President Donald Trump has said that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial traffic and that the US struck Iran “hard” last night in response to its latest attacks on shipping in the strait.
Trump's comments on Hormuz were made during an interview on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.
The US military also insisted that ships were continuing to move through the strait despite Iran’s claim that it had closed the waterway amid the latest escalation in the war.
“Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing,” US Central Command said on X.
In a later post, CENTCOM directly challenged a statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that the vital route for global oil shipments was being closed.
The strait “remains an international waterway. US forces are positioned and prepared to keep it that way,” CENTCOM said.
‘We hit them very hard last night’
In a separate interview with CNN, Trump said the United States had struck Iran hard in response to its latest attacks on shipping in the strait.
“We hit them very hard last night,” he said during the telephone interview, which focused mainly on the death of Senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump also said Washington and Tehran had been close to reaching “a deal” on Saturday before Iran allegedly attacked a ship with a drone.
“They were giving up everything, and then all of a sudden, two hours after that, they hit a ship with a drone. These people, there is something wrong with them,” he said.
