US President Donald Trump on Sunday once again posted a map depicting the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil, natural gas and other supplies, as “new US territory”.
The US president had first pitched declaring the strait part of US territory on August 15.
“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said during a rally in New York. Iran on Saturday said the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and will not reopen until the US fulfils its commitments and “corrects its behaviour”. “The Strait of Hormuz is closed, despite American claims, and will not open until America corrects its behaviour,” Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s supreme national security council, said on state television. “We declare to all countries… do not join the economic war waged by the United States,” he said. If the countries concerned refused to “distance themselves” from the US, Iran would “harm” their interests, Rezaei said. “So far, we have only targeted military bases, but if they want to impose economic sanctions on us, the United States has oil and economic companies around Iran and elsewhere, and we will strike them,” he said.
