PANAMA: U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the US Iran naval blockade could continue indefinitely, with Navy ships rotated through the region as needed.
Hegseth told reporters in Panama that the United States had sufficient naval capacity to sustain the operation. He spoke after addressing personnel aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile destroyer previously deployed to the Middle East.
His comments came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington had “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz and intended to maintain its naval blockade.
Trump made the remarks on Truth Social, describing the blockade as a “wall of steel.”
According to the supplied report, Tehran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz after the conflict began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. The waterway had previously carried about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Read: Strait of Hormuz Control: Iran Rejects Trump’s Claim
The United States subsequently imposed restrictions on Iranian shipping and ports while saying it would protect vessels using non-Iranian ports.
Washington has deployed tens of thousands of troops and more than 20 warships to the Middle East since the conflict began, according to the report. U.S. forces have redirected more than 55 commercial vessels accused of trying to breach the blockade.
The U.S. military also said an MH-60 Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of a Panama-flagged vessel earlier this week after it ignored warnings.
Despite months of U.S. strikes, the report said Iran retained control over access through the Strait of Hormuz while continuing missile and drone attacks in the region.
