US President Donald Trump has explained his decision to reject Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying Tehran was seeking an agreement because it was losing revenue.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Iran wanted to immediately reopen the strategically important waterway but argued that the proposal was not acceptable to his administration.

“They want to make a deal, and I think that’s fine. I like making a deal, too, but that deal would not be acceptable,” Trump said.

SEE ALSO: How the Strait of Hormuz Attack Could Trigger a Fresh Global Oil Shock

According to the US president, Iran’s push to reopen the strait was driven by the economic pressure it was facing.

“What they want to do is immediately open the Hormuz Strait. Do you know why? Because they are dying,” Trump said.

“You know why they’re dying? Because they have no money coming in, because they get their money from the Hormuz Strait.”

Trump also claimed that the US had established an unprecedented naval blockade against Iran, describing it as “a wall of steel.”

“So they outsmarted themselves. We put up the greatest blockade ever in military history. It’s a wall of steel,” he said.

“And guess what? They don’t have any money now because they wanted to close the strait.”

The Strait of Hormuz is a major global energy shipping route, and disruption to traffic through the waterway has significant implications for international oil markets and countries that depend on energy imports.

Trump’s remarks came amid continued tensions between Washington and Tehran over the reopening of the strategic waterway and negotiations involving Iran.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has warned that another global oil shock could be looming amid disruptions to key energy infrastructure and shipping routes in the Middle East.

Badenoch made the warning in a post on X on Sunday, September 20, while pointing to the recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, restrictions affecting the Strait of Hormuz and threats to shipping around the Red Sea.

“Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline has been damaged by drone attacks. The strait of Hormuz is restricted, Houthi bandits threaten shipping routes into the Red Sea. Another oil shock is coming,” Badenoch wrote.

SEE MORE: Middle East Crises Pump Fuel Prices Upwards with Attacks on Iran, Saudi Arabia

She criticised the UK government’s handling of the situation and argued that Britain should increase domestic oil and gas production.

“Yet our Prime Minister and his Cabinet are behaving like a flock of ostriches, heads buried so deep in the sand they could strike oil themselves,” she added.

“The answer is simple: DRILL OUR OWN OIL AND GAS IN THE NORTH SEA.”

Saudi oil pipeline hit by drone attack

The warning comes after Saudi Arabia’s critical East-West oil pipeline was damaged in a drone attack earlier this month.

The 1,200-kilometre pipeline, operated by Saudi Aramco, transports crude oil across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, providing an alternative export route when shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted.

Saudi officials said the September 11 attack involved drones coming from Iraq. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack in initial reports.

A subsequent Reuters analysis of satellite imagery found that three pumping stations, rather than two previously identified, had been damaged.

Industry sources disclosed that repairs could take between five and six weeks, although partial operations could resume sooner.

The pipeline had been carrying around 4 million to 5 million barrels of crude oil per day, equivalent to approximately 4% to 5% of global oil supply. Its shutdown has therefore raised concerns about additional pressure on already-disrupted global energy supplies.

The attack also affected Saudi oil exports.

Reuters reported on September 18 that Saudi Aramco had informed at least two European refining customers that they would receive no Saudi crude deliveries in October, following the pipeline disruption.

Hormuz and Red Sea disruptions

The pipeline attack has occurred against the backdrop of continuing disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for global oil shipments.

The East-West pipeline had become particularly important because it allowed Saudi Arabia to move crude to the Red Sea without relying entirely on the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters reported that the pipeline had served as a major alternative route while the strait was largely shut by the ongoing conflict.

Shipping through the Red Sea is also facing renewed security concerns following advances and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

According to report on September 17, there is continued tensions involving the Houthis and Saudi Arabia were adding to concerns over regional energy infrastructure and shipping.

Earlier today, there are fresh Houthi claims of missile and drone attacks targeting strategic sites in Riyadh, with the developments contributing to renewed pressure on Saudi and Gulf markets.

Nigeria has joined 10 other countries in a global counter-terrorism operation coordinated by the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), in which artificial intelligence was used to help identify 126 Foreign Terrorist Fighters.

Known as Operation Shams II, the five-day operation was conducted from June 1 to 5, 2026, in Tunis, Tunisia, and brought together 28 specialised officers and experts from 11 countries.

According to INTERPOL, law enforcement officers extracted 108,076 facial images from visual content published by jihadist groups during the operation.

SEE MORE: EFCC Warns Lawyers Against Charging Clients in Foreign Currencies

Programmed AI agents and advanced AI-generated scripts were then used to automate parts of the data collection and investigative process, including deduplicating and quality-checking the images.

The technology helped narrow the dataset to 6,362 unique, high-quality facial images, which were subsequently processed through INTERPOL’s Facial Recognition System.

INTERPOL said the AI-generated results were reviewed and verified by trained officers and analysts in accordance with its Rules on the Processing of Data.

“To date, 126 Foreign Terrorist Fighters have been identified from the images processed during Operation Shams II,” the organisation said.

INTERPOL explained that the matches would help enrich existing intelligence on the suspects, including information on their potential locations and social networks.

The intelligence is now being integrated into INTERPOL’s global databases as part of efforts to detect, track and disrupt terrorist movements worldwide.

The operation also received a large intelligence dataset related to terrorism suspects from officers at INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Baghdad, Iraq.

INTERPOL said hundreds more images were extracted from the dataset for processing.

Investigative leads generated during the operation are already being used to support judicial procedures in participating countries, including a case involving two currently detained suspected Foreign Terrorist Fighters.

INTERPOL said thousands of additional images are still awaiting processing, meaning further comparisons could produce additional investigative leads.

Beyond facial recognition, Operation Shams II also deployed cryptocurrency tools to trace illicit funding.

According to INTERPOL, the effort resulted in three urgent requests to a Virtual Asset Service Provider for customer data aimed at disrupting terrorist financing flows.

Participating countries also engaged representatives of the online gaming industry on the issue of youth radicalisation in online environments, with discussions focused on strengthening cooperation and information sharing.

INTERPOL Director of Counter-Terrorism, María Carmen Muñoz González, said the operation demonstrated the value of combining international law-enforcement cooperation with responsible AI-assisted analytical capabilities.

The participating countries were Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Qatar, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.

INTERPOL said Operation Shams II was carried out under the CT TECH+ Project, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instruments and supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.