U.S. President Donald Trump officially notified Congress that hostilities with Iran have resumed.

In a letter to congressional leaders, sent on Friday and obtained by The New York Times on Monday, Trump stated that on July 7, U.S. forces carried out “defensive strikes against targets inside Iran.”

The briefing reignites the conflict between Congress and the White House over whether the president has the authority to continue the war without prior approval from the legislative branches.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have already voted in favor of ending the war or requiring the president to seek authorization to continue it. The White House, however, insists that Trump is acting within his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief.

SEE ALSO: Trump Imposes 20% Transit Tariffs on the Strait of Hormuz | AlphaNews

On Monday, the U.S. president announced that Washington is reinstating the naval blockade of Iran and will ensure that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, while imposing a 20% fee on cargo passing through the strategically important waterway.

The announcement came after a new exchange of attacks between the U.S. and Iran and Tehran’s decision over the weekend to close the Strait of Hormuz, a development that called into question the interim agreement to end the war and drove up oil prices.

“The Strait of Hormuz is open and will remain open, with or without Iran. We are reinstating the Iranian blockade,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, adding that the U.S. will now be the “Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz” and will be compensated with 20% of the value of every shipment passing through the waterway.

Tehran immediately rejected the U.S. initiative. Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff maintained that the U.S. has no role in managing the Strait of Hormuz and will not be allowed to intervene. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that Iran was and would remain “forever” the guardian of the Strait, commenting sarcastically on Trump’s proposal: “Twenty percent is, of course, excessive. We will be fair.”

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) also reacted, which made it clear that it opposes the imposition of fees for transit through international straits and emphasized that there is no legal basis for imposing mandatory tolls on transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

According to the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), led by the U.S. Navy, the blockade will take effect at 20:00 GMT on Tuesday (23:00 Greek time) and will apply to all ships, regardless of flag, covering the entire Iranian coastline, including ports and oil terminals.

Source: skai.gr