The Armed Forces of Iran have claimed this Thursday to have placed “more mines” in the so-called southern corridor in the Strait of Hormuz and have mocked the proposal of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to put his name on this strategic passage, amid the tensions and exchanges of attacks in recent days.
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“During an operation last night more naval mines were placed on illicit routes in the southern area of the Strait of Hormuz,” said the spokesperson for the Jatam al Anbiya command – the unified combat command of the Iranian Armed Forces -, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, in a message published on social media.
Thus, he stated that “the only thing” the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East, could do was “change the name of the strait using Photoshop.” “Problem solved. They can also use Photoshop to make the tankers pass (through the strait),” he mocked.
Zolfaqari was referring to the suggestion made on Wednesday by Trump to rename the strait in his honor. “Now that it is under U.S. control, should we change the name of the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait?” he said in a message also posted on social media.
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Iran has repeatedly spoken out against the viability of maritime transit through the southern corridor. In fact, when announcing last week a preliminary understanding with Oman for the management of traffic through the strategic passage, Tehran assured that the agreement includes the closure of this route, which the United States claims to control in coordination with regional partners.
For his part, Trump stated on August 25 that the Strait of Hormuz is free of mines and warned Tehran that he “will destroy any ship that tries to place them again in the strategic passage.” After that, two people died on Monday due to an “incident” in the area during the passage of a Saudi-flagged ship, while two other ships hit mines on Wednesday.
