President Donald Trump has said he ordered the United States Navy to \u201cshoot and kill\u201d any Iranian boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could jeopardise the fragile ceasefire between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The US president also said on Thursday that the military will heighten its efforts to remove explosives from the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cI have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation,\u201d Trump wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n \u201cAdditionally, our mine \u2018sweepers\u2019 are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled-up level!\u201d<\/p>\n Iranian officials have repeatedly promised that their country would defend itself and respond to any US attack.<\/p>\n Hormuz \u2013 which had been open without interruption before the war \u2013 has emerged as a major point of contention in this war.<\/p>\n Iran closed down the strait in response to the US-Israeli military campaign, and it is now suggesting that it has rights to the passage that links the Gulf to the Indian Ocean \u2013 parts of which go through Iranian territorial waters.<\/p>\n The\u00a0closure of Hormuz has spiked oil prices, putting political pressure on Trump at home in the US,\u00a0where the price of one gallon (3.8 litres) of petrol has surpassed $4,<\/span>\u00a0up from $3 before the conflict.<\/p>\n About 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas flowed through Hormuz before the war.<\/p>\n After a two-week ceasefire came into effect last month, Trump announced a naval siege on Iranian ports and kept it in place even after Tehran announced reopening Hormuz in response to the inclusion of Lebanon in the truce.<\/p>\n Iran has set lifting the blockade as a precondition for resuming talks with the US.<\/p>\n Trump extended the ceasefire that was set to expire on Wednesday, but Washington has kept its blockade on Iran-linked ships.<\/p>\n The Pentagon said on Thursday that the US military conducted a \u201cmaritime interdiction and right-of-visit\u201d to a tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, the US military also said it seized an Iranian vessel and ordered dozens of others to turn around.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Iran has also captured foreign commercial vessels around the Hormuz Strait, which it said were in violation of naval regulations.<\/p>\n The duelling blockades risk re-igniting the war. The US has not set a deadline for the extended truce.<\/p>\n The White House said on Wednesday that Trump is \u201csatisfied\u201d with the siege on Iran.<\/p>\n Although Iran has all but halted vessel traffic in the waterway, Trump said on Thursday that the US has \u201ctotal control over the Strait of Hormuz\u201d, adding that the passage is \u201csealed up tight\u201d.<\/p>\n The US president also reiterated his claim that the Iranian leadership is divided.<\/p>\n \u201cIran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don\u2019t know!\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n \u201cThe infighting is between the \u2018Hardliners\u2019, who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the \u2018Moderates\u2019, who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY!\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Trump shared a post by conservative commentator Marc Thiessen, calling for the assassination of Iranian officials who oppose diplomacy with the US.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there are two factions in Iran, one that wants a deal and one that doesn\u2019t, let\u2019s kill the ones who don\u2019t want a deal,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Despite Trump\u2019s repeated claims, there has been no evidence of a rift within the leadership in Iran.<\/p>\n Although US and Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several top officials, there have been no major defections within the ruling system.<\/p>\n Last month, Khamenei was replaced by his son Mojtaba, who had been wounded in US attacks, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n Mojtaba Khamenei is yet to make a public appearance since he succeeded his slain father, raising speculation about his health.<\/p>\n But Iranian officials, including the lead negotiators \u2013 Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf \u2013 have voiced a unified position in rejecting the US blockade.<\/p>\n Iranian leadership also agreed to the ceasefire and enforced it earlier this month.<\/p>\n Later on Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian responded to Trump\u2019s claims, saying that there are \u201cno radicals or moderates\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all \u2018Iranian\u2019 and \u2018revolutionary\u2019, and with the iron unity of the nation and government, with complete obedience to the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, we will make the criminal aggressor regret his actions,\u201d Pezeshkian wrote on X.<\/p>\n Tehran also praised the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideologically driven military branch spearheading the war effort.<\/p>\n \u201cWe salute the noble defenders and guardians of the homeland, and honour the memory of the crimson-shrouded martyrs of the IRGC,\u201d Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X, marking the anniversary of the establishment of the Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Donald Trump has said he ordered the United States Navy to \u201cshoot and kill\u201d any Iranian boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could jeopardise the fragile ceasefire between the two countries. The US president also said on Thursday that the military will heighten its efforts to remove explosives from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-23T090706Z_1127662758_RC2WUKA6DFYK_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-CRISIS-1776953613.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C494&quality=80\")
Dueling blockades<\/h2>\n
Trump says Hormuz \u2018sealed up tight\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"