WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is considering an operation with Iran to secure the Strait of Hormuz following a newly announced ceasefire with Tehran.
“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it, also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump told ABC News after announcing a two-week ceasefire.
Asked whether he would allow Iran to charge tolls in the strait, Trump said, “It’s a beautiful thing.”
An Iranian lawmaker said in late March that Tehran was collecting around $2 million in transit fees from some vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, describing it as a “new concept of sovereignty.”
Trump ruled out any uranium enrichment rights for Iran. “There won’t be any enrichment,” he said.
He added that US forces would not withdraw from the region, indicating they would remain to enforce any future agreements.
Trump said he expects peace talks to begin as early as Friday and anticipates they will move quickly. He also confirmed that China played a significant role in facilitating communications with Iran.
China welcomed the truce, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning saying Beijing “advocates for a ceasefire and resolving the conflict through political means” and had “made its own effort in this regard.”
Amid conflicting accounts about whether Lebanon is included in the agreement, Trump told PBS that the country was not covered by the ceasefire deal, citing Hezbollah as the reason. “They were not included in the deal. That’ll get taken care of too,” he said, adding that Israeli strikes on Lebanon were “a separate skirmish.”
The Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil transit route through which roughly 20 million barrels pass daily, was effectively disrupted by Iran after the launch of the US-Israeli offensive on Feb. 28.
The disruption drove up global oil prices and rattled financial markets. Iran agreed to reopen the waterway under ceasefire terms announced Tuesday, less than two hours before Trump’s deadline expired.
