Sky News ground to a halt as it issued a major breaking announcement amid the ongoing conflict in Iran between the U.S. and Israel. On Saturday night (April 11), broadcaster Dominic Waghorn returned to the airwaves live from Islamabad, where he discussed the latest updates from the Strait of Hormuz as peace talks continue between the two countries. It didn’t take long before he was hitting out at Donald Trump for his involvement in the overseas conflict, accusing him of “trying to distract” from his mistakes in recent years.
He began: “There’s been so much noise around the build-up to these talks, not least what Donald Trump has been up to. He’s compensating for something there because he’s trying to distract from the fact that Iran has acquired a strategic new card it didn’t have before this war, which he began.
“This is a card that gives Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz, which he is trying to play down massively. It’s a card that gives them control effectively of a fifth of the world’s oil supply, which makes it a much more strategic player than it was before the war.
“He’s trying to shift blame onto other nations, saying it’s their responsibility, they should sort it out when clearly it’s America and Israel‘s responsibility because they began this war that gave their enemies such a strategic advantage.”
Reuters news agency claims the peace talks are trilateral, but added that Pakistani mediators are reportedly shuttling between both sides as negotiations continue. Meanwhile, the Republican leader claims Iran has no cards at the negotiation table and insists that the US will get the Strait of Hormuz open “fairly soon”.
Since the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28, the Islamic Republic has shut down the Strait, causing global fuel prices to rocket and sparking inflation fears across the US and Europe. In a sign of progress in the negotiations, CENTCOM released a statement revealing that the USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy transited the Strait of Hormuz in the past few hours.
The statement announced the vessels operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to ensure the Strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, said: “Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage, and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce.”
The CENTCOM statement added that additional US forces, including underwater drones, will join the clearance effort in the coming days.
