JERUSALEM, Israel – The military pressure on Iran is intensifying as President Trump announces a renewed blockade in the Strait of Hormuz while U.S. forces continue striking Iranian targets.
The military carried out another wave of strikes on Monday and Tuesday, hours after the president announced the U.S was reinstating the blockade aimed specifically at Iran in the Strait.
Speaking at the White House, Trump vowed to keep up military pressure on the Tehran regime.
“We’re hitting them very hard. We had a deal yesterday, or the day before yesterday; it was all done. … But we’re knocking out all of their offensive capability. And we’re controlling the Straits; we’re putting the blockade back, and it’s a blockade not for anybody but Iran,” he said.
Despite the renewed military action, the president insisted that the door to diplomacy remains open, but he cautioned that any agreement depends on the Iranian leaders’ willingness to negotiate.
“Now, with all of that being said, you have to get people that want to make something. … Because they’re stone-cold, crazy. They are crazy,” he remarked.
The White House also announced that the U.S. will impose a 20 percent fee on ships receiving American protection while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
When asked who should pay for that security, Trump offered a major shift in historic international trade policy.
“We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is we are going to be reimbursed for protection. …By the bountries that we’re helping.”
Hours later, U.S. Central Command launched a five-hour operation targeting Iranian military infrastructure. Officials say that precision strikes further reduced Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping. More than 50,000 U.S. service members remain deployed across the Middle East.
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Iran responded by attacking Bahrain and two U.A.E.-linked tankers transiting the Strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others.
Oil prices jumped on Monday as fears grew over the security of one of the world’s most critical energy corridors.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia exchanged fresh strikes, raising new concerns about the collapse of a fragile truce.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been placed under house arrest after authorities allegedly uncovered extensive contacts with Israel.
The report says that Israel spent years trying to recruit Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset and even viewed him as a potential leader in a post-regime Iran.
In Gaza, a senior U.N. official accused Hamas of interfering with humanitarian aid deliveries, saying they “endangered humanitarian personnel, intimidated workers delivering life-saving food assistance, and disrupted life-saving humanitarian operations.”
Armed men linked to Hamas also entered a World Food Programme warehouse on Saturday “and reportedly assaulted two truck drivers who were delivering humanitarian supplies,” the statement said.
