TEHRAN, Iran: Iran rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim of total Strait of Hormuz control on Thursday, escalating a dispute over the Middle East waterway between Iran and Oman.
Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said no commercial ship or oil tanker could transit safely without authorisation and supervision from Iran’s armed forces.
Zolfaghari described US assertions that vessel traffic had returned to normal as “lies and fabrications.” Neither side’s operational-control claim was independently verified in the statements.
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Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday that the United States had “total control” of the strait and intended to retain it. He called the US naval blockade a “wall of steel,” according to an AFP report. Eight vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, compared with 130 to 140 daily before the conflict.
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The US Energy Information Administration said the strait carried an average of 20 million barrels of oil per day in 2024, equivalent to about 20% of global petroleum-liquids consumption. About one-fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade also crossed the waterway that year.
