US Presdient Donald Trump revealed Thursday that ten fully laden oil tankers permitted this week to transit the Strait of Hormuz under a Pakistani flag were offered to him by Iran as a diplomatic goodwill gesture.
The disclosure followed questions about a remark Trump had made two days earlier, The Independent reported, at the swearing-in of newly minted Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. That comment had been deliberately oblique, hinting only that he had received a "present" from Tehran in the course of ceasefire negotiations.
Pressed by reporters at a lengthy cabinet session on Thursday to account for what he had meant by the "present" earlier in the week, Trump provided the explanation, recounting that Iranian negotiators had told him: "To show you the fact that we're real... we're going to let you have eight boats of oil... this was two days ago, and they would sail up tomorrow.
"I didn't think much about it, and then I watched the news and they said something unusual is happening, eight boats are going right up the middle of the Hormuz Strait... loaded with oil. I said, 'I guess they were right, they were real,' I think they were Pakistani flagged. So I said, 'I think we're dealing with the right people.' And actually, they did apologize for something they said, and they said 'we're going to send two more boats."
The president's remarks come amid reports that Iran has rejected the US proposal to end the war. At the cabinet meeting, Trump also warned that if Iran fails to reach a deal, it will face "continued US onslaught."
