Trump says US will help with 'traffic buildup' in Hormuz Strait

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States will help with traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after Washington and Tehran agreed to a truce.

The countries agreed to a two-week ceasefire barely an hour before Trump’s Wednesday deadline to obliterate Iran was set to expire.

Tehran later said it had agreed to safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil which has been virtually paralysed for weeks by the Middle East war, pushing up prices for crude and related products worldwide.

“The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said hours earlier that safe passage through the Strait will be possible “via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”

Trump said in his Truth Social post that the United States will be “loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just “hangin’ around” in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will.”

The US president’s tone contrasted starkly with his threat last week to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages.”

“Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!!” Trump wrote on Wednesday.