The United States has started “clearing out” the Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump said Saturday, as US-Iran negotiations toward a deal to end the Middle East war got underway.

The comment came as US media outlet Axios reported that several US navy ships had crossed the Strait on Saturday in a move not coordinated with Iran. A senior Iranian military official — quoted by state television — denied the report.

“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, calling it “a favor” to countries such as China, Japan and France that “don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves.”

He insisted that Iran is “LOSING BIG!” in the conflict, while acknowledging that Iranian mines in the strategic strait — through which a fifth of the world’s crude passes — still pose a threat.

“The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may ‘bunk’ into one of their sea mines,” Trump wrote.

The key shipping lane off the coast of Iran has been virtually blocked by Tehran since the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, though reopening the strait was ostensibly a condition of the shaky ceasefire put in place earlier this week.

Senior Iranian and American officials began negotiations in Pakistan on Saturday, Iranian media reported, in a bid to bring to an end a conflict that has plunged the Middle East into violence and sent shockwaves through the world economy.

In an earlier post, Trump said that empty tankers were headed to the United States from around the world to purchase oil, without providing details.

AFP