The US is confident that China will halt its purchases of Iranian oil following the US blockade of shipping to and from Iranian ports. “We have told all countries that we are now prepared to impose secondary sanctions if they buy Iranian oil or if Iranian money is in their banks,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House. “We expect that with this blockage… there will be a pause in Chinese purchases.”
The US Treasury Department wrote to two Chinese banks directly.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Moschtaba Khamenei’s military adviser, Mohsen Rezai, has threatened to attack US ships in the Strait of Hormuz. US President Donald Trump wants to make his country the “police of the Strait of Hormuz,” Resai said on Iranian state television on Wednesday. “Is this the task of a powerful army like that of the USA?”.
“Their ships will be sunk by our first missiles and pose a major threat to the US military,” Resai said. “They can definitely be exposed to our missiles and we can destroy them.”
The US military says it intercepted nine ships in the first two days of its blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. “Nine ships obeyed orders from US forces to turn around and return to an Iranian port or coastal area,” said the US military command Central Command (Centcom), which is responsible for the Middle East, in the short message service X on Wednesday. “No ship got past the US forces.”
However, this appears to contradict shipping tracking data. Accordingly, at least three ships that left Iranian ports passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
