United States President Donald Trump announced what he described as an “all-or-nothing” U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in a Sunday Morning Futures interview, saying the move is aimed at cutting off Iran’s oil revenues and insisting that no country, ally or adversary, would be allowed to bypass the restrictions.
“We’re not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don’t like… It’s going to be all or none and that’s the way it is,” Trump said.
“You saw what we did with Venezuela. It’ll be something very similar to that but at a higher level.”
In an interview with Fox, the U.S. president said the policy would be strictly “all or nothing,” meaning countries would either have full access to the waterway or none at all, with no exceptions for allies.
“We think that numerous countries are going to be helping us with this also, but we’re putting on a complete blockade,” he said.
Trump announced the blockade in a Truth Social post shortly before the broadcast, attributing the move to the collapse of negotiations with Iran during peace talks held in Pakistan over the weekend
“So, there you have it, the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not. Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” he wrote in part.
“At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere,’ that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted,” Trump noted.
Trump’s Truth Social post went on to say that U.S. forces would begin destroying mines that Iran has laid in the Strait of Hormuz and that he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “seek and interdict every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” calling those tolls illegal and vowing that ships which did so would not be allowed safe passage.
