Iran Threatens to Fully Close Strait of Hormuz Day After Ceasefire

Fox News anchor John Roberts reported on Wednesday that Iran is “up to its old tricks” and is threatening again to close the Strait of Hormuz, the key energy hub in the Persian Gulf, just a day after announcing a ceasefire with the U.S.

“Now, so Martha, Iran seems to be up to its old tricks again, now saying, well, because Israel is attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was one of their conditions for Israel to stop — that President Trump never agreed to, as far as we know — Iran is now saying we’re going to close the Strait of Hormuz again. How do you think the president is going to react?” Roberts asked anchor Martha MacCallum, ahead of a White House press briefing.

“Yeah, probably not well. But it’s been pretty clear when you look at the 10 points from Iran and what we’ve learned — we haven’t seen the entire 15-point list, but we know from the president and what he’s talked about, what he sees in it — and that is a free and open Strait of Hormuz. And as Jacqui [Heinrich] just mentioned, he spoke with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, President Trump, earlier today and suggested that it’s a joint venture, potentially,” MacCallum replied, adding:

We look at the model in Venezuela, where the president is very enthusiastic about the deal that has happened that allows the United States to be a participant in the economic — you know, the economic oil adventure that has happened in Venezuela — has been beneficial. So he wants to see some sort of transactional arrangement along those lines here.

And so far, it looks like Iran is not on board with this. The other thing that I think is going to be interesting to see, in terms of questions for Karoline Leavitt, is the president had described the new regime in Iran as more forward-looking, a bit more reformist, easier to deal with — things along those lines he said. But now we know that it was Mojtaba Khamenei, who was rumored to be dead or badly injured, who was the person who was passing these notes and making this deal.

He is a hardliner, still very much in charge. So I think there’s a lot that needs to be hammered out here in terms of the future for Iran and what kind of nation it is, and whether or not it’s going to threaten us with terrorism there and around the world and in the Middle East in the future. All these things are very big questions for this news conference today.

Fox’s chief foreign correspondent, Trey Yingst, reported earlier that Iranian media had claimed ships were no longer allowed to pass through the Strait following Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.

Watch the clips above via Fox News

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