JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump said he was negotiating with seven countries to discuss efforts to secure shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the presidential plane, about Operation "Epic Fury", Sunday (15/3), Trump confirmed that the US government had a dialogue with a number of countries related to the Strait of Hormuz the night before.
One of the countries he invited to participate was China, which Trump said gets 90 percent of the crude oil shipped to the country through the Strait of Hormuz.
"They get their oil, a lot of it, about 90 percent, from the strait. So I ask, 'do you want to join?'. We'll find out later. Maybe they want to, maybe not," Trump said, quoted by ANTARA from Anadolu.
Meanwhile, speaking about Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Trump claimed a video on social media showing 250,000 people cheering in support of Khamenei as a video of "artificial intelligence (AI) fabrication" and "never happened".
"It is definitely an AI creation and it never happened. The media knows it didn't happen, but they report it as if he had a big support. He has no support from anyone," he said.
Trump also assured that oil prices would soon fall once the war ended, while stressing that the war with Iran would "soon" end.
The Strait of Hormuz, which stretches between Iran in the north to the Musandam Peninsula in Oman at the southernmost point, is one of the most important shipping routes for global oil and gas supplies.
Iran has effectively closed the strait since early March following a joint US-Israeli attack on the country on February 28, which has so far killed 1,300 people, including Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Shipping disruptions in the strait triggered a rise in global oil and fertilizer prices, raising concerns about energy supplies and food prices.
On Saturday, President Trump said countries that get their oil from the strategic shipping lanes must be responsible for securing the Strait of Hormuz, while ensuring assistance from the US.
Previously, he said the escort of US Navy ships to tankers that stopped in the Strait of Hormuz could begin in the near future.
Source: Anadolu
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