Washington, July 13 (EFE).- US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States would become the guardian of the Strait of Hormuz and argued that Washington should be compensated by other countries that benefit from the strategic waterway for ensuring its security. “We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox News amid new exchanges of fire between US and Iran, stalling the peace negotiations. “We’ll become the guardian of the strait, maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that,” he said. “We can’t be expected to do that for nothing, unlike we had for many years,” he added. “We guarded it for nothing, and now we’re going to guard it, we’re going to get paid for guarding it. A lot of money.” Trump said the US should be reimbursed because the «other nations» that benefit from the maritime route, through which about 20 percent of the world’s crude oil passes, «are very wealthy.” Trump also accused Tehran of violating an agreement intended to end the conflict, which escalated after he declared a ceasefire to be over and US forces launched strikes on Iranian targets following attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. «We had a deal. It was a ‌done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard,» Trump said. Iran has responded by launching attacks against Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, countries that host US military forces, and by declaring the Strait of Hormuz «closed until further notice.» The US launched a new military operation against Iran on Sunday night aimed at «further degrading» Tehran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the operation targeted Iranian missile and drone facilities, naval assets, ammunition depots, communications networks and coastal surveillance positions. EFE ygg-sk