Trump administration offers conflicting accounts of when Strait of Hormuz will fully reopen
By
Alejandra Jaramillo
CNN
The Trump administration is offering differing assessments on when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen, with President Donald Trump saying it’s “partially” open now and will be fully reopened Friday, while some senior administration officials suggested a return to normal could take more time.
“On Friday, it’ll be completely open,” Trump
told reporters during a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
“By Friday, everything will be fully open. I think it will adjust very, very quickly,” one official said on a call with reporters, also on Monday, noting that 25 ships are getting through per day and that that will increase to 40 to 50 “pretty quickly.”
“So I think it will return to normal pretty quickly, definitely within 30 days,” the official said.
Another official on the same call said there would
be “significant” traffic — but not normal flow — within two weeks.
“You will see significant increase in traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, actually starting already, and that will ramp up slowly over time, to the point where I think a week from now, two weeks from now — we probably won’t return to normal in two weeks — but we will see a significant increase in strait traffic,” the official said.
“We’re already seeing a substantial increase in traffic, but if you think of the traffic pre-conflict as 140 ships or so per day, I think we’ll get a very long way there over the next couple of weeks, but it’s going to take a little time,” the same official later added.
And while Trump declared Monday that “ships are starting to go out now,” he initially announced on
Truth Social on Sunday that the strait would open on Friday “upon the signing of the deal.”