk insurance for any tankers operating in the Gulf.”
Mr. Trump said in mid-March that the US would work with other countries to “police” raids on the route, although he would not reveal which countries had made such an agreement, and that the US was “striking” Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping.
“We’ve hit, as far as we know, all of their mine-laden ships,” the president said on March 16. “Now they can put it on other types of ships, I guess, put it in. But we don’t know if there’s even a drop in the middle.”
He encouraged other countries to “come and help us in this crisis,” and said that “we are in a very good situation.” Asked why the US could not reopen the strait immediately, Mr. Trump said, “it takes two to tango.”
On March 20, Mr. Trump asserted that reopening the conflict was the “very easy” military option, while saying that “at some point, it will open itself.” A week later, the president said that Iran is “asking to make a deal” and “if they make the right deal, it will be open.” He also said that the US “bombed everyone” and dropped their mine.
“They will have to take them out in a rowboat or something,” he said of the mines.
At the same time, Mr. Trump acknowledged that ships passing through the port still face threats.
“You see the problem with the strait, a guy can take a mine, drop it in the water, and say, ‘Well, it’s not safe. It’s not like you’re taking out an army or you’re taking out a country, or you – they can stop it. Or you can take a machine gun on the beach and shoot a few bullets at a ship, or maybe a shoulder-mounted missile, small missiles,” said Mr. Trump on March 31. “That’s not ours. … That’s going to be whoever uses the strait.”
Before his first speech, Mr. Trump reiterated his call for other countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, France and other European countries to protect this port.
“Stop them all,” he said. “What the hell are we doing for you? All I want to do is make sure they never have a nuclear weapon. And another thing, this was not part of what I wanted to do, but we did it, I think, just by human power, we have a regime change like no one thought was possible.”
Mr. Trump again on Wednesday night suggested that securing the strait is not the responsibility of the United States.
“We will be helpful, but they must take the lead in protecting the oil they rely on the most,” he said.
MacLean said the president’s comments Wednesday night on the crisis meant that “his ultimate goal is still a deal — a deal where the Iranians will open up or maybe some sort of regime change where they don’t abuse us anymore.”
“I think you know the difficulty of the military campaign to open the strait,” he said, adding that there is a risk of prolonging the war – beyond the two to three weeks the president said on Wednesday it would last. At the beginning of the war, the president said that the US military operation would take four to five weeks, and the attack is now on the fifth.
