(ANKARA) - US President Donald Trump said in a phone call to the Fox & Friends program broadcast on the US-based Fox News, "We will keep the strait and probably operate it. We will be the guardians of the strait. Maybe we will call it the 'guardian angel of the strait'. We should be paid for this."
Control of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical chokepoints for global oil shipments, has become a major sticking point in the conflict between the United States and Iran. While Iran's de facto blockade of the Strait increases energy prices, it also increases inflation concerns around the world.
"We will protect the Strait. We will get a lot of money for protecting it," said Trump, adding, "Other countries are very rich. They are on our side and we cannot be expected to do this for free. Therefore, our expenses will be covered."
The Tehran administration announced that the strait was closed after an incident that it described as "unauthorized passage" on Saturday, and on Sunday it announced that the crossings were suspended and that permissions would only be given "after stability and tranquility are restored".
Referring to the preliminary agreement reached with Iran last month, Trump said, "We had a deal. Everything was done, but then they broke it again. They break it all the time. We made 10 deals with these people and they broke them all. So we're going to hit them hard."
In its statement published today, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards stated that the only way for normal maritime traffic to resume in the Strait of Hormuz is for the United States to end its military interventions in the region, and warned that "ongoing interventions may lead to bigger events in the global oil and natural gas sector."
US and Iranian forces carried out intense mutual missile and drone attacks over the weekend. While Tehran announced that it had hit US military facilities in the Gulf and continued to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, the situations caused oil prices to rise.