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Footage purportedly shows Iranian forces seize two vessels in the strait of Hormuz – video<\/p>\nDonald Trump has again said that the US has \u201ctotal control over the strait of Hormuz\u201d, adding that Iran\u2019s leadership was so hobbled by infighting that it was unclear who was in charge.<\/p>\n
But the US president\u2019s claim seemed questionable in the face of the seizure of two container ships by Iranian commandos and a US report warning it could take six months to clear the strait of mines.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments on Thursday came after US special forces boarded a stateless oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, which the Pentagon claimed was carrying Iranian crude oil.<\/p>\n
Footage purportedly shows Iranian forces seize two vessels in the strait of Hormuz – video<\/p>\n
The military operation took place hours after Iran\u2019s seizure of the two container ships, with the two sides continuing to impose competing blockades on the strait, keeping global oil prices at about $100 (\u00a374) a barrel.<\/p>\n
While US forces have proved capable of stopping ships coming out of Iranian ports, they have still not demonstrated the capacity to open the strait to vessels coming from ports in allied Gulf states.<\/p>\n
The impact of the dual blockades has been compounded by the presence of sea mines in the strait. In a briefing to Congress, the Pentagon warned it could take up to six months to clear all the suspected mines from the sea routes, according to a report in the Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Greek-owned Epaminondas has reportedly been detained by Iranian commandos. Photograph: IRIB TV\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The report said approximately 20 mines were thought to have been placed in the strait, some deposited by small boats, and others manoeuvred into place remotely, making them harder to locate. The Pentagon\u2019s warning suggested that the impact of the war on the global economy could linger long after any peace deal was agreed.<\/p>\n A Pentagon spokesperson described the report as \u201cinaccurate\u201d but did not provide specific objections. In his Truth Social post, Trump said that US minesweepers were working \u201cat a tripled up level\u201d and that he had ordered the US navy \u201cto shoot and kill\u201d any boat mining the waterway. \u201cThere is to be no hesitation,\u201d said Trump.<\/p>\n Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said in a CNBC interview that the world was facing \u201cthe biggest energy security threat in history\u201d.<\/p>\n A satellite image shows a fleet of small boats north of the strait of Hormuz near Iran\u2019s Kargan coast on Wednesday. Photograph: European Union\/COPERNICUS SENTINEL-2\/Reuters<\/p>\n On Thursday night, Trump was asked how long he was willing to wait for a peace deal with Iran and he replied: \u201cDon\u2019t rush me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTheir navy is gone. Their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone … maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we\u2019ll knock that out in about one day, if they did,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now … but I don\u2019t want to do that. I want to have it everlasting,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n Iran has refused to attend peace talks in Pakistan, a snub that Trump attributed to a lack of consensus in Tehran on negotiating strategy. The Iranian regime said it would not attend talks while the US was violating a Pakistani-brokered ceasefire, in particular during the imposition of a naval blockade.<\/p>\n Trump agreed to an \u201cindefinite\u201d extension<\/a> of the ceasefire on Tuesday and, despite the suspension of talks, he claimed on Thursday that the US had a firm grip on events in the strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquified fossil gas is transported.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have total control over the strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States navy. It is \u2018Sealed up Tight,\u2019 until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!\u201d Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday.<\/p>\n The president said he had agreed to the extension of the truce to give Iranian factions time to agree on a negotiating stance, and claimed there was disarray among their leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cIran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is!\u201d Trump said, adding that the rift was between \u201chardliners\u201d and \u201cmoderates\u201d.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s current supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, appears not to be as all-powerful<\/a> as his father, Ali, who was killed by Israeli missiles<\/a> in the first seconds of the surprise US-Israeli joint attack on 28 February, which triggered the current conflict.<\/p>\n Mojtaba Khamenei was also seriously wounded in the attack, but the New York Times on Thursday cited senior Iranian officials who claim that he remains \u201cmentally sharp and engaged\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOne leg was operated on three times and he is awaiting a prosthetic. He had surgery on one hand and is slowly regaining function. His face and lips have been burned severely, making it difficult for him to speak, the officials said, adding that, eventually, he will need plastic surgery,\u201d the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n A ballistic missile is displayed by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards during a pro-government demonstration at Enqelab Square in downtown Tehran. Photograph: Alireza Masoumi\/AP<\/p>\n The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) meanwhile appear to have greater influence in a more collective leadership, making it more hawkish overall, but it is far from clear that the regime is riven by policy disagreements.<\/p>\n The IRGC naval command said that the two detained ships \u2013 the Greek-owned Epaminondas and the Panamanian-flagged MSC Francesca \u2013 had endangered maritime security \u201cby operating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems\u201d, suggesting that they had turned off their location transponders.<\/p>\n Reports from the region suggested the container ships were part of a larger convoy of vessels seeking to exit through the strait of Hormuz after being trapped in the Gulf for the duration of the war.<\/p>\n Iran published footage on Thursday that appeared to show Iranian commandos pulling alongside the Francesca and climbing on board using rope ladders. On the same day, in an illustration of a growing propaganda war, the US released footage of what it said were US special forces descending on ropes from helicopters on to the deck of the stateless M\/T Majestic X.<\/p>\n The closure of the strait puts intense strain on the Iranian economy but, by restricting the global supply of oil, gas and petrochemicals including fertiliser, it also represents a political threat to Trump, in the form of higher petrol prices and general inflation in the run-up to US midterm elections in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has again said that the US has \u201ctotal control over the strait of Hormuz\u201d, adding that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-407794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}