In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing maritime standoff between US and Iran in West Asia, President Donald Trump has issued a direct “shoot and kill” order directing the US Navy to attack any ‘boat’ that is deploying mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump announced his latest directive for the US armed forces via a Truth Social post on Thursday evening.
The latest inflammatory post from the US president comes at a precarious moment for global energy markets as the one of the world’s most critical maritime routes for oil supply remains locked out for vessels due to a high-stakes military and diplomatic tug-of-war.
Notably, Trump’s latest directive comes minutes after the executive director of International Energy Agency Executive Director, Fatih Birol claimed that the world is facing the biggest threat to energy security in history in light of the ongoing West Asia crisis prompted by Israel and US’ war on Iran.
Trump tells navy to ‘Tripled Up’ sweeping operations
As per analysts interviewed by Reuters, Trump’s latest post signaled a departure from the cautious optimism of earlier this week. “I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be… that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” the President stated.
Following his post directing the US Navy to attack all boats deploying mines and speed up the mine sweeping operations. Trump also alleged that constant fighting takes place between Iranian leaders in Tehran.
“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between hardliners who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the moderates, who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect), is CRAZY!,” the American President posted on Truth Social.
In his latest post on Truth Social, the republican president also claimed that the opposing naval fleet of Iran has already suffered devastating losses. “Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea,” he wrote, though independent verifications of such a tally remain elusive.
As a part of his broader directive to the US navy announced by a social media post, Donald Trump ordered a “tripled up” level of mine-sweeping activity in the Strait, underscoring Washington’s commitment to eliminating the mine-based danger of travelling through Hormuz.
The “shoot-to-kill” order follows reports of a surge in tanker seizures. The American navy recently stated that it has seized another oil tanker associated with Iran.
“Overnight, US forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean,” an AP report stated.
Decoding the Islamabad Deadlock
The aggressive posturing arrives just days after the much-anticipated Islamabad Peace Talks failed to yield an executable memorandum of understanding. Mediated by Pakistan, the talks between the U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf earlier in April had hit a stalemate over two non-negotiable points:
The Nuclear Program: Iran’s refusal to accept new constraints on enrichment.
The Blockade: Iran’s insistence that the Strait remains “sovereign territory” until U.S. sanctions are fully dismantled.