US President Donald Trump said this Friday that Iran had agreed to “never close the Strait of Hormuz again”, after hailing the announcement of the reopening of the maritime route as “a great day for the world”.
In a series of messages l, the North American President commented that the Strait of Hormuz “will no longer be used as a weapon against the world”, following the announcement by Tehran’s head of diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, to allow the passage of commercial ships while the ten-day ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah is in force.
According to the White House leader, this is “a great and brilliant day for the world”, although he indicated that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports will continue until both sides reach an agreement to end the conflict, which began on February 28 by the Israeli-American air offensive against the Islamic Republic.
Trump defended that “this process should be very quick, since most of the points have already been negotiated”, including Hormuz and the Iranian uranium enrichment program, almost a week after negotiations between delegations from Washington and Tehran in Islamabad, which ended without an understanding and the announcement of the US blockade.
“The Strait of Hormuz is completely open and ready for free trade and transit, but the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect towards Iran only until our negotiations with Iran are 100% completed,” he noted.
Despite the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the war, military vessels “remain banned”, according to Iranian state television.
The interruption of commercial shipping, as Iran’s retaliation for the attacks by the United States and Israel, caused uncertainty in the markets, caused the price of crude oil to soar and affected the global economy, in addition to contributing to the destabilization of the Middle East, including the resumption of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
NATO? “I told them to stay away”
The North American President also once again addressed his NATO allies, recommending that they stay away from Hormuz, “unless they just want to load their oil tankers” after the reopening of the strait.
“Now that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is resolved, I received a call from NATO asking if we needed help. I told them to stay away,” he wrote in his series of messages on Truth Social, insisting that the Atlantic Alliance partners “were useless when necessary, a paper tiger.”
At the same time, Trump indicated, without details, that Iran “is removing or has already removed” all sea mines placed in the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict.
In other messages, he thanked the help of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Pakistan, which is acting as a mediator with Tehran and announced a two-week ceasefire, in force since April 8, in the Gulf conflict as a way of opening space for peace negotiations.
