Trump Claims Total US Control of Strait of Hormuz, Iran Counters

Global oil markets face renewed uncertainty as the United States and Iran issue competing assertions of authority over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas once moved before the current conflict. President Donald Trump stated on his Truth Social platform that the United States holds total control and suggested it might retain that position, while Iranian officials responded that the strait remains under their management and will stay closed until specific conditions are met. Shipping data from Kpler shows daily transits fell to eight vessels on Tuesday, below the recent 10-day average of about 12 and the lowest count since August 5.

The dispute occurs against the backdrop of a war that began February 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Tehran closed the strait shortly afterward; Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports while pledging to safeguard passage for other traffic. An interim ceasefire reached in June collapsed weeks later after Iran resumed limited attacks on vessels, prompting renewed U.S. strikes on southern Iranian provinces. Iranian Basij commander Hossein Taeb, quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency, said the United States had sought to undermine Iranian regional standing through the conflict but had failed, leaving the strait under Iranian control. Senior Iranian military official Rasoul Sanaei-Rad added that reopening would require the other side to fulfill interim-deal commitments and could not be achieved unilaterally by the United States.

Trump's remarks followed earlier statements in which he described the U.S. naval presence as a "wall of steel." Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the U.S. position a miscalculation. Traffic through the strait has slowed markedly since the war's onset, though exact enforcement mechanisms and toll arrangements remain subjects of ongoing claims rather than independently confirmed operational details. Separate reporting from multiple outlets documented heightened security measures around Trump linked to Iranian threats, including an aircraft switch during a July NATO summit in Turkey after intelligence indicated a possible surface-to-air missile plot, but those measures are not directly tied to Hormuz transit rules.