President Donald Trump has said the United States will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz American territory, escalating his rhetoric over the waterway as the Iran conflict drives up fuel prices (Geo News).
“After we finish defeating Iran … pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said, to cheers from the audience.
He was speaking at the David S. Mack Center in Garden City, New York, at an event with Republican gubernatorial candidate and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, before a crowd of law enforcement personnel. He said the declaration would come “pretty soon” because he believed Iran was “being badly defeated” (CNN; CBC; The Hill).
It was unclear how seriously the remark was intended or whether it represents a policy position; some US outlets reported it as a joke about annexation, delivered at a campaign event rather than in any policy setting. It has no obvious basis in international law: Hormuz is a strait bordered by Iran and Oman, subject to the regime of transit passage under the law of the sea, and not territory any state can annex — a legal point that also cuts against Iran’s claim to charge tolls for passage.
Roughly 20 per cent of global oil and LNG shipments normally pass through the strait. Traffic has collapsed to a fraction of that: six vessels transited on one day this week against 125 to 140 before the war.
The economics are turning domestic for Trump. Brent has approached $90 a barrel and US petrol prices have climbed to around $4 a gallon. He urged Americans to accept the increase as the price of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, saying those who “pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” should see it as necessary. “What we’re doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves,” he said, adding he would never apologise for attacking Iran.
Higher fuel prices sit awkwardly against his campaign promise to lower energy costs, and Democrats are seeking to make the war’s economic fallout an issue before November’s midterm elections.
Trump also dismissed concerns about the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment supporting the war has run more than 260 days. Asked whether eight and a half months at sea was excessive, he said: “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” adding the ship was being replaced with a similar one. The carrier, with about 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard, left San Diego last November and has not made a port call in more than 200 days — a modern record for consecutive days at sea, according to Senator Richard Blumenthal. Several Democratic lawmakers have sought answers after families raised concerns about mental health, living conditions and supplies. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said reports of deteriorating conditions were “completely misrepresented”.
For Pakistan the strait is not rhetorical. It imports around 90 per cent of its energy, most of it through the Gulf, and is mediating between the two governments now trading claims over who owns the water it travels through.
