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Tehran has said the Strait of Hormuz “will remain Iranian” in response to a warning from US President Donald Trump that he would soon declare the strategic waterway a “territory of the United States.”
The Strait, a crucial oil and gas transit chokepoint that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, has been one of the key sticking points in talks between Washington and Tehran, the latter of which effectively closed the passage following the outbreak of the Iran war in late February.
Speaking in New York on Friday, Trump, with a chuckle, said: “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
“We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” he added.
It was unclear how serious Trump was being with his remarks, but it nevertheless prompted a fiery response from Tehran.
Responding to the comments in a post on X on Saturday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, stressed that “the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian.”
“This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease your fanciful delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” he added.
Tensions have repeatedly flared over the waterway- which usually carries around a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade – as both sides claim control despite the “memorandum of understanding” agreed in June.
Under the terms of the provisional deal, Iran had been required to reopen the waterway and reaffirm that it “shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons”.
For its part, the US said it would remove its naval blockade of Iran and drop sanctions on Tehran. The agreement had given the two countries 60 days to work out a final deal.
However, Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait in July prompted another wave of US strikes and a renewed naval blockade of Iranian ports, threatening peace efforts.