President Donald Trump is asking other countries to send warships to the Middle East to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital gateway off the coast of Iran for the world’s oil supply.
“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump wrote Saturday in a post on Truth Social as the U.S. prepared to send thousands of additional troops to the region.
“In the meantime,” the president vowed, “the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water.”
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad, meanwhile, urged all American citizens to “leave Iraq immediately,” warning that Iran-backed militias have carried out numerous attacks on U.S. citizens and targets throughout Iraq.
In an exclusive interview with MS NOW’s Ayman Mohyeldin on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi railed against the Trump administration, saying, “We didn’t start this war. It was an unprovoked, unwarranted, illegal act of aggression against us, and we are only defending ourselves, and we continue to defend ourselves as much as it takes and as long as it takes in order to end this war in a way that it won’t be repeated in the future.”
He also said there was “no problem” with Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday was “wounded and likely disfigured.”
The U.S. struck more than 90 military targets Friday on Kharg Island, Iran’s major oil export terminal, in what appeared to be an effort to pressure Iran to open the strait.
Trump first announced the strike in a Truth Social post Friday night, saying the island’s oil infrastructure was left intact. But he threatened to strike its oil facilities “should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz.”
The U.S. hit naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers on the island, among other military sites, according to U.S. Central Command.
Roughly 90% of Iran’s oil is exported from Kharg Island. The strike has not appeared to deter Iran, however. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said its Navy remained in control of the Strait of Hormuz and reiterated that vessels “belonging to aggressors and their allies” are barred from the waterway, The New York Times reported, citing Iranian media.
“Any attempt to move or transit will be targeted,” it added.
Reuters also reported that the IRGC claimed it has a right to target U.S. interests in the United Arab Emirates in self-defense and warned civilians to evacuate ports, docks, and U.S. military shelters.
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Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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