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Two US Navy warships have transited the Strait of Hormuz at the start of an operation to clear the strategic waterway of mines laid by Iran, US Central Command said Saturday.
The announcement — which marks the first such transit since the US-Israeli war with Iran began — came shortly after President Donald Trump said Washington had started “clearing out” the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes.
“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” said CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper.
The USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy are the guided-missile destroyers involved in the operation, but CENTCOM said that “additional US forces including underwater drones” could join the effort in coming days.
Earlier, US media outlet Axios reported that the operation was not coordinated with authorities in Tehran.
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, calling it “a favor” to countries such as China, Japan and France that “don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.”
He insisted that Iran is “LOSING BIG!” in the conflict, while acknowledging that Iranian mines in the strategic strait still pose a threat.
“The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may ‘bunk’ into one of their sea mines,” Trump wrote.
The key shipping lane off the coast of Iran has been virtually blocked by Tehran since the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, though reopening the strait was ostensibly a condition of the shaky ceasefire put in place earlier this week.
Senior Iranian and American officials held face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan on Saturday in a bid to bring an end to a conflict that has plunged the Middle East into violence and sent shockwaves through the world economy.
In an earlier post, Trump said that empty tankers were headed to the United States from around the world to purchase oil, without providing details.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday warned Iran against imposing a toll for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran agreed to reopen the crucial route as part of a two-week ceasefire.
“There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait — They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
In a second message just a few minutes later, Trump added that “very quickly, you’ll see Oil start flowing, with or without the help of Iran.”
Oil prices crashed and stock markets surged around the world on Wednesday after the United States and Iran agreed a two-week conditional ceasefire, with global investors exhaling collectively at the first serious off-ramp from a war that had pushed crude above $110 a barrel and rattled financial markets for five weeks.
Brent crude fell 13.5 percent to $94.36 a barrel by late Wednesday afternoon London time — its steepest single-day decline since the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020. US crude dropped 15.5 percent to $95.36. Wall Street posted its biggest single-day rally in a year, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 1,300 points, or 2.9 percent, to close at 47,909. The S&P 500 advanced 2.5 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 2.8 percent. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi soared 7.5 percent, Japan’s Nikkei gained more than 5 percent and Australia’s benchmark index rose 2.55 percent. Europe’s Stoxx 600 recorded its best session in a year, gaining 3.7 percent.
The trigger was a deal struck with just over an hour remaining before Trump’s self-imposed deadline for strikes on Iranian power plants and bridges. The president said he was holding off on his threatened bombardment, subject to Tehran accepting a two-week ceasefire and allowing passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s national security council confirmed it had accepted the terms if attacks against the country were halted. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Hormuz would be open to shipping for two weeks under the management of Iran’s military. Peace negotiations, Tehran said, would begin in Islamabad on Friday.
Investors placed a combined $950 million bet on falling oil prices just hours before the ceasefire was announced, Reuters reported — a detail that will fuel questions about what was known and when.
