US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States can maintain a naval blockade of Iranian ports by rotating ships in and out of the region as it has and will continue to.
We can hold the blockade as long as we need to.
No other navy on earth has the capability to have a wall of steel.
So Iran knows it can't get in and out on this blockade.
US President Donald Trump asserted the United States has 'total control' over the Strait of Hormuz and vowed to maintain the naval blockade of Iran.
Iran's central military command dismissed US claims as 'baseless lies and fabrications,' a statement carried by the state broadcaster IRIB.
Baseless lies and fabrications.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most strategic routes for global energy supplies and trade, and its control remains contested.
Shipping traffic through the strait fell below the monthly average toward the end of the week, according to data from Kpler, with commodity vessel transits at nine on the most recent day — below the August daily average of 12.
Commodity vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz on the most recent day, below the August daily average of 12.
Oil prices rose after the US announced its intent to maintain an indefinite blockade, with Brent futures climbing 1 cent to $87.08 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rising 6 cents to $81.31 a barrel.
Brent crude futures price after US blockade announcement.
Iran's Basij paramilitary unit head asserted the Strait of Hormuz is under Iran's control and management, directly contradicting US claims.
The US and Iran agreed to a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire in April and signed a deal on June 17 to pursue a final agreement, but talks stalled over security guarantees and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Between July 8 and 24, the US and Iran exchanged military strikes, with Washington targeting sites inside Iran and Tehran striking US military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Iran has been mocking US President Donald Trump on social media following reports he secretly switched aircraft while returning from Turkey amid an alleged assassination threat from Tehran. Iran’s embassy in South Africa posted on X: 'Trump will be hidden in a trash can before long.'
Iran said it was working to clean up an oil spill off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, with images of contaminated beaches distributed by its semiofficial news agency ISNA. TankerTrackers.com attributed the spill to an Iranian attack on a bulk carrier off Oman.
Oman is responding to another oil spill in the Arabian Sea from the grounded tanker Caroline Bezengi — a sanctioned vessel linked to Russia's 'shadow fleet.' A British maritime salvage company said oil from the ship has reached shores hundreds of kilometers north of the wreck.
US Vice President JD Vance said the goals of US policy include ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and returning the Strait of Hormuz to a state where oil and gas prices are stable for the American people.
In a separate development, the Iran-backed Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at a Yemeni commercial ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, killing six people and injuring at least nine. The attack, described as the first deadly one this year on vessels in the strait, is part of an escalating campaign. A Pakistani crew member, Zaheer Ahmed, recovering in a hospital in Mokha, described the scene as 'a strange scene of doomsday.' A Yemeni soldier came to his aid.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, accounts for roughly 12 percent of global trade.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will travel to the Middle East next week alongside Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair as part of the Board of Peace, a body established by Trump to oversee the ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
