'We don't need straits': Trump says Iran war isn't about Hormuz as US strikes for 12th night

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared that the country does not need the Strait of Hormuz as Washington bombards Iran for the 12th consecutive night. Trump maintained that the US does not want anything from the crucial waterway; he still wants to pummel Iran to prove it can never control the vital oil passage anyway.

The remarks from the American leader came during a political rally in Georgia on Wednesday. He insisted that the strait isn't a big deal for the US because it already controls a huge chunk of the oil market. He pointed to the operation that plucked Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro from his bed at the start of the year.

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"We don't need straits. We don't need anything," Trump remarked. "We don't need the Hormuz Strait, but we do it because we have to do it, because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon," he added. "It's been incredible actually, it's got serious oil," Trump said about Venezuela. "In fact, if you combine us and Venezuela, we have about 62 per cent of the world's oil market, so we don't need straits, we don't need anything."

Trump's speech was followed by his threat to Iran on his social media platform TruthSocial. The American leader warned to wipe out "ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT" for every ship Iran attacked in the strait.

US strikes Iran for 12th consecutive night

Meanwhile, the US military on Wednesday confirmed that it was conducting a 12th night of strikes against Iran as both sides increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure. In a statment on the matter, the US Central Command (Centcom) noted that the attacks were designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters,” as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping.

“From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,” Trump wrote on social media.

Commenting on the latest American attacks, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that his country would adopt an “eye for an eye” defence doctrine. “Any aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response,” he posted Wednesday on X.

Meanwhile, the Iranian state media reported that the US missiles struck locations near the cities of Ahvaz, Ramshir and Andimeshk in western Iran. Military officials in Kuwait, on the other hand, said on social media that their air defences were “confronting attacks by hostile drones, following the sinful Iranian aggression.”