ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US forces have cleared Iranian sea mines from international shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and coordinated safe passage for some 1,500 vessels transiting the key waterway, the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Friday, while affirming that a naval blockade on Iranian ports remains in place.
Admiral Brad Cooper declared the "major milestone," saying US forces had cleared the shipping lanes of mines "laid months ago by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)" in Hormuz, and that "internationally recognized transit routes in the Strait are free of Iranian sea mines."
"Today international shipping lanes are open and momentum is building," he said.
The Strait of Hormuz - through which around one-fifth of global oil supplies pass - has seen no return to normal shipping since the US and Israel launched a joint aerial campaign on February 28, striking thousands of targets across Iran over six weeks.
Tehran responded with drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets in Gulf Arab states and launching retaliatory strikes against Israel.
The two sides reached a preliminary ceasefire in early April, followed by the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June, which established a truce and set a 60-day window for negotiating a final agreement.
Despite the MoU, both sides have traded multiple rounds of strikes, the latest escalating on July 8 before subsiding later that month.
Meanwhile, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz remain elevated, with a US naval blockade on Iranian ports still in effect and Iran's continued claim of sovereignty over the waterway forcing commercial vessels to seek authorization for passage.
Cooper said Friday that nearly 50,000 US troops deployed in the region are continuing to execute "the naval blockade against Iran while maintaining commercial traffic flow through the Strait."
"Over the past several months, US forces have assisted nearly 1,500 commercial vessels transiting the Strait by providing coordinated protection," he said, adding that those ships carried nearly 750 million barrels of crude oil from Gulf countries to global energy markets.
At the same time however, "No ships have entered or left an Iranian port without our permission, and we have only allowed ships to pass through on humanitarian grounds," the CENTCOM commander noted, adding that 75 vessels attempting to run the blockade had been diverted and three that did not comply were disabled.
Iran, he affirmed, "has exported zero oil from its shores since we resumed the naval blockade in mid-July."
