U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said Sunday that Iran is “controlled by a bunch of crazy people,” as the Trump administration contended with a third round of military strikes against Tehran and Iran’s attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
“President Trump’s a peacemaker, and he wants a deal with Iran. He wants to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon, that they join the world as a contributor and a normalized country,” Whitaker told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” “But right now, you know, as President Trump has said, and Marco Rubio has also stated, this country is controlled by a bunch of crazy people.”
The U.S. military launched its third round of strikes against Iran on Saturday following an attack by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a Cyprus-flagged container ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC said the vessel was traveling an “unauthorized route” and struck it as a warning. One Indian crew member was missing after the attack.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf declared the strait closed following the strikes, calling it a response to what he described as continued American aggression. The U.S. military pushed back directly on Sunday.
“The Strait of Hormuz is open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement. “Iran does not control the waterway.”
The strait handles roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supply.
The ongoing conflict is now approaching five months. Polling indicates Americans have grown increasingly skeptical of the military campaign, and global oil prices have risen sharply throughout the conflict.
Trump and Iran had reached a memorandum of understanding earlier this year establishing 60 days of safe passage for commercial vessels as a framework for broader negotiations. That agreement has since collapsed.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was monitoring the situation. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also commented Sunday, though his remarks focused largely on the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a strong advocate for maintaining military pressure on Iran who died Saturday.
Peace mediators including Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan have continued working to restart talks, though U.S. officials indicated Sunday that further negotiations remain on hold following Iran’s latest escalation.
