New Delhi: US President Donald Trump announced the ‘permanent opening’ of the Strait of Hormuz after ordering a complete naval blockade on maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports last weekend. He framed it as a favour for China and ‘the World’, and said that ‘President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug’ when he meets him next week.
“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also—and the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran. President Xi will give me a big, fat hug when I get there in a few weeks. We are working together smartly and very well! Doesn’t that beat fighting??? BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to – far better than anyone else!!!”, he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social Wednesday.
In a Fox News interview earlier Tuesday, Trump said the war is “close to over” as he hinted at another round of peace talks in Pakistan in the coming days. “I think it’s close to over, yeah, I mean, I view it as very close to over,” he said.
Donald Trump also said he had exchanged letters with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, urging him not to provide weapons to Iran. He added that Xi had “essentially” assured him that China was “not doing that.”
Iran earlier warned that it could target shipping routes beyond the Strait of Hormuz if the United States maintains its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Its military signaled potential disruptions to trade across the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman.
Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said that if the blockade “creates insecurity for Iran’s merchant and oil tanker vessels,” Tehran would consider it a breach of the ceasefire.
In that case, the Iranian armed forces “will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman or the Red Sea,” he said in a statement carried by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim agency.
(Edited by Varnika Dhawan)
Also Read: US blockade to choke Iran’s economic lifelines—its ports. From Kharg to Chabahar
President Trump and President Xi warmly embracing each other. What could possibly be better for world, radiating out wards from Asia. For two such consequential powers and economies, intense competition is inevitable. However, stopping far short of the Thyucidides trap, it should not veer into even ( proxy ) conflict. Not should the world be deprived of the benefits of globalisation simply because China has made such a stunning success of it.