Russia Questions Trump’s Strait of Hormuz Threat as ‘Joke’

According to the International Desk of Webangah News Agency, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, posed the question on Saturday via a post on the social media platform X: “Did Trump’s threat regarding the Strait of Hormuz count as a joke?”

Ulyanov elaborated on the statement, writing, “The President of the United States threatened to declare the Strait of Hormuz ‘American territory.’ Was this a joke?”

This commentary comes in the wake of a report by The Wall Street Journal, citing an American official, which indicated that the U.S. President had not engaged in any serious discussions with his advisors about a plan to claim sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. The report suggested that Trump’s remarks at a campaign rally in Long Island lacked political substance.

This apparent retraction occurred as Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian Deputy for Legal and International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the “ridiculous statements” on his personal page. He wrote, “The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized through tweets, aircraft carriers, or campaign speeches. Iran neither fears threats nor is intimidated by displays of power.”