Trump touts US control of Strait of Hormuz after striking Iranian boats

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, crediting last year's US strikes with halting Tehran's atomic program just before completion, and claiming: "We now control the Strait of Hormuz."

Speaking in a phone interview published Wednesday, Trump said: "If we didn't do it, Iran would have ... a nuclear weapon."

"If we didn't send in the B-2 bombers a year ago to blow up their nuclear capacity, you know ... they were two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon," he said.

Warning of catastrophic consequences, Trump argued that if Iran had "a nuclear weapon, Israel would be gone. The Middle East would be gone, and they would be hitting cities in the United States, absolutely, because they're crazy."

Turning to the latest strikes, Trump said: "We're doing very well. We're just annihilating them, but the bottom line on that is very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon."

He claimed US forces now dominate a key regional waterway, saying: "We now control the Strait of Hormuz. We control it. Last night, we took out 28 boats, 28 ships. We control it. They get nothing, and we took out ships."

In a post on Truth Social, Trump suggested to change the name of the strait and wrote: "Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???"

"Like America itself, it would be "hotter" than ever before!" he added.

Regional tensions have escalated following US-Israeli attacks on Iran that began on Feb. 28 and Tehran's retaliatory missile and drone attacks against Israel and US interests in countries across the region.

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 18 concerning freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, but its implementation has stalled amid disagreements over security arrangements in the strait.