President Donald Trump predicted that the Strait of Hormuz would “open itself” once Iran stopped “clogging up” the narrow passage, even as he appealed that it would “be nice” if allied nations, and China, would help police it.

Iranian regime attacks against energy-producing Gulf nations following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes have effectively shuttered the vital transportation route, which carries a major portion of the world’s supply of oil and natural gas. The move has become a key pressure point to Iranian pushback against U.S. operations, elevating oil prices on global markets.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he prepared to board Marine One, the president said that Iran’s military capability had been “obliterated” and floated that the strait might “open itself.”

Asked about his claim that the “war was won”, Trump replied: “We knocked out their Navy, their air force, anti-aircraft. We’re roaming free. All they’re doing is clogging up the strait. But from a military standpoint, they’re finished.”

In a follow-up question, another reporter pressed the president on his claim that a “simple military maneuver” would open the waterway.

Trump said, “It’s a simple military maneuver. It’s relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense that you need ships, you need volume, and NATO could help us, but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so. And others could help us. We don’t use it, but at a certain point, it will open itself, at a certain point.”

He continued: “But we have defeated the enemy and they are an enemy, they’re a sick group of people. The leadership is gone. The Navy is gone. The air force is gone. The anti-aircraft equipment that they have, the radar they have, is all gone. Everything is gone. The strait itself, the actual strait itself is, uh, we’re doing a good job.”

The president claimed that China “draws 90% of their energy” from the strait and Japan “95%” as he complained it would “be nice if those countries got involved.”