US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill any boat” laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a sharp escalation of rules of engagement in the waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil.
“There is to be no hesitation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He said he was also ordering US minesweepers to continue clearing the strait “at a tripled up level!”
“We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a second post. “No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is ‘Sealed up Tight,’ until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!”
The order marks the most aggressive public US rules-of-engagement language since Washington imposed a retaliatory naval blockade on Iranian ports in late February. It came on the same day US forces seized the oil tanker Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and a day after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards took control of two commercial vessels passing through the strait.
US Central Command said it has directed 31 ships to turn around or return to port since the blockade began. More than 30 vessels have come under attack in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman since the war started on February 28.
Trump separately announced on Thursday that Iran had agreed to halt the planned execution of eight women convicted in anti-regime protests, saying four would be released immediately and four would serve one-month sentences. Iran’s judiciary rejected the claim, calling it a “fabrication” and denying the women had faced capital sentences.
The escalation in rhetoric came after Trump unilaterally extended the fragile US-Iran ceasefire earlier this week. Tehran said on Thursday it does not recognise that extension and will not return to negotiations while the blockade remains in force.
The “sealed up tight” framing deepens the outlook for Sri Lanka’s fuel import routes, already squeezed by Brent crude above $105 and rising shipping insurance premiums.
