‘Very top secret’: What was ‘gift from China’ to Iran stopped by US forces? Trump claims ‘there was...’

US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Apr 23) claimed that the Iranian-flagged vessel that was intercepted and seized by the American forces had something that was “very top secret.” This comes after Trump claimed that the ship was carrying a “gift from China”, but refused to elaborate on it. The cargo vessel, M/V Touska, was captured by the US troops in the Gulf of Oman while it was en route to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port on Sunday (Apr 19). It is currently in the custody of the US Marines.

What was on the ship?

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump was asked what was on the ship. In response, the US President said, “Yeah, well, we have that. It’s very top secret. There was stuff in there, but it’s top secret.” However, he did not provide any other details on what the “stuff” was on the vessel.

When asked whether he was angry at China for sending stuff to Iran, Trump said, “No, we do the same thing, don’t we, with other countries?”

Earlier in an interview on Tuesday (Apr 21), Trump told CNBC that the ship had “a gift from China”, which “wasn’t very nice”. He added that he “was a little surprised,” as he thought he had an “understanding” with China’s President Xi Jinping. A week earlier, Trump said that Xi had assured him that there would be no Chinese weapons deliveries to Iran.

According to a Reuters report, citing US maritime security sources, Touska is likely to have what Washington deems “dual-use items” that could be used by ‌the military on board. As per AIS data provided by the global intelligence company Kpler, mentioned in a Washington Post report, the ship was travelling back from Gaolan port in Zhuhai, a city on China’s southeastern coast. The US has not yet revealed what materials were on the ship.

What claims ‘complete control’ over Hormuz

Trump also said that the US has “complete control” over the Strait of Hormuz. “You know that the strait, what we’ve done with the blockade is amazing, and nobody, nobody gets through, and nobody wants to get through it. Nobody’s trying. The one tried to shut out the engine, but nobody’s trying. We have complete control now. They can drop their mines in there and do all those stupid things. It’s just going to take longer for them to make money, because the mines are going to affect them much more than they’re going to affect us,” he said.

He added, “But, and we don’t know that they’re doing that, but they could be that if they, if they’re doing it, it’s a very foolish thing to do, just like for Iran to shoot at Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, Bahrain, all the different places they shot. Nobody expected that. They thought they’d shoot at Israel in all fairness, but you didn’t expect they’d be shooting at numerous other countries. I think it was a big mistake if they’re putting mines down. It’s a big mistake for them.”

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