ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Donald Trump said Friday that he will declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory of the United States” amid ongoing tit-for-tat maritime disputes in the strategic corridor and faltering negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
“Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait ‘a territory of the United States’; essentially, that’s what it is,” Trump stated, noting, “we have a blockade; no ships get through unless we want them to.”
The Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway which sees the transit of approximately one-fifth of global oil supplies, has been a focal point since the outbreak of the six-week war following a joint US-Israel aerial campaign which struck thousands of targets across Iran.
The warring sides reached a preliminary ceasefire in early April, followed by a Pakistan-mediated Memorandum of Understanding signed by Tehran and Washington in mid-June, establishing a ceasefire on all fronts. Following the truce, however, the two sides engaged in several rounds of strikes and counterstrikes as tensions continue to brew surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump's comments coincided with a statement from US Central Command (CENTCOM), which said that as of Friday, its forces had “redirected 62 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure compliance.”
The statement comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Thursday that Washington risks an "even bigger miscalculation" over the strait.
"The U.S. has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures. Case in point: the war on Iran. Now, an even bigger miscalculation on the Strait of Hormuz," Araghchi wrote on X. "Worse than fake news is fake intelligence. Be careful," he added.
The remarks appeared to be a response to US President Donald Trump's Wednesday comments that "the U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz," adding: "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."
“The Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the U.S. ends the war and blockade, releases Iran’s frozen assets, and agrees to a region-wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon and Gaza,” the newly appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Mohsen Rezaei, said Tuesday, adding that “until all conditions are met, the Strait will remain closed.”
On Tuesday, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), a newly-formed Iranian government agency tasked with regulating maritime transit through Hormuz, said in a post on X on Tuesday that the Strait “remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran's conditions are accepted.”
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