US CENTCOM strikes Iranian air defenses and radar sites
President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States would be “taking over the strait” after days of the U.S. and Iran trading attacks amid a fragile cease-fire, during a phone interview with Fox + Friends.
“We are taking over the strait. They have nothing. They’ve got nothing,” Trump said of Iran. “We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait.”
Trump suggested the United States should be reimbursed for controlling the waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply travels, and said the U.S. could charge ships for passage. “We can’t be expected to do that for nothing,” he said.
Iran’s military responded, saying it would not allow the United States to control the strait, according to reports from the BBC and The Guardian. A military statement said the United States’ “frequent misadventures” have “seriously jeopardized the security of the region.”
“If the war expands in the region, the flames of war will engulf all countries in the region,” the statement said.
The Iranian Embassy in Britain released a statement Monday accusing Washington of violating a memorandum of understanding signed as part of the cease-fire “since day one” by “pushing vessels toward a dangerous southern parallel route” through the strait. The embassy called the route “legally questionable” and “unsafe, unreliable and prone to accidents,” and said U.S. military attacks on Iran’s port and tower infrastructure have turned the strait into a “high-risk zone for maritime traffic.”
Fears of a broader conflict have grown in recent days as the two countries traded attacks while renewing talks over a war-ending agreement. The cease-fire, already in place under a memorandum of understanding, continued despite a second-consecutive night of U.S. strikes Sunday and continued Iranian attacks on U.S. military assets in the region.
U.S. Central Command said Sunday that the U.S. military struck dozens of Iranian targets with precision munitions, aiming to degrade Tehran’s “ability to continue attacking shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.” The strikes hit air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats.