Trump seeks 20 pc fee to guard Hormuz

Washington, July 14 (IANS) US President Donald Trump on Monday declared that the United States would become the “Guardian of the Hormuz Strait” and said countries using the strategic waterway would have to reimburse Washington “at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped” for providing security in one of the world’s most volatile maritime corridors.

He said the Strait of Hormuz would remain open “with or without Iran” as the United States reinstated what he called the “Iranian blockade”, allowing all countries except Iran and its customers to use the waterway freely.

Announcing the move on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump said. “We are reinstating the IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”

He added that “the process and formation will begin immediately.”

Hours earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Trump previewed the announcement, saying: “We’re going to keep the strait and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait, and we should be reimbursed for that.”

“When we do that, we’re going to be reimbursed because the other nations are very wealthy, they’re on our side, and we can’t be expected to do that for nothing,” he said.

Trump argued that Washington had protected shipping through the strategic passage for decades without compensation.

“We guarded the strait for 50 years, more, and we never got paid for it… now we’re going to guard it, and we’re going to get paid for guarding it, a lot of money,” he said.

The President also accused Iran of backing away from an agreement reached during recent negotiations.

“What nobody knows, we had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard,” Trump said.

He further claimed Iran’s military had been severely weakened.

“They have no navy, they have no air force, it’s all gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their leaders have all been killed,” he said, adding that recent US military action had prevented Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Trump’s latest announcement did not explain how the proposed 20 per cent reimbursement would be collected, whether it would apply to all commercial cargo transiting the Strait, or under what legal framework such a system would operate. The White House also did not immediately release additional details on implementation.

–IANS

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