Trump said Thursday there would be “major military punishment” for both Iran and the Houthis after the Yemen-based rebels struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, days after saying they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.
“If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Thursday.
He also said later Thursday that Washington would use Iranian assets held by the U.S. to pay for “any damages to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto,” sparking outcry from Tehran.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the threat an “incendiary precedent.”
“Those who celebrate or profit from such funds should remember: once governments normalize confiscation, no one’s assets are safe,” Araghchi said in a post on X early Friday local time.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a near-standstill amid the continued Iranian attacks.
The sole vessel to cross fully through the strait on Thursday was the New Giant oil tanker, heading for Rizhao in China.
The picture was less clear in the Red Sea, where some ships have turned around in the face of the Houthi threat but traffic did not seem to have slowed overall.
In the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Thursday, 8 tankers travelled north through the chokepoint into the Red Sea, with 14 traveling south into the Gulf of Aden, according to an NBC News analysis of MarineTraffic data.
Some ships may have had their transmitters switched off, and so actual numbers may be higher.
With both blockades fueling fears over global energy supplies, the price of international benchmark Brent crude oil jumped above the $100 a barrel threshold on Thursday for the first time since May before dropping back down. As of Friday morning, it hovered around $97 a barrel.
And the two sides continued to exchange airstrikes.
U.S. Central Command said it had completed a 13th straight night of strikes against Iran at 9 p.m. ET on Thursday.
CENTCOM said it targeted “Iranian military command centers, drone storage facilities, communication networks, coastal surveillance sites, and maritime capabilities to further diminish the threat Iran poses to civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz.”
Impacts were reported across Iran, with state-run news agency IRNA reporting that four people were killed and five injured in the area of Ahvaz.
Tehran launched new strikes, including on U.S. bases in Kuwait, with Bahrain also activating sirens. Explosions were reported near a military base hosting U.S. forces in northern Iraq.
And as fears of further escalation grow, hopes the peace process may be revived have dimmed.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Thursday paid his first official visit to Iran since assuming office in May, notable given Iraq’s close ties to both Washington and Tehran.
Trump said Thursday that the Iranians did “want to negotiate” but were not prepared to make a deal yet.
“They haven’t received enough pain yet,” he told Axios.
Richard Engel reported from Jerusalem, and Chantal Da Silva and Matthew Mulligan from London.
