US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States will probably take over the Strait of Hormuz and should be reimbursed for controlling the vital waterway.
"We're going to keep the strait, and we'll probably run it. We'll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we'll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that," Trump said in a phone interview on Fox News's "Fox & Friends" program. "We're taking over the strait. They've got nothing."
"We're going to guard it. We're going to get paid for guarding it - a lot of money," he added. "We're going to be reimbursed, because the other nations are very wealthy. They're on our side, and we can't be expected to do that for nothing."
Trump added that the US should have taken care of the Iranian threat "47 years ago," noting that the two countries agreed to "everything" during a recent 11-hour meeting in Washington, with Iran then demanding changes to the agreement.
He added that Iran "launched a drone at a ship" an hour after the negotiations concluded.
Trump: Iran 'got nothing from me'
"Everything's 11 hours with these guys," said Trump. "You know, you can't settle in one sentence and one hour and one minute. It should be one minute. And everything was agreed to yesterday. And they leave the room, and they call back, and they say we had to make a couple of changes."
"We're not going to make changes," he added. "Always changes. They just, you know, they're professional negotiators. That's all they are. I don't even call them good at it. They haven't gotten anything; they've got nothing from me. But if you look for 47 years, they've been tapping people along, presidents. Every president got tapped along, didn't do anything, and they became more and more powerful"
President Trump noted that Iran is getting its "a** kicked," emphasizing the effect of US kinetic action on Iranian military hardware and personnel, as well as its leaders.
US to charge 20% fee on Hormuz traffic
Later on Monday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that the US will "immediately" reinstate its blockade of Iran-linked ships in the Strait of Hormuz and charge a 20% fee on all cargo traffic "as a matter of fairness."
"The USA. will be, from this point forward, known as “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” wrote Trump. "All other countries [besides Iran] will have fair and open use of the Strait."
Trump described the 20% fee as "necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World."
"The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran," Trump wrote.
Following Trump's remarks, the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center announced that the military will start enforcing a maritime blockade on Iran beginning Tuesday.
Araghchi responds to Trump's claim on the Strait
Later on Monday in a post to X/Twitter, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi directly addressed Trump’s post, acknowledging the US's decision to impose a 20% fee on cargo.
“POTUS [Trump] is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service. Araghchi stated.
"20% is of course too much. We will be fair," he added.