TRUMP has said he will make the Strait of Hormuz US territory after the Iran war is over, as a new warship heads for the global chokepoint.
During a speech at a Long Island police academy, the US President confidently declared that the gateway to the Gulf would one day be “a territory of the United States”.
Trump has said the Strait of Hormuz would be US territory following the war Credit: Getty
Conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have come under fire Credit: Reuters
About a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies pass through the narrow channel, making it one of the most critical transit pathway on the globe.
During the speech Friday the president said: “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.
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“Essentially, that’s what it is.
“We have the blockade.
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The USS Abraham Lincoln is currently stationed on the Strait of Hormuz Credit: AFP
The strait is the world’s most important oil chokepoint Credit: Reuters
“No ships get through unless we want them to.”
Prior to the US launch of strikes on Iran earlier this year, the Strait of Hormuz was a crucial maritime passageway for oil tankers.
But since the start of the war passage through the strait has been difficult and has, at times, completely closed – causing sever global shocks due to skyrocketing oil prices.
Control of the flow of traffic through the strait has been a burning issue in peace negotiations between the warring states.
The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and Oman and is governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
No single country owns it, as parts overlap the territorial waters of both nations.
Trump’s speech comes as the US Navy deployed another aircraft carrier to waters off Iran after a scandal erupted over the conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
While it was first thought that the USS Theodore Roosevelt would make its way to the Middle East, the Washington is said to have been been deployed to the area, according to an anonymous US official.
The strait has been the site of renewed fighting in recent months.
Despite a memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran in June to bring a stop to military operations in the war, fighting resumed by the end of the month.
Iran has continued to target commercial vessels in the strait, claiming that part of the strait falls within its territorial waters and therefore remains under its control.
Meanwhile the US has set up a naval blockade in the strait, where the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln launches airstrikes.
