President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the U.S. Navy to "shoot and kill" Iranian boats still placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, as American warships embark on the time-consuming task of locating bombs in the waterway and clearing it for commercial shipping.
The president’s push comes amid bubbling concerns it could take months to root out all the mines in the strait, a critical transit lane for 20 percent of the world’s oil.
Trump did not directly address how long it will take to clear the waterway, but urged the Navy to target any remaining boats still placing mines.
“There is to be no hesitation,” he wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “Additionally, our mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!”
The president on Tuesday extended a shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran but said he’d continue an American blockade on Iranian shipping in the strait.
Iran slowed traffic on the waterway to a mere trickle in the weeks after the U.S. and Israel launched a joint operation against Tehran in February. It sent global gas prices skyrocketing.
The U.S. blockade has strained relations even more, with Tehran now halting peace talks until it lifts.
Further talks have not yet been scheduled, but Trump said earlier this week that it was “possible” that talks picked back up this weekend.
Experts worry that if a vessel were damaged or destroyed by a mine in the waterway, it would only further choke off trade.
The White House has taken pains to play down the threat of Iran’s boats on the strait in recent days, especially after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two foreign vessels in the waterway Wednesday. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that the seizures did not constitute a violation of the ceasefire and said it was evidence that the U.S. military campaign was working.
“And for the American media who is sort of blowing this out of proportion to discredit the president’s facts — that he has completely obliterated Iran’s conventional Navy — these two ships were taken by speedy gunboats,” she said. “Iran has gone from having the most lethal Navy in the Middle East to now acting like a bunch of pirates.”
In a separate post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump boasted that “Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is,” and said the country's hard-liners were at odds with its moderates.
“We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. “No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is ‘Sealed up Tight,’ until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!”
