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The Strait of Hormuz is “under Iran’s control and management”, the recently appointed head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary unit said on Thursday, rejecting claims by US President Donald Trump that the United States had “total control” of the strategic waterway.
The competing claims follow the breakdown of a ceasefire in a war that began Feb 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Following the conflict’s outbreak, Tehran effectively shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas previously shipped.
The US subsequently imposed a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and ports, stating it would protect freedom of navigation for vessels travelling to non-Iranian ports.
In a Wednesday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed the US “has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!”
“Our naval blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” he added.
Iranian officials firmly denied the assertion. Hossein Taeb, head of the Basij forces under the Revolutionary Guard, told the semi-official Fars news agency that the US sought to disrupt the Islamic Republic’s popularity in the region by launching another war but had been defeated.
“Today you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic Republic, and our country continues on its path in complete security,” Taeb said on state television.
Iran’s military command also issued denials. “The false claims of the United States that ships are passing through the Strait of Hormuz normally … are nothing more than lies and fabrications,” Iran’s central military command spokeperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari said.
He added that no commercial ship or tanker will have the possibility of safe passage “without the permission and supervision of the powerful Iranian armed forces”.
Since the war began, Iran has controlled the vital energy route, hindering passage from US allies and imposing fees.
Senior military official Rasoul Sanaei-Rad warned Iran would not reopen the strait unilaterally unless the US fulfilled its commitments.
Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, wrote on X Thursday that the US has “long miscalculated due to intelligence failures”, pointing to its stance on the waterway as an “even bigger miscalculation”.
Despite Iran’s assertive stance, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth reinforced the president’s assertion on Thursday. “Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters in Panama. Source The Dawn.