US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran was allowing 10 oil tankers to sail through the Strait of Hormuz as an apparent gesture of goodwill in negotiations.
Trump made the comments at a White House cabinet meeting, elaborating on what he had previously described as a “gift” from Iran.
“They said to show you that we are real and solid and that we are there, we are going to allow you to have eight oil ships, eight ships, eight big oil ships,” Trump said. “I think they were right, and they were real, and I think they had a Pakistani flag… It ended up being 10 ships.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the vessels.
Trump’s comments came as he pressures Iran to agree to a deal that eliminates the maritime chokepoint and ends its nuclear program.
On Tuesday, the US president perplexed some observers when he said that Iran had given the United States an expensive, energy-related concession. At the time, he refused to say what exactly he meant.
Continues after advertising
“They gave us a gift and the gift arrived today, and it was a very large gift, worth an enormous amount of money,” Trump told reporters at the time.
