It was a dramatic moment. President Trump seemed to be disclosing, on live television, a clandestine mission that involved spiriting away millions of barrels of oil, right under Iran’s nose. In Mr. Trump’s telling, the mission was so secretive that the Iranians were learning about it only at that very moment.
“I can say it now. Something you didn’t know,” Mr. Trump told reporters from his seat behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning. “Do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran — until right now.”
“We took out, the other night, 22 ships, late at night, with no lights, because they don’t have any radar, because we blasted the crap out of it,” he continued.
As often happens with Mr. Trump, the truth was less dramatic. According to a senior U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the president was referring to an American effort to steer the passage of dozens of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
While the operation was surreptitious enough — the U.S.-guided vessels have been turning off their transponders to avoid detection when crossing the narrow waterway — it could hardly have been news to Iran. Late last month, The New York Times published an article about the effort, reporting that U.S. Central Command had shepherded around 70 commercial ships through the strait.
The number of vessels steered through the strait is now more than 200 in a little over a month, the military official said. Before the war, traffic through the waterway was typically about 3,000 ships per month.
U.S. officials have declined to say what type of vessels were going through the strait clandestinely and what route they took, but one official indicated that at least one route was not close to the Iranian coastline. Ships passing near Iran without obtaining Iranian approval face the threat of an almost-certain attack by Iranian drones or missiles. Shipping analysts say the U.S.-guided crossings appear to follow routes that are closer to Oman.
Later on Wednesday, the president claimed on social media that this “secret mission” that he authorized last month had resulted in more than 100 million barrels of oil reaching the open market. That claim could not be immediately verified independently.
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