Iran has the ability to attack many US targets, and Trump says the US is reinstating the Iranian blockade, all ships will have to pay 20% of the value of the cargo for protection

 

This legalizes the collection of money in Hormuz, the only question is who will be able to collect that money.

 

“US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US is reinstating the blockade of Iranian ports and imposing a fee on all ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.

 

“The Strait of Hormuz is open and will remain open, with or without Iran. We are reinstating the Iranian blockade, so called because it only prevents Iranian ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will be able to use the Strait fairly and freely,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social network.

 

He added that “the United States will now be known as the ‘Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz,’ but as such and in the interest of fairness, it will receive a 20% compensation on the value of all cargo shipped for all costs necessary to ensure safety and security in this very volatile region of the world. This process and the creation of the structure will begin immediately.”

 

Earlier on Monday, in an interview with Fox News, Trump said that the United States intends to take over the Strait of Hormuz and should receive compensation for control of this vital waterway.

 

“We will guard the Strait and, probably, control it. We will become the guardians of the Strait,” Trump said on Fox and Friends, adding that the United States has guarded it “for nothing” until now, but now rich countries will reimburse them for the costs.

 

“We will be paid to protect him. A lot of money, but we just want to be compensated for doing all this, for putting our people in danger,” he added.

 

He also complained about the tactics of Iranian negotiators, saying they were trying to change what was agreed upon “yesterday” in hours of talks.

 

Iran’s military warned on Monday that it would not allow the United States to “interfere” in the management of the Strait of Hormuz.

 

“The two countries had agreed to lift the blockade and reopen the Strait of Hormuz under a memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.

 

Another wave of strikes

 

The US military launched a new wave of strikes against Iran on Sunday after several of Washington’s allies in the Gulf region were shelled in renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz.

 

The clashes on Sunday evening are the latest development undermining a tentative agreement between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending a war that has wreaked global economic havoc since it began in late February.

 

The latest attack by US forces began at 9 p.m. GMT on Sunday, the Central Command (CENTCOM) said on its social media account “X,” after about 140 strikes were carried out overnight.

 

Iranian state media said the US strikes targeted large areas in southern and western Iran, including Qeshm Island and Bandar Abbas near the strait, and Khuzestan province bordering Iraq.

 

Oil prices, which fell after the deal was announced, rose more than 3.5% in Tokyo on Monday, with U.S. benchmark WTI crude surging above $74 a barrel.

 

Iran also reported strikes on two of its southern islands on Sunday evening, while Kuwait, where Tehran has repeatedly targeted U.S. targets, said border posts and an offshore oil platform had been attacked.

 

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its forces had carried out several retaliatory operations overnight, targeting US military bases, missile depots and fuel depots in Jordan, a helicopter base, electronic warfare aircraft and a drone control center in Bahrain, as well as a Patriot air defense system in Kuwait.

 

Meanwhile, the Jordanian military said on Monday it had shot down four Iranian missiles over the country.

 

The renewed fighting came after Iran attacked a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz early Sunday, forcing its crew to abandon ship after it caught fire.

 

The IRGC said after the incident that "the Strait of Hormuz will be closed until further notice and until the end of American interventions in the region," the state news agency IRNA reported.

 

CENTCOM’s social media account, “X,” denied that the strait was “open to all vessels seeking to legally transit it.”

 

The military command added that U.S. forces were “positioned and ready to ensure” freedom of navigation, saying, “Iran does not control the strait. Traffic is flowing.”

 

Control of the strategic waterway has become Iran’s main leverage, with an adviser to the country’s supreme leader saying on Sunday that it was more important than “dozens of nuclear bombs.”

 

Mediators are trying to salvage a diplomatic solution to end the war after President Trump declared the end of the ceasefire last week.

 

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday’s U.S. attacks had “returned insecurity to the Strait of Hormuz” and “made all efforts” to establish peace in the region.

 

Iran also said on Monday that it would no longer abide by a memorandum of understanding signed with the United States if Washington did not fulfill its obligations to end the war.

 

“Every time another country failed to fulfill its obligations, we also failed to fulfill ours. We will continue to do so,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeili Baqaei said at a news conference in Tehran.”