TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s armed forces rejected Trump’s Hormuz territory claim on Monday, saying the US president could only “dream” of treating the Strait of Hormuz as American territory.
Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for Iran’s Armed Forces, made the comments after President Donald Trump circulated a map labelling the strategic waterway “NEW U.S. Territory.”
Shekarchi rejected any US claim over the strait. Trump originally posted such a map on Truth Social on August 18.
The White House subsequently amplified the image on its official social-media account; the graphic did not change the waterway’s legal status.
The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and Oman. The provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea state that rules governing passage through international straits do not otherwise remove the sovereignty or jurisdiction of states bordering those waters.
Shekarchi’s comments came as military tensions rose again around Hormuz. US forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island.
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August 30, after CENTCOM said Iranian forces were preparing weapons capable of deploying sea mines. Iran later launched missiles toward US military sites in Jordan.
Washington also continues a naval blockade targeting maritime traffic entering or leaving Iranian ports. CENTCOM resumed that operation on July 14 and says vessels not violating the blockade can continue moving through regional waters.
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Iran has repeatedly rejected US military involvement in the strait. Earlier, Shekarchi said the waterway falls within the sovereignty of Iran and Oman and argued that outside powers had no right to control it.
