US calls for help in
Photo: Asghar Besharati/AP/TT

US calls for help in Strait of Hormuz - Iran counters

The positions on the Strait of Hormuz are deadlocked. The US wants an international coalition to help get shipping through the blocked waterway back on track. Iran, in turn, has announced that the Strait of Hormuz will, in the future, be free of American influence.

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The US proposal - called Maritime Freedom Construct (MFC) - was reportedly sent out to US embassies around the world on Tuesday, with a call for them to work to get foreign governments to join the alliance.

"Your participation will strengthen our collective ability to restore freedom of navigation and protect the global economy," the communiqué states, according to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

The MFC is described as a joint initiative between the US Department of State and the military command CENTCOM.

Without the US

Iranian Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responds by stating that Iran will secure a future for the Strait of Hormuz without an American presence.

"Today, by controlling the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, along with its neighbors, will count itself lucky with a future free from American presence and interference," writes Ghalibaf on X.

The future of the Strait of Hormuz is crucial to any peace talks between Iran and the United States. Both countries claim to have established some form of blockade in the strait - Iran has mined the waterway and stopped ships that do not pay "tolls," while the United States stops all ships heading to and from Iranian ports. At the same time, parts of global trade have been strangled and fuel prices have soared.

“Stuffed pig”

Yesterday, US President Donald Trump told Axios that the blockade is more effective than bombing.

They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it will get worse for them.

But UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns of the consequences if the Strait of Hormuz continues to be closed and blocked.

The closure is "strangling the global economy," Guterres wrote in a press statement, going on to state that "it will take months to get supply chains back up and running" and that growth will be hampered and prices will rise even if the Strait of Hormuz is opened immediately, AFP reports.

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AuthorTT News AgencyEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers
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