President Donald Trump said he has ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” Iranian fishing boats laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could jeopardize the fragile ceasefire between the two countries.
The US president also said on Thursday that the military would step up efforts to remove explosives from the strategic waterway.
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“I have ordered the U.S. Navy to shoot every boat, even small boats, that is laying mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz (all of their naval vessels, 159 of them are on the bottom of the ocean!). Don’t hesitate,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
“Furthermore, our ‘minesweepers’ are currently clearing the straits. I hereby order their operations to continue, but at triple the level!”
Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to defend their country and respond to any U.S. attack.
Hormuz, which had been uninterruptedly open before the war, emerged as a major point of contention in the war.
Iran closed the strait in response to U.S. and Israeli military operations and has now signaled that it has rights to the shipping lanes connecting the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, some of which pass through Iranian territorial waters.
of Oil prices have skyrocketed due to the closure of Hormuz Island, and political pressure is mounting on President Trump in the United States, with the price of a gallon (3.8 liters) of gasoline now exceeding $4. The price has increased from $3 before the conflict.
duel blockade
Before the war, about 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas passed through Hormuz.
President Trump announced a naval siege of Iranian ports after a two-week ceasefire went into effect last month, and continued the siege even after Tehran announced the reopening of Hormuz in response to Lebanon’s participation in the truce.
Iran has set lifting the blockade as a precondition for resuming talks with the United States.
President Trump extended a ceasefire that was set to expire Wednesday, but Washington continues to block Iranian-linked ships.
The Pentagon announced Thursday that the U.S. military has activated “maritime interdiction and visitation rights” against a tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. military announced earlier this week that it had seized an Iranian vessel and ordered dozens of others to return.
Meanwhile, Iran has also seized foreign merchant vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, saying they are in violation of naval regulations.
A dueling blockade risks reigniting the war. The US has not set a deadline for extending the ceasefire.
The White House said Wednesday that President Trump is “comfortable” with the Iranian siege.
President Trump says Holmes is under ‘strict lockdown’
Iran has largely halted shipping in the waterway, but President Trump said Thursday that the United States has “full control of the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that the strait is “strictly closed.”
The US president also reiterated his claim that Iran’s leadership is divided.
“Iran is having a very hard time understanding who their leader is! They just don’t know!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“It’s crazy that there’s an internal conflict between the ‘hardliners’ who are losing big on the battlefield and the ‘moderates’ who are by no means moderates (but have earned respect!).”
Earlier in the day, President Trump shared a post by conservative commentator Mark Thiessen calling for the assassination of Iranian officials who oppose diplomacy with the United States.
“If there are two factions in Iran: those who want a deal and those who don’t, let’s kill the ones who don’t want a deal,” he said.
Despite President Trump’s repeated claims, there is no evidence of rifts within Iran’s leadership.
Although US and Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several senior officials, there have been no major defections within the ruling regime.
According to the Pentagon, Khamenei was replaced last month by his son Mojtaba, who was wounded in a US attack.
Mojtaba Khamenei has yet to appear in public since succeeding his slain father, prompting speculation about his health.
But Iranian officials, including the chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf expressed a unified position of rejecting the U.S. blockade.
Iranian leaders also agreed to the ceasefire, which went into effect earlier this month.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry praised the ideologically driven Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for spearheading the war effort.
In commemoration of the anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Esmail Baghai said in a post on
