Mike Waltz, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, called on the international body to crack down on Iran’s blatant violations of international law over the past two months, including blockades, toll enforcement, and the placement of sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a speech outlining the key provisions of a new U.N. resolution requiring Iran to restore safe and free navigation through the Strait, Waltz urged member nations to support the measure, arguing that those opposing it were not genuinely committed to peace.
🚨 NOW: Trump UN Ambassador Mike Waltz is GOING OFF at the United Nations, demanding the international community CRACK DOWN on Iran holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage and launching violent attacks on ships
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 7, 2026
If the UN can't do something as simple as this — IT'S 100% USELESS!… pic.twitter.com/Xxe8B7FVqx
"Well, it requires Iran to do some very simple, straightforward things," Waltz said. "Cease its attacks on commercial shipping. Cease mining and remove its mines from an international waterway. Cease tolling, charging illegal tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, and allow the UN to move forward with humanitarian aid, life-saving aid, through that international corridor. It's really just that simple."
"The problem is, just this week Iran's own state media announced that the regime has launched what it calls the Persian Gulf Straits Authority, where it seeks to demand that all ship captains from international shipping, commercial shipping, civilian shipping, basically have to check in and pay a bribe, pay a toll, in order to use these international waterways. So that doesn't just affect this region. It affects the entire world," he continued. "Imagine if we had countries, regardless of the conflict, regardless of what you think about the conflict or who started what, imagine if you had two countries, hypothetically, like Spain and Morocco, have some type of dispute and then throw sea mines into the Straits of Gibraltar and then start trying to charge shipping to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar in a cynical bid for leverage with the other side. Collective punishment of the entire world to try to resolve some type of dispute. It's unacceptable, it's immoral, and it's illegal in international law."
"So this should be a simple demand," Waltz concluded. "The removal of mines from an international waterway. You cannot exact illegal tolls. We have to address these violations here in the Council, and we have to ask ourselves if a country chooses to oppose such a simple proposition, do they really want peace? As energy and food costs rise for the world's peoples, and if aid fails to reach the very people that the countries in the Council claim to care about, what does that really say?"
This comes as President Trump has said the United States is nearing a deal with the Iranian regime to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring an end to the country’s nuclear enrichment program.
The president has repeatedly blasted NATO and other supposed allied nations for failing to meaningfully support the backbone of the military alliance throughout the conflict. European leaders have largely limited themselves to drafting plans to secure freedom of navigation after the United States has already resolved the crisis, a symbolic gesture once the heavy lifting has already been done by Washington.
In the meantime, the European Union has appeared content to let a third-world country control a portion of its energy supply, focusing more on mitigating the fallout than preventing the problem in the first place.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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