U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. blockade on ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz “will now be lifted.”
“Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!’ Say HELLO to your wives, husbands, parents, and families from me, your favorite President!” reads his post on Truth Social.
The U.S. and Iran had both set up independent blockades on most tanker traffic through the narrow passage on Iran’s southern shore. In peacetime, about 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil moves through the strait. The interruption to that thoroughfare has spiked oil and gas prices around the world and left Canadians in some areas paying more than $2 per litre at the pump.
Trump’s post appears to precede a meeting in the Situation Room to “make a final decision.” Earlier in the statement, he lists a series of outstanding demands on Iran’s leadership: the strait needs to be open and toll-free, no nukes and any undersea mines need to be removed.
He also demanded the destruction of Iran’s so-called “nuclear dust” – a shorthand he uses frequently to refer to the highly enriched uranium that is believed to be buried under nuclear sites the U.S. bombed during last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
More details to come. With files from the Associated Press.
