President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States would probably take over the Strait of Hormuz and should be reimbursed for controlling the vital waterway.
"We're going to keep the strait, and we'll probably run it. We'll become the guardian of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that," he said in a phone interview on Fox News' Fox & Friends programme.
Control of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil supplies, has become one of the main battlegrounds of the conflict.
Iran's effective blockade of the strait has pushed up energy prices and increased concerns about inflation globally.
"We're going to guard it. We're going to get paid for guarding it - a lot of money," Trump said.
"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.
US and Iranian forces exchanged heavy missile and drone attacks over the weekend and into Monday.
The latest exchanges mark a sharp escalation in both the pace and geographic reach of attacks over the past week, casting doubt on an interim US-Iranian agreement signed last month to reopen the strait and halt hostilities while the sides pursued a further 60 days of negotiations.
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