President Donald Trump has joked that the United States Navy will take on Cuba on the way home from Iran.
“Cuba’s got problems,” Trump said in one of several digressions in his Friday, May 1, evening speech before the non-profit Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.
“On the way back from Iran, we’ll have one of our big, maybe the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier — the biggest in the world — we’ll have that come in, stop about 100 yards offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much. We give up’,” he said.
The Trump administration is in the midst of a monthslong campaign to press the Cuban government to make dramatic reforms.
All the while, Trump has repeatedly threatened that the US could take military action against the island to get what he wants.
Iran’s military announces new rules over Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday announced “new rules” over the state’s coastline in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, at the orders of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
The IRGC stated, according to the state-run Press TV, that it will be exercising control over “nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) of Iran’s coastline,” making the water body ” a source of security and prosperity for the region.”
US warns shipping firms of sanctions over paying Iranian tolls in Strait of Hormuz
The US is warning shipping companies that they could face sanctions for making payments to Iran to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The alert posted Friday by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control adds another layer of pressure in the standoff between the US and Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
About a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and natural gas typically passes through the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in peacetime.
Iran effectively closed the strait to normal traffic by attacking and threatening to attack ships after the US and Israel launched a war on Feb. 28. It later began offering some ships safe passage by detouring them through alternate routes closer to its shoreline, charging fees at times for the service.
That “tollbooth” effort is the focus of the US sanctions warning.
The payment demands could include transfers not only in cash but also “digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments,” including chartibale donations and payments at Iranian embassies, OFAC said.
“OFAC is issuing this alert to warn US and non-US persons about the sanctions risks of making these payments to, or soliciting guarantees from, the Iranian regime for safe passage. These risks exist regardless of payment method,” it said.
The US responded to Iran’s closure of the strait with a naval blockade of its own on April 13, preventing any Iranian tankers from leaving and depriving Iran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy.
The US Central Command said 45 commercial ships have been told to turn around since the blockade began.
China’s UN envoy urges Iran to lift restrictions
Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday that maintaining the ceasefire is “the most urgent issue” as well as bringing together the sides to resume good faith negotiations “to make sure that the ground is laid for reopening of Hormuz.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi “has been on the phone almost constantly” with representatives from all sides, Fu said, adding that China supports Pakistan’s efforts to mediate between the parties.
Fu stressed the root cause of the tremendous suffering in Iran and neighboring countries and the growing turmoil in the global economy, especially in developing countries, “is the illegitimate war by the US and Israel.”
(With agency inputs)
