Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, Apr 11: Even as Iran is unable to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz for shipping as it cannot locate all the mines it laid in the waterway to block the passage amid war, the US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted on Truth Social claiming his country has started clearing the Strait of Hormuz and that two of its Navy guided-missile destroyers passed through the Strait on Saturday, the first such transit through the key global waterway since the start of the war with Iran.
The US media reports quoting US officials said inability of Iran to clean the Strait of mines laid by it was likely to make their peace talks with the US in Islamabad fraught with risk given Mr Trump’s warning to Tehran to quickly reopen the chokepoint that carries around a fifth of the world’s oil supply and allow more traffic to pass through it.
Iran had used small boats to lay the mines in Strait of Hormuz last month – soon after the US and Israel carried out joint airstrikes across Iran over stalled nuclear talks, and claims that Tehran had resumed its nuclear activities. However, it is not clear whether Iran recorded the mines’ placements, the report said.
According to the report, some mines, whose placements were recorded by Iran, had been placed in a way that allowed them to drift or move – making it difficult to locate them.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had issued warnings that ships passing through the strait could collide with sea mines. It, however, left another passage open to allow the transit of ships that pay a toll.
Earlier this week, Iran agreed to fully reopen Hormuz as it agreed to a ceasefire with the US, hours before Trump’s deadline. But its inability to quickly clear the waterway due to the mining problem, Tehran announced alternative routes for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, citing the “risk of sea mines” in the main zone of the vital waterway.
“All ships intending to transit the Strait of Hormuz are hereby notified that to comply with the principles of maritime safety and to be protected from possible collisions with sea mines…they should take alternative routes for traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement. The statement shared instructions for an alternative entry and exit route through the strait.
The official sources in the US said two of its Navy guided-missile destroyers and that the warships’ passage was not coordinated with authorities in Tehran. Earlier, there was also a report that at least one US warship made a u-turn after Iran’s warning to strike within 30 minutes if it did not. The two ships, however, passed through the strait with no issues reported.
Trump has persisted with his tirade against Iran from his social media account, even as US Vice President JD Vance and his team are holding talks with the Iranians. Trump’s latest tirade came around the same time the US made the move via the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, who was at the White House, first fired a claim of Iran “losing big” on his Truth Social account. In the post, he claimed that “the only thing they (Iran) have going is the threat that a ship may ‘bunk’ into one of their sea mines” in the Strait of Hormuz. He claimed that “all 28” of Iran’s mine-laying vessels had been sunk and were now at the bottom of the sea and that American forces were ensuring safe passage for international shipping.
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” he declared, “as a favor to Countries all over the World, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others. Incredibly, they don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.”
Just then, a US warship moved from the Fujairah Port in the UAE towards the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran immediately informed Pakistani mediators that if the American destroyer continued its movement, “it will be targeted within 30 minutes” and it subsequently made a u-turn.
The US President’s post was apparently triggered by news reports suggesting “that Iran is ‘winning’, when, in fact, everyone knows that they are LOSING, and LOSING BIG!” He termed all such news outlets “Fake News Media”, using his usual term for unfavorable reporting. He blamed it on their “massive Trump Derangement Syndrome (Sometimes referred to as TDS!)”.
He claimed that Iran’s “Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft apparatus is non-existent, Radar is dead, their Missile and Drone Factories have been largely obliterated along with the Missiles and Drones themselves and, most importantly, their longtime ‘Leaders’ are no longer with us, praise be to Allah!” — again using a Muslim prayer phrase, and repeating claims he’s made several times since the war started on February 28.
He further said ships from several countries were headed to the US “to LOAD UP with Oil.” This was in sync with an earlier Truth Social post he made, in which he asserted that the US has more oil than the next two largest producers combined.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and carries a large share of the world’s crude exports. Fears of Iranian attacks over the past weeks have disrupted shipping and pushed global oil prices higher, even though most of the oil does not go to the United States.
Trump also pointed to what he described as a surge of activity in global energy logistics, saying large numbers of empty oil tankers are currently heading toward the United States. According to him, these vessels, some among the largest in the world, are arriving to load what he called the “best and sweetest” oil and gas.
He further added that the US is effectively ready for rapid export turnover, reinforcing his message of energy readiness and dominance. “Massive numbers of completely empty oil tankers, some of the largest anywhere in the World, are heading, right now, to the United States to load up with the best and “sweetest” oil (and gas!) anywhere in the World. We have more oil than the next two largest oil economies combined – and higher quality. We are waiting for you,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
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