Trump downplays Strait of Hormuz, notes ‘alternatives’ for oil routes being built across Middle East
President Donald Trump said new pipelines and overland transportation routes across the Middle East could reduce the world's reliance on the Strait of Hormuz. Israel’s military struck Hezbollah terrorists and weapons storage facilities after a drone was launched at troops in southern Lebanon.
Trump says new energy routes could reduce world's reliance on Strait of Hormuz
President Donald Trump said Friday that new pipelines and overland transportation routes across the Middle East could reduce the world's reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, arguing the strategic waterway is becoming less critical to global energy supplies.
"A lot of alternatives are being made to the Hormuz Strait. The Hormuz Strait is not what it used to be," Trump told reporters after signing executive orders at the White House.
Trump said new pipelines are being developed across the region to move oil without relying on the strait and pointed to an overland route through Syria that he said is already being used by trucks transporting crude.
"Iran is going to end up, if they don't get smart, really smart, with a Hormuz Strait that's not very necessary anymore," Trump said.
His comments come as governments and energy companies explore alternative export routes that could bypass the strategic waterway amid ongoing tensions with Iran.
Yesterday's Fox News Digital live blog offers additional coverage of the conflict with Iran.
Trump describes war against Iran as ‘small potatoes,’ says he calls it a ‘military conflict’
President Donald Trump said Friday that he characterizes the fight against Iran as a “military conflict” because “it's small potatoes for us.”
Trump made the remark at the White House after Vice President JD Vance said a day earlier that "I wouldn't call it a war” as there was "no active shooting" at the time.
“Well, I'll tell you what. A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing,” the president said when asked about Vance’s comments.
“We did Venezuela and we did this in Venezuela. We lost nobody. And this we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam, you lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people,” Trump continued. “I would say that it's intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes.”
“So I heard what he said, and it was interesting because I think that there's a lot of truth that we're not fighting right now. There's no fighting,” Trump added. “We're taking out a lot of oil. We control the Hormuz Strait, and we control it very strongly. We did a hit on certain areas around the Hormuz Strait. We took out their radar, as you know. You know that very well. We took out some aircraft. We took out some other things that protect for them, used to protect the Hormuz Strait when they had it under very tight control.”
“So I can understand what he's saying. It's a military conflict, but it's very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war,” Trump concluded.
Israel strikes Hezbollah terrorists, weapons storage facilities after drone launched at troops
The Israel Defense Forces announced Saturday that it stuck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after the Iran-backed terrorist group launched a drone at soldiers that were positioned in a border area.
“Hezbollah terrorists launched a drone towards IDF soldiers operating in the Security Zone in southern Lebanon. IDF soldiers opened fire and downed the drone. No IDF injuries were reported,” Israel’s military wrote on X.
The IDF later said it hit “Hezbollah terrorists and weapon storage facilities intended to plan and direct terror attacks against IDF soldiers in the Security Zone and Israeli civilians."
“The strikes were carried out to remove an immediate threat,” according to the IDF.
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