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President Donald Trump called on the world's countries to "build up some delayed courage" and "just take" the Strait of Hormuz while addressing the nation in a primetime speech about Iran Wednesday night.
Movement in the Strait, which is a narrow but crucial global oil trade passageway, has been greatly hampered by Iran, which the teetering country has held out as one of its bargaining chips. Iranian interference in the strait has significantly impaired the movement of oil tankers through the strait, causing global oil prices to rise.
Trump said that while the U.S. "imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won't be taking any in the future," the "countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage."
He promised the U.S. "will be helpful," but stressed that other countries "should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on."
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The president shared two suggestions for countries that depend on oil passing through Hormuz.
"To those countries that can't get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran … I have a suggestion. No. 1, buy oil from the United States of America. We have plenty. We have so much. And No. 2, build up some delayed courage - should have done it before. Should have done it with us as we asked - go to the strait and just take it. Protect it. Use it for yourselves."
He emphasized that other countries "must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it."
Though signaling that the U.S. will not be moving to seize the strait itself, he said America's heavy bombardment of the Iranian military, navy, infrastructure and national leadership has made it "easy" for other countries to do so.
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After 32 days of joint U.S.-Israeli bombardment, Trump said "Iran has been essentially decimated."
"The hard part is done, so it should be easy."
Either way, the president asserted that "when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally."
"It'll just open up naturally," he repeated, asserting that the surviving Iranian government is "going to want to be able to sell oil because that's all they have to try and rebuild."
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"It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up," he predicted.
Trump addressed the nation 32 days into the Iranian conflict, named Operation Epic Fury, which he initially projected would take four to five weeks to complete. The president said the conflict is "very close" to being finished and that the U.S. is "on track" to complete all of its objectives.
"We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks," he said, adding, "We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong."
