It took less than 12 hours for President Donald Trump’s latest claims of victory in Iran to blow up in his face, as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard ship fired on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Saturday.
Iran’s military announced that it was again closing the vital waterway and putting it under “strict control” until the U.S. ended its blockade. It was a dizzying reversal after Iranian officials and Trump had said the strait was open to commercial vessels again on Friday.
The 79-year-old president had called journalists with the news of his triumphs on Friday afternoon. In a phone interview, he told USA Today that the standoff over the crucial waterway was “over.”
“It’s over, it’s a great victory,” he said. “We’ve had a great victory and we’re going to finish it off.”
He told CBS News that Iran “had agreed to everything,” including giving up enriched uranium—a major sticking point in the peace talks so far.
“Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we’ll take it to the United States,” he said.
On Air Force One on Friday night, Trump told journalists he would not end the blockade and instead hinted at his intention to ramp up military action if he didn’t get what he wanted.
Asked what he would do if the United States and Iran hadn’t reached a deal by the time the ceasefire ends on Wednesday, Trump admitted he didn’t know.
“But the blockade is going to remain. But maybe I won’t extend it. So you have a blockade, and unfortunately, we’ll have to start dropping bombs again,” he said.
It took Iran just a few hours to scuttle Trump’s claims about the enriched uranium.
“Enriched uranium is as sacred to us as Iranian soil and will not be transferred anywhere under any circumstances,” the Iranian government said in a statement.
And then, just before 7 a.m. Saturday morning, the UK Maritime Trade Operations office said a tanker had reported being approached by two Iranian Revolutionary Guard gun boats that then “fired upon the tanker.” There were no reported injuries.
A second incident involving a container ship being hit by an “unknown projectile which caused damage to some of the containers” was reported a bit later. A cruise ship also reported “sighting a splash in close proximity of the vessel.”
In a statement issued Saturday morning that was attributed to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Tehran said the United States would experience “the bitterness of new defeats.”
Speaking from the Oval Office on Saturday morning, Trump appeared blithely unbothered by the events overnight.
“They got a little cute, as they have been doing for 47 years. Nobody ever took them on, we took them on,” he said. “They can’t blackmail us.”
“It’s going actually along very well, and we’ll see, but we’ll have some information by the end of the day.”
