US has begun clearing Hormuz: Trump as tensed Iran ceasefire talks underway in Pak
He framed the purported move as a favour to countries, including several US allies, that he said did not have the 'courage or will to do this work themselves.'
US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted on Truth Social that the American military has begun "clearing out" the conflict-hit Strait of Hormuz and that all of Iran's minelaying ships have been sunk.
He framed the purported move as a favour to countries, including several US allies, that he said did not have the "courage or will to do this work themselves."
"We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others. Incredibly, they don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves," Trump said in the post.
Throughout the course of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Trump has repeatedly bashed US allies for not joining in on the US's military campaign against Iran.
He also reiterated his usual claims of obliterating Iran's military capabilities, saying, "Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft apparatus is nonexistent, Radar is dead, their Missile and Drone Factories have been largely obliterated along with the Missiles and Drones themselves."
Despite the repeated assertions by Trump, fear of Iranian attacks on shipping over the past several weeks has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical conduit that accounts for the movement of nearly 20 per cent of global energy supplies.
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump asserted that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen "soon." Across several posts, he also sent out a message with the same gist that several tanker ships were en route to the US to transport oil and gas to other countries.
"The Strait of Hormuz will soon be open, and the empty ships are rushing to the United States to 'load up'," he said in one of them. Throttling the strategic waterways has disrupted energy markets across the world.
PEACE TALKS IN ISLAMABAD
Trump's post came as the Pakistan-meditated trilateral talks aimed at ending the current war between Iran and the US took place in Islamabad. The negotiations were held face-to-face and witnessed the participation of US Vice President JD Vance, Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and the leader's son-in-law Jared Kushner; and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was accompanied by Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, according to a source cited by news agency Reuters.
Pakistan's Army Chief General Asim Munir was also present, they added. The direct talks followed a morning of mediation by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the Iranian side laid down its red lines that it said Washington must accept before the face-to-face dialogue could take place.
According to Iranian state media, among the conditions laid out by Tehran were the Strait of Hormuz, the release of Iran's blocked assets, the payment of war reparations, and the enforcement of a ceasefire across the Middle East.
Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA, has said that the three-party talks began after a reduction in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon and other unspecified preconditions were met.