On April 12, after the round of negotiations between the US and Iran ended in Pakistan without reaching an agreement, President Donald Trump issued a series of shocking statements, the most notable of which was the decision to blockade the Strait of Hormuz - a shipping route transporting about 1/5 of global oil supplies.
According to Mr. Trump, the US Navy will "immediately" deploy an operation to control all ships entering and leaving Hormuz. Not only stopping at blockading, Washington also announced that it would block any ship suspected of paying "transit fees" to Iran - what he called "global blackmail".
No ship pays illegal fees and is still safe at sea" - Mr. Trump emphasized, while saying that the US will conduct mine clearance that Iran is accused of deploying in this area.
The Strait of Hormuz has long been considered the world's energy nucleus, connecting the Persian Gulf with major consumption markets in Asia and Europe. Any military move here could immediately push oil prices up sharply and disrupt the global supply chain.
The US announcement of blockading the Strait of Hormuz takes place in the context that Iran was previously accused of restricting freedom of navigation, even threatening to drop naval mines in the area. This is also one of the main reasons why negotiations between the two sides fell into deadlock.
Mr. Trump affirmed that the prerequisite for reaching a peace agreement is that Iran must completely open this international waterway route. "They have promised, and now they must do it quickly" - he wrote on the social network Truth Social.
Not only stopping at Hormuz, the US leader also issued strong warnings about the possibility of direct attacks on Iran's infrastructure.
He declared that the US could collapse all energy sources, power plants, missile production facilities, even bridges and water supply systems.
We have destroyed almost their entire country in the past 40 days" - Mr. Trump said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo" program, while saying that the remaining targets - such as desalination plants, power grids - if attacked would cause "devastating impacts".
Notably, he also emphasized that the US "knows the location of each Iranian missile factory" and can act at any time. However, he said, it still "does not want to do that" because the consequences would take Iran decades to recover.
Despite repeated threats, Mr. Trump still predicts that Iran will soon return to the negotiating table and accept the US conditions.
They don't have any cards. I want all - and they will have to put them out," he said.
The US leader also defended his controversial statement earlier about "a civilization that can be wiped out at night", saying that it was these tough statements that forced Iran to sit down at the negotiating table.
