Iran Dismisses Trump’s Claim Of US Control Of Strait Of Hormuz | Sahara Reporters
Iran closed the strait shortly after US-Israeli bombing of Iran began at the end of February.
Iran has rejected United States President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the strategic waterway will remain closed until the US accepts its demands and changes its “behaviour”.
According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Mohsen Rezaie, the newly appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu: “As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened.”
The Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime, has emerged as a major flashpoint in the US-Israel war on Iran, with peace talks stalled over the question of the waterway’s management.
Iran closed the strait shortly after US-Israeli bombing of Iran began at the end of February.
Iran currently says it is only holding talks with Oman, whose territorial waters the strait also passes through, over the future management of the waterway.
Commercial shipping remains severely disrupted in the strait, with attacks on vessels continuing on Tuesday when US forces targeted a vessel they said was headed for an Iranian port, in the Gulf of Oman.
At the same time, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a Saudi cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to Yemeni authorities. It is being described as the first deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping since the US-Israel war on Iran began.
“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it; nobody else, only us,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday.
The situation on the ground, however, remains more complicated.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said shipping remained at reduced levels, while attacks and “harassment activity” continued in the Strait of Hormuz as Iran and the US maintained blockades in and around the waterway.
Iran has made clear that it does not intend to reopen the strait unless Washington meets its demands, including the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets and compensation for attacks.
Writing on X, Rezaie also demanded an end to the US naval blockade on Iranian ports and a region-wide ceasefire, including in Gaza and Lebanon.
A US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman after the vessel allegedly attempted to violate the US blockade of Iranian ports, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported.
The M/V Vela Nova had ignored warnings before a helicopter fired missiles into its engine room, disabling the ship’s steering gear, CENTCOM said.
The US military did not report any casualties among the crew.
The conflict has also spread to another key maritime passage, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea off Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s western coast.
The Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting Saudi shipping amid renewed fighting in Yemen, while Saudi Arabia has announced a new maritime alliance in a bid to secure the waterway.
On Tuesday, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a cargo vessel in the strait, Yemeni authorities said.
Four crew members aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah were killed, along with two Yemeni rescuers who were responding to the attack. Ten others were injured.
Later in the day, Houthi-affiliated media reported that the ship was carrying Saudi military equipment.
Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb are both critical maritime chokepoints. About one-fifth of global oil and natural gas trade passes through Hormuz, while about 11 percent of global oil and eight percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade passes through Bab al-Mandeb.
The conflict has badly affected traffic through the waterways, sending oil prices higher.
The number of vessels tracked passing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a one-week low on Tuesday.
Shipping data from Kpler, cited by Reuters, showed eight vessels transiting the strait, below the 10-day average of about 12 and the lowest daily tally since August 5.
Before the war, about 130 ships passed through the strait daily.
The latest attacks in Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb indicate that the conflict is not winding down.
Although both sides appeared open to talks last week, the US and Iran have escalated their rhetoric in recent days.
On Monday, Trump said he would demand compensation from Iran for deaths and injuries linked to conflicts and attacks over several decades after Iran issued new demands for reparations for the US-Israel war.
However, US media have reported that the country may be running low on weapons, particularly air defence interceptors used in Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems.
The shortages could pose a threat to US forces and its allies in the region.
Meanwhile, an adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday that the country was developing the capability to conduct operations on “enemy soil”.
Until now, Iran has been limited to carrying out strikes on US military assets and energy infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf countries and Jordan.
“We need to be able to move the operations to the enemy’s soil, whenever this is needed and ordered,” he said, according to Iranian state television.