President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he expects the Strait of Hormuz to “automatically open” at the conclusion of the Iran war, which he said will likely end soon.
Trump said the United States’s forces are “obliterating” Iranian military forces, but there is more work to do to rid the country of its offensive capabilities.
“I think it’ll automatically open, but my attitude is, I’ve obliterated the country,” Trump told the New York Post. “They have no strength left, and let the countries that are using the strait, let them go and open it … because I would imagine whoever’s controlling the oil will be very happy to open the strait.”
Trump has called on other countries to aid in opening the strait as oil and gas prices continue to rise. The United Kingdom and France have chosen to take a more diplomatic approach to the conflict and have closed their respective airspaces to U.S. military forces en route to Israel.
Iran has blocked oil tankers and other shipping vessels from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil supply passes, since the war began Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iranian leadership and nuclear infrastructure.
The president shared his comments about the state of the war after he was asked about a 31-second video he shared via Truth Social of an Iranian ammunition depot being hit during a U.S. airstrike.
“We won’t have to be there much longer — but we have more work to do in terms of killing their offensive, whatever offensive capability they have left,” Trump said.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported the president said he was willing to end the war without opening the waterway, and Trump reiterated that his end goal in the war is ensuring Iran does not have access to a nuclear weapon, not who controls the Strait of Hormuz.
TRUMP TELLS ALLIES TO ‘JUST TAKE’ JET FUEL FROM IRAN AS US HAS DONE ‘THE HARD PART’
He also explained that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was “actually bigger than we thought” but that U.S. forces are taking away the country’s nuclear ability and have secured a regime change that is “much more reasonable than previous.”
Pakistan has positioned itself as a mediator between Iran and the U.S., but Trump said he would not reveal whether he would dispatch a negotiating team to meet with the Iranian diplomats in Pakistan.
