US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the mystery “present” from Iran that he was speaking about earlier this week was 10 “boats of oil”. He said that Iran let the boats successfully cross the Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture in negotiations, including some Pakistan-flagged vessels.
Speaking during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said, “They said, to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil. I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they were Pakistani-flagged… It ended up being 10 boats.”
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump had said, “It was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money, and I’m not going to tell you what the present is, but it was a very significant prize.”
Iran has been blocking ships it perceives as linked to the US and Israeli war effort from the Strait of Hormuz, but it’s letting a trickle of others through the crucial waterway.
Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a bloc of six Gulf Arab nations, said Iran was charging for safe passage through the strait.