President Donald Trump has said the US may consider reimposing a naval blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and possibly take over the Kharg Island, moves that could restart the war between the two countries and negatively impact the global economy.
The naval blockade was lifted last month after Iran and the US signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the months-long war. The war between the two countries led to a spike in global oil prices, which affected the global economy. Oil prices, which were over $100 per barrel during the war, have since dropped to around $70 per barrel since the MoU was signed.
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Mr Trump also threatened a US attack on Iran tonight, stating that the Central Command will “hit Iran very hard.”
We’re going to hit them hard tonight, but we’ll see how it all works out,” Mr Trump said to reporters in Ankara, Turkey, ahead of the NATO summit.
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On Tuesday night, the US military attacked Tehran in retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial ships. According to NATO chief Mark Rutte, American strikes were “absolutely necessary”, as Iran was “basically violating the ceasefire.”
Hours after the American strikes, which the US said targeted ‘over 80′ Iranian facilities, Iran retaliated with missile strikes on ’85’ US facilities in the Gulf region.
The latest exchange of strikes is not the first since the warring countries signed the agreement on 17 June.
Mr Trump, hours after the exchange of fire, declared that the ceasefire agreement with Iran is over, and described Iran’s leadership as “scum” and “cuckoo.”
On the naval blockade, the US president said this would only affect Iran. He also said that US allies in NATO would send minesweepers to the Strait of Hormuz.
“Anybody else can have whatever they want, of course,” he said.
“They’ll [Iran] drop some mines if they can … but it’s hard because we’re taking out those little boats now with the same weapon we use to take out the drug lords.”
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He also said the US had revoked its temporary suspension of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.
Mr Trump blamed Iran for the recent escalation of attacks. However, Iran has said it fired at the ships because their movement on the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz violated the MoU with the US.
The American leader also said that Iranian leaders had been worried that the US would attack during Ali Khamenei’s burial and had asked for a “timeout.”
“They asked for a timeout; they wanted to go to the funeral of Khamenei, and I said give it to them, and they started shooting missiles,” he said.
“I mean, it was a crazy thing. Now we did kill him, so I guess you have to look at it that way,” he conceded. “They also asked that we not kill them, and we said we’re not going to kill you” during the funeral.
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