ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his country's forces have total control over the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran and Oman inch closer toward finalizing an agreement for a temporary shipping route through the strategic waterway.
"The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. 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," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, adding that Iran was "all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer."
The Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which around one-fifth of global oil supplies pass, has been a flashpoint between the US and Iran since the outbreak of the six-week war, when Washington and Tel Aviv launched a joint aerial campaign on February 28, striking thousands of targets across Iran.
In response, Tehran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - while also launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
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 that escalated on July 8 and ended later the same month.
A fragile de-escalation has since taken hold, though a US naval blockade on Iranian ports remains in place, as Iran continues to claim sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting commercial shipping and requiring vessels to obtain authorization for passage.
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) announced later on Wednesday that “Claims and repeated posts” by US officials do not “change the reality,” adding that the Strait of Hormuz “remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted.”
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) on Tuesday said its forces had "redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three non-compliant vessels, and boarded two.”
Meanwhile, Iran and Oman are nearing an agreement on a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.
"Negotiations with Oman on the legal mechanism and management of the Strait of Hormuz, including the designation of a shipping route, are underway and we are very close to an agreement," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in remarks carried by the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Saturday.
“For now, we are talking about a temporary route,” he said, noting that the previous shipping corridor opened by the US and Oman - in coordination with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) - in mid-June is “no longer acceptable to Iran,” adding that a new route needs to be established, though it involves “extensive technical and legal complexities.”
The foreign minister’s remarks come after Tehran and Muscat announced last week that their bilateral agreement on managing the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between the two countries, is nearing completion after both sides agreed on the geographical coordinates for the intended route.
In early May, Iran established the PGSA to enforce a permission-based transit system in the Strait of Hormuz, collecting fees from vessels and inspecting or targeting those that do not comply.
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