Donald Trump has claimed the United States secretly moved millions of barrels of oil from under Iran’s nose through the Strait of Hormuz, as his administration faces accusations of war crimes for targeting civilian water supplies.
The US president told reporters in the Oval Office that the operation had been kept quiet until now. “I’m just announcing today for the first time, but we’ve been taking out millions of barrels, because they just figured it out,” he said. On his Truth Social platform, Trump added that he had directed the military “to execute a secret mission” to support oil tankers, writing: “More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely travelled through the Strait – NOT Iran controls the waterway.”
“Trump claims US sneaked millions of barrels of oil from Iran as Tehran accuses Washington of war crimes for targeting water reservoirs.”
Pressed on the claim, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters: “I’m unaware.” Asked whether Trump was lying, Wright replied: “Oh no, I do not think the president is lying. I think the president’s talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil.” Trump did not provide evidence.
The boast came as the US launched fresh strikes against Iran, breaking a fragile ceasefire. Forces began firing at multiple targets at 5.10pm EST on Wednesday, with Trump warning: “We’re going to hit them again hard today.” The strikes followed Iran’s shooting down of a £60million US Apache helicopter and earlier Iranian attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, all of which host American troops.
Iranian media reported explosions in Sirik, Minab, Bandar Abbas and Qeshm island. In Sirik, two concrete water reservoirs supplying drinking water to more than 20,000 residents were destroyed. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei accused the US of war crimes. “This is not collateral damage – it is a calculated war crime and a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law,” he said. “The US must be held accountable for committing such systematic brutal attacks on civilian life-sustaining infrastructure.”
The Mirror reported that the strikes on water facilities, if deliberate, would go outside the rules of war and could constitute a crime under international humanitarian law, which protects civilian installations. The US military also said it had disabled an eighth merchant vessel trying to transport oil from Iran in violation of a blockade.
Efforts to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding to end the war have been complicated by the Hezbollah threat to Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposing its inclusion and Tehran insisting on protecting its proxy. With the US bombing a school earlier in the conflict, killing 150 mostly children, and now targeting water, a settlement appears increasingly distant.