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Iran’s military rejected as “lies” on Thursday remarks by US President Donald Trump claiming control of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the strategic waterway was fully under Iranian control.
“The false claims of the United States that ships are passing through the Strait of Hormuz normally…are nothing more than lies and fabrications,” said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran’s central military command.
“The Strait of Hormuz is, as in the past, under the complete management and control of the Islamic Republic of Iran and no commercial ship or tanker without the permission and supervision of the powerful Iranian armed forces has had and will have the possibility of safe passage through this strait,” Zolfaghari said in a video carried by state television.
Iran has kept control of Hormuz, a vital energy conduit, since the outbreak of the war on 28 February, requiring vessels to obtain permission and pay transit fees before using the waterway.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump claimed that the US “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,” he added.
On Thursday, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Basij forces under the Revolutionary Guards also said that the strait was under Iranian control.
“Today, you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic republic, and our country continues on its path in complete security,” said Hossein Taeb according to state television.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday said the US is making miscalculations in regard to the waterway.
“The US has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures. Case in point: The war on Iran. Now, an even bigger miscalculation on the Strait of Hormuz,” he said in a post on X.
Iranian parliamentarian and member of the national security commission Behnam Saeedi said the strait is closed to US and Israeli ships.
“Ships belonging to the Zionist regime will not have the right to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under any circumstances, whether in war or peacetime,” he told state TV, adding that “US military ships will also be barred from passing through the Strait.”
Iran and Oman have been in talks to establish a new route through the strait, but negotiations have not yet been finalised.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier this month that Tehran and Muscat were preparing a joint statement on the agreement which includes technical, legal, security and environmental points.
Separately, Iranian media quoted official sources saying that the reopening of the Strait would depend on the US ending its naval blockade of the country’s ports.
Additional sources • AFP