Trump says US to reimpose naval blockade on Iran

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States was reinstating a naval blockade on Iran and would be reimbursed 20 per cent on all cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.

"The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE," Trump said on Truth Social.

"The U.S.A... will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World," he said.

He said the process would begin immediately, but did not elaborate.

The US president floated the idea earlier in a phone interview on Fox News' Fox & Friends programme, saying the US would probably take over the strait and should be reimbursed.

"We're going to keep the strait, and we'll probably run it. We'll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we'll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that."

Control of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil supplies, has become one of the main battlegrounds of the conflict.

"We're going to be reimbursed, because the other nations are very wealthy. They're on our side, and we can't be expected to do that for nothing," he said.

"We had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We've had 10 deals with these people, and so we're just going to hit them very hard," Trump said.

US and Iranian forces exchanged heavy missile and drone attacks over the weekend and into Monday.

The latest exchanges mark a sharp escalation in both the pace and geographic reach of attacks over the past week, casting doubt on an interim US-Iranian agreement signed last month to reopen the strait and halt hostilities while the sides pursued a further 60 days of negotiations.