United States President Donald Trump has ordered the US Navy to destroy any Iranian boat caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump’s directive on Thursday came after the US fleet boarded a vessel in the Indian Ocean that was transporting oil from Iran and after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had banked its first proceeds from the tolls it exacts on shipping through the strait.
With plans for renewed peace talks in Pakistan hanging in the balance, more fuel-hungry airlines cancelled flights, oil prices climbed higher once again, and the keenly-watched S&P Global PMI index showed eurozone business activity shrinking for the first time in 16 months.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Additionally, our mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now.”
Iran vowed it would keep the strait closed to all but a trickle of approved vessels for as long as the US Navy blockades its ports, brushing off demands from Trump to both reopen Hormuz and surrender its enriched uranium.
The US responded to Iran’s action by imposing its own blockade of Iranian ports, and on Thursday the Pentagon announced on social media that US forces had “carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean”.
Latest developments in Middle East war
The post included footage of US military personnel rappelling from helicopters onto the deck of a large tanker.
The statement said the US would “continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate”.
While strikes around the region have mostly ceased since the two-week-old truce began, there has been no letup in the confrontation over Hormuz, with both sides seeking economic leverage – only for Trump to announce an indefinite ceasefire to create space for more talks.
“A complete ceasefire only has meaning if it is not violated through a naval blockade,” said Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Tehran’s delegation at a first round of talks in Pakistan.
“Reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not possible amid a blatant violation of the ceasefire.”
After agreeing the ceasefire with Iran, the United States helped broker a truce between Israel and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.
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