{"id":68705,"date":"2026-05-13T02:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/68705\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T02:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:50:12","slug":"trump-and-hegseth-claim-control-over-iran-and-the-strait-of-hormuz-as-ceasefire-talks-are-stalled-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/68705\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Hegseth claim ‘control’ over Iran and the Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire talks are stalled | National"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Kuwait said on Tuesday that Iran launched a failed attack earlier this month on an island where China is helping build a port in the Gulf Arab country. The accusation came just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump was to depart for Beijing<\/a> on a high-stakes visit<\/a> over the Iran war<\/a> and other issues.<\/p>\n

Trump said he would have a \u201clong talk\u201d about Iran with Chinese President Xi Jinping but said trade would be a bigger focus. As he left for the summit, Trump again threatened Iran if its leaders don\u2019t reach an agreement on its nuclear program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have Iran very much under control,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re either going to make a deal or they\u2019re going to be decimated. One way or the other, we win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as calling \u201cbaseless\u201d the allegation by Kuwait, which came under attack by Iran in the war<\/a> and during the shaky ceasefire<\/a> that is still holding. But the allegation and ongoing attacks in the region have threatened to reignite open warfare.<\/p>\n

The narrow Strait of Hormuz<\/a> remains in Iran’s chokehold, the U.S. is maintaining a blockade against Iran and negotiations between the two countries appear at a standstill.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue peace cannot be built with a literature of humiliation, threats, and coercive score-settling,\u201d Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian diplomat, said Tuesday on X.<\/p>\n

With the risk of the conflict breaking out again, Israel has sent Iron Dome air-defense weapons<\/a> and personnel to operate them to the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. ambassador to Israel said.<\/p>\n

It was the first publicly acknowledged deployment of Israel\u2019s military to the Emirates \u2014 home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai \u2014 and underlined the growing relationship between Israel and the UAE.<\/p>\n

Also very late on Tuesday night, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook parts of Iran, followed by several aftershocks, according to Iranian state media. Witnesses felt the temblor in the capital of Tehran, where some people sought refuge in the streets. Iranian state TV said there were no reports of casualties.<\/p>\n

Kuwait alleges Iran planned attack<\/p>\n

Kuwait said a paramilitary Revolutionary Guard team tried to infiltrate Bubiyan Island in the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf near Iraq and Iran on May 1.<\/p>\n

Four men were detained and two escaped when Kuwait’s forces disrupted the attack, it said.<\/p>\n

A statement that Iranian media attributed to the foreign ministry in Tehran said four officers on a \u201cconventional maritime patrol mission\u201d had entered Kuwait’s waters because of \u201ca disruption in the navigation system.” It denied any hostile intent and called for the men’s release.<\/p>\n

Bubiyan Island is home to Mubarak Al Kabeer Port, which is under construction as part of a Chinese plan to build infrastructure across the world<\/a>. It also came under Iranian attack during the war.<\/p>\n

Kuwait provided no reason for why it delayed linking the attack to Iran after initially announcing it on May 3 without any details. Trump is traveling this week to China for a summit where Iran will likely be a main topic. Beijing long has been a buyer of sanctioned Iranian crude oil and has been hurt by the strait’s closure, which has sparked a global energy crisis.<\/p>\n

Huckabee says Israel deployed to UAE<\/p>\n

U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee<\/a> revealed at a conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, that Israel has sent Iron Dome<\/a> air-defense to the UAE.<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates<\/a> diplomatically recognized Israel<\/a> in 2020. That drew criticism from Iran, long Israel’s main regional enemy. Iran didn’t immediately respond to Huckabee’s remarks, though it has repeatedly suggested over the years that Israel maintained a military and intelligence presence in the Emirates.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military declined to comment on Huckabee\u2019s statement about the Iron Dome while the UAE didn’t immediately respond.<\/p>\n

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, was quoted as making comments similar to Huckabee’s during an event at the Israeli mission \u2014 suggesting the release of the information was intentional, likely with the Emiratis’ and Israelis’ blessing.<\/p>\n

The UAE has faced Iranian missile and drone fire even after the ceasefire was reached last month. It has been trying to signal to nervous investors and the public that it remains open for business and safe.<\/p>\n

Hegseth tells Congress: \u2018We control the strait\u2019<\/p>\n

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told members<\/a> of Congress Tuesday that the military has plenty of bombs and missiles despite concerns about its stockpiles.<\/p>\n

He also maintained that the U.S. is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, even as Iranian attacks \u2014 and threats \u2014 have disrupted the shipment of oil and other products through the vital waterway.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately we control the strait, because nothing\u2019s going in that we don\u2019t allow to go in,\u201d said Hegseth, who faced tough questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers who oversee defense spending.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, asked what the Trump administration\u2019s strategy is for reopening the waterway<\/a>. \u201cYour average American is seeing this at the gas pump every single day as the cost of gas continues to rise,\u201d Coons said.<\/p>\n

Hegseth avoided specifics about the next steps in Iran. The Pentagon\u2019s top budget official told Congress that the cost of the war is close to $29 billion so far \u2014 that\u2019s up from an estimate of $25 billion just two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Norway has some 25 stranded vessels<\/p>\n

One of Norway\u2019s top diplomats met Tuesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, pressing for the need to open the strait.<\/p>\n

Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Kravik stressed that the attacks on commercial shipping and obstruction of the passageway must end, his minister, Espen Barth Eide, said in an email.<\/p>\n

Kravik said Iran\u2019s actions affecting third-party countries are \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d and noted that Norway has some 25 vessels stranded, according to Eide.<\/p>\n

Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, Collin Binkley and Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Switzerland, and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Kuwait said on Tuesday that Iran launched a failed attack earlier this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[474,947,1665,4130,39986,197,2507,1961,18,51,2543,39987,39989,39988,4128,7164,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-68705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pete-hegseth","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-diplomacy","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-international-agreements","12":"tag-iran-us-israel-uae-iron-dome","13":"tag-iran-war","14":"tag-military-and-defense","15":"tag-national-news","16":"tag-pete-hegseth","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-religion","19":"tag-wand","20":"tag-wand-news","21":"tag-wandtv","22":"tag-war-and-unrest","23":"tag-waterways","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116564998587309843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}