US President Donald Trump has suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself, again asserting that the strategic waterway is under US control despite near-daily Iranian attacks on vessels in the area.
Trump made the suggestion Wednesday, less than 24 hours after US forces struck several targets in Iran, killing at least four people, including two children, at a wedding in the southern city of Sirik.
“Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” Trump wrote in a social media post.
“Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!”
Iran responded to Tuesday’s US strikes by launching missiles at US bases in the region. The escalation sent oil prices up by around 4 percent.
Despite repeated claims by US officials that the Strait of Hormuz is open and that millions of barrels of oil are passing through the waterway each day, oil prices have not declined in recent weeks.
Iran, meanwhile, continues to maintain that the waterway is closed and remains under its control.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia accused Iran of striking an oil tanker, killing two people.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a monitoring agency affiliated with the British Royal Navy, has reported attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz almost every day.
In the US, gasoline prices have also been rising. The average price reached $4.12 per gallon on Wednesday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), up from below $3 before the war began on Feb. 28.
When Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the conflict by attacking Iran and killing its supreme leader earlier this year, Trump had said the war would last six weeks.
However, the promised quick end to what Trump initially described as a “little excursion” failed to materialise. The conflict entered its seventh month last week.
Trump has nevertheless continued to claim victory and control over the Strait of Hormuz, repeatedly saying that Iran has been militarily defeated despite its continued ability to strike US interests in the region.
Following Tuesday’s US strikes, Trump warned Tehran against retaliating, saying Iran would be “hit again at a much harder and higher level” if it responded.
Within hours, however, Iran’s military launched missiles and drones at US bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq.
Trump’s “Trump Strait” proposal on Wednesday was the latest attempt by the US president to assert control over a conflict that critics say was a strategic miscalculation and is turning into a quagmire.
Last month, Trump said he considered the Strait of Hormuz to be “American territory.”
Last week, he also unilaterally renamed Lake Ontario, which borders the US and Canada, as “Lake America” amid ongoing trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa.
#From Al Jazeera