President Donald Trump downplayed the threat posed by Iranian sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, even as other US officials have warned of their dangers.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said American forces had “swept mines and we’ve gotten most of them, we think.” He also said the strait would open “immediately” upon Iran signing a memorandum of understanding to cease armed hostilities “subject to a couple of areas being cleaned out, also of mines.” Tehran has balked at Trump’s peace terms and has yet to agree to a deal.
Trump also appeared to allude to a route that some ships had covertly taken along the Omani coast, with the assistance of the US military if needed. The quiet arrangement was previously reported by Bloomberg News.
“It’ll happen very quickly and we’ll take the southern route anyway,” the president said.
The effective closing of the Strait of Hormuz, touched off by the US and Israel’s assault on Iran in late February, set in motion a global energy crisis. Reopening the waterway, which typically carries about a fifth of worldwide energy flows, has become one of Trump’s top objectives in his attempt to secure a peace agreement with Tehran.
Shortly after Trump made the remarks, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to halt the war, underscoring the political anxieties in Washington over an unpopular foreign conflict that is taking an escalating economic toll on Americans — five months before midterm elections decide control of Congress.
Earlier Wednesday, the president had a call with Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar, according to the state-run Qatar News Agency, with the emir highlighting “the importance of prioritizing political and diplomatic solutions and dialogue between all parties.”
The two leaders spoke after Iran attacked the main American naval base in the region, located in Bahrain, and the Ali Al-Salem airbase in Kuwait. At least one person was killed in a separate strike on Kuwait’s civilian airport that caused significant damage and forced a suspension of flights for a few hours.
The Gulf leaders have all-too-recent memories of their region’s well-cultivated image as a peaceful, welcoming haven for international business being abruptly shattered when the beleaguered Iranian regime lashed out at them after the war with the US and Israel began on Feb. 28.
The US military said it had come under missile and drone assault shortly after hitting an empty oil tanker heading to Iran on Tuesday.
American forces struck a communications tower on the Iranian island of Qeshm near the strait as part of the skirmishes and the US said Iran had sent drones to attack commercial ships.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who appeared before Senate and House committees on Capitol Hill this week, has said that Iran laid mines in large parts of the strait and that commercial shipping still faces threats from Iranian drones.
Washington and Tehran have agreed on a rough framework to extend their truce by two months and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though negotiations over the final details are dragging on. At the same time, however, Israeli operations against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon further complicate those negotiations.
Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on Monday to abandon plans to bomb Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
Trump confirmed Wednesday having used expletives during the tense call.
“I was a little bit perturbed at him constantly fighting with Lebanon,” Trump said during a conversation with the host of the Pod Force One podcast, which was broadcast Wednesday.
But Netanyahu told CNBC in an interview also broadcast on Wednesday that his relationship with Trump had not shifted. “He’s been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House,” he said.
Photograph: Vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, near Khasab, Oman, on May 17, 2026; photo credit: AFP/Getty Images
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