US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is "involved" in the negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and suggested an agreement could be reached "soon."
Asked by reporters at the White House whether an agreement had been reached to reopen the strategic waterway, Trump said: "I don't want to say it has been."
"It's sort of open right now. You know, we have a thing called the blockade, headed up by the US Navy, and we control it," he said.
"They can always shoot something. They always have something, or drop a mine, and if you have one mine sitting out there, you sort of mess things up because people don't want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine," he said.
"I'm involved in the negotiation. I think we're doing fine. It could be soon," he said, referring to a possible agreement with Iran.
Trump also dismissed concerns about US military stockpiles, saying the country has "literally massive amounts of ammunition."
"We have supplies of munitions all over the world, and if we ever needed them, we'd take that. We're supplied all over the world, but we're in very, very good shape," he said.
He said that the war with Iran is going to end "pretty soon", adding that he doesn't think Iran "can go much longer."
In recent weeks, the US and Iran have exchanged military strikes, with Washington targeting what it calls military sites belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Tehran responding by targeting what it described as US military facilities in several Gulf countries, particularly Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The escalation came despite a memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran in June and the launch of negotiations toward a final agreement. The talks later stalled over disagreements concerning security guarantees and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most strategically important routes for energy supplies and global trade.
Trump last week threatened to hit Iran "very hard," warning he could target energy facilities, bridges and power plants. He later said he halted the strikes because Iran agreed to restart talks. According to multiple US media outlets, depleted interceptor stockpiles had also factored into his decision to hold off on additional strikes on Iran.
