Trump signals plan to claim Hormuz ‘soon’

• Urges Americans to accept higher gas prices to stop Iran going nuclear • UAE accuses Tehran of attacking two vessels; shipping in the strait comes to near standstill • Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Doha condemn strikes, demand unconditional return to free navigation • Houthis strike Saudi oil site, Yemen’s Mocha port; eight killed • JD Vance confirms keeping US energy prices down is ‘goal number one’; Bessent vows sanctions ‘world has never seen’ against Tehran GARDEN CITY: US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would “soon” declare the strategic Strait of Hormuz a US territory once Iran is defeated, even as fresh attacks on Emirati oil tankers brought maritime traffic in the vital waterway to a near standstill. Trump’s remarks at a New York rally underscored the escalating international struggle over the narrow corridor, where a grinding stalemate of retaliatory blockades has shifted Washington’s immediate wartime focus from containing Iran’s nuclear programme to preventing an energy crisis that could hit Americans at the pump. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said with a chuckle during an appearance at a police academy in New York state. “It’s true.” “We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters and police. He urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices as the cost of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Trump said Americans who had to “pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” should remember that this was the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” could not have a nuclear weapon. “What we’re doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves … and we’re really doing a great job,” said Trump, adding he would never apologise for attacking Iran. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates a