US Vice President JD Vance is in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland on Sunday representing the US in the meeting with Iran, Pakistan and Qatar to sign the US-Iran peace deal. Despite the ongoing talks, reports suggest that things still remain heated between the US and Iran despite the ongoing talks.
The reason for the heat is the row over the Strait of Hormuz. While the US-Iran peace deal was agreed upon on June 14, which mandated the opening of the Strait of Hormuz fully within 30 days, Iran closed it on Friday again after Israel attacked Lebanon. The attack, a statement from Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said, was a violation of the MOU of the peace deal and hence they are closing the Strait again.
As Vance met with Iranian officials for the first round of US Iran talks, the Strait of Hormuz remained closed with radar-indicated traffic volume going down to almost zero. Additionally shipping insurer Chubb’s CEO claimed that the passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains a “hour to hour” situation, per Bloomberg. The outlet also reported that some traffic continues to flow through the Strait of Hormuz, with three Indian tankers emerging on Sunday.
Data on MarineTraffic.com shows some activity of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Amid that, Fox News reported that Trump has threatened to take over and “blow the sh** out of” Iran if they don’t open the Strait of Hormuz.
Also read: Who won the West Asia war? 92% Israelis say Iran, majority reject Netanyahu’s victory claims
Trump’s Explosive Threats To Iran
According to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, Trump had an explosive phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Yingst said Trump told Pezeshkian to “watch his mouth” after the latter said that Iran would not give up on Uranium enrichment. According to Yingst, the language of the call was quite violent.
“He better watch his mouth… or we will take over the rest of the country,” Trump reportedly told Pezeshkian.
The 79-year-old then reportedly threatened Iranian officials attending the talks in Switzerland saying that they will not “make it back to your f******country” if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
“You close it and you won’t have a country… You won’t even make it back to your f****** country,” he said, per Yingst.
Also read: Donald Trump says no toll on Strait of Hormuz, threatens a US levy if Iran talks fail
Senator Lindsey Graham Claims To Reveal Trump’s Plan
Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on the CBS Show ‘Face The Nation’ talking about the US-Iran MOU and the Switzerland talks. Graham said he had spent 4.5 hours with Trump on Friday and understood from the talks that Trump is planning to take over the Strait of Hormuz by force and control it if thr deal fails.
He even claimed that Trump was planning to collect a fee from Hormuz for ships to pass when the US would have control over it.
“I spent 4.5 hours with President Trump on Friday. Here’s what I think will happen next,” Graham said. “If this deal fails, President Trump is gonna take the Strait of Hormuz over by force.
“We’ll charge a fee for all those who go through to pay for the operation… if Iran contests control of the Strait of Hormuz by the United States, we’ll obliterate them,” he added.
