Trump calls on countries to protect own ships in Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump has said that other countries, including China and Japan, should protect their own oil tankers in the Middle East, suggesting that the American military may withdraw from securing the Strait of Hormuz for international commerce.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump questioned why the United States has provided such protection for years “for zero compensation.”

“China gets 91% of its Oil from the Straight (sic), Japan 62%, & many other countries likewise. So why are we protecting the shipping lanes for other countries (many years) for zero compensation,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been … a dangerous journey,” Trump continued. “We don’t even need to be there in that the U.S. has just become (by far) the largest producer of Energy anywhere in the world!”

 “The U.S. request for Iran is very simple - No Nuclear Weapons and No Further Sponsoring of Terror!” he added.

Trump presides over a policy of imperial retreat?

American journalist and political analyst Don DeBar told Press TV on Monday, “These tweets are an indication that those who suggested Trump might be presiding over a policy of imperial retreat are correct.”

“There's a big difference between the position that ‘we don't subsidize our competitors’ versus ‘we don't have any competitors because we own the table and the whole casino,’” he added.

“Trump's foreign policy, as suggested in these tweets, is apparently based upon the former, while the previous policy - going back at least to the Second World War - was based upon the latter,” he noted.

Trump’s remarks came after a series of attacks on oil tankers which the Trump administration has blamed on Iran without providing any evidence, and the downing of a US surveillance drone by Iranian forces.

Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday that he would be Iran's "best friend" if it stopped pursuing nuclear weapons. Iran’s leadership has repeatedly expressed their firm opposition to the development and use of nuclear weapons.

PressTV-Trump says he will be Iran's 'best friend'

Trump has said that he would be Iran's "best friend" and that the Islamic republic could be a "wealthy" country if it stopped pursuing nuclear weapons.

Trump then praised Iran for not shooting down a manned plane with 38 people on board when it decided to shoot down an unmanned American surveillance drone on Thursday.

Iran on Friday announced that its forces refrained from shooting down the manned plane that was accompanying the American spy drone which was shot down in the Persian Gulf after intruding into the Iranian airspace.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced on Thursday that its air defense force had shot down an intruding American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

The IRGC said in a statement that the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region, which sits in the central district of Jask County, after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.

The IRGC Aerospace Force on Friday released the first photos of the wreckage of the downed US spy drone.

PressTV-Watch Iran’s Khordad 3 air defense shoot down US drone

The video shows the moment an indigenous Khordad 3 air defense system fires a surface-to-air missile at an intruding US spy drone.

It displayed parts of the doomed drone, refuting earlier claims by the US that the drone was flying over international waters, and had not violated the Iranian airspace.

‘Iran should remain strong against Trump’

American political analyst Dennis Etler told Press TV on Friday that Iran should remain firm and resolute against Trump.

“Trump's decision to hold off a military strike against Iran is in keeping with his pattern of bluff and bluster. So long as Iran remains strong and resolute Trump will back off. He has his pit-bulls, Bolton and Pompeo on a short leash,” he stated.

“At least in this case he doesn't want blood on his hands,” the scholar said, after Trump said a US strike on 3 different Iranian sites would have killed 150 people but he cancelled it 10 minutes before the attack was going to be launched.

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