Iran Clims Full Authority Over Strait of Hormuz, Rebuffing Trump's Assertions

The commander of the paramilitary Basij Organisation asserted that the Strait of Hormuz remains under Iran’s control and management, just a day after President Donald Trump maintained that the United States held total command of the critical waterway.

Speaking on Thursday, Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb stated that the Islamic Republic manages the passage and that the nation continues safely along its course, as reported by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. He emphasized that the Americans witnessed the strength of the Islamic revolution.

These assertions followed President Donald Trump's declaration on his Truth Social platform that the US exercised total control over the strategic channel. Since the US-Israeli war on Iran commenced on February 28, Tehran has effectively closed the strait, which previously handled a fifth of the globe's oil and liquefied natural gas. In response, the US instituted a naval blockade targeting Iranian ports and shipping while pledging to safeguard navigation for vessels bound to and from non-Iranian destinations.

Iran’s joint military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, declared on Thursday that zero vessels may cross the Strait of Hormuz without Tehran's explicit authorization. State media published a statement from the command dismissing US claims regarding normal passage as falsehoods and lies.

Rasoul Sanaei-Rad, a senior military political official, further indicated on Thursday that Iran refuses to reopen the strait unless the US honors commitments tied to the interim deal designed to conclude the conflict. According to Fars news, Sanaei-Rad stressed that reopening the route is not a unilateral US achievement and cautioned that Iran would react with greater force in any subsequent conflict.

The two nations had established an interim agreement in June to prolong an April ceasefire and restore Gulf navigation freedom, though the arrangement collapsed weeks later when Iran recommenced limited attacks on vessels violating the terms. This prompted the US to resume strikes on southern Iranian provinces to diminish Tehran's capacity to target Gulf traffic.

Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), noted that Iran seeks to prolong the conflict because it calculates the economic pressure presents no existential danger to its government's survival. Stephens told Al Jazeera that the existential threat has vanished, leading Tehran to escalate tensions and intensify pressure on President Donald Trump by drawing out the confrontation.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that the US has long suffered from intelligence failures that misinformed its war on Iran. On the platform X, Araghchi characterized Washington's maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz as an even graver miscalculation, asserting that flawed intelligence is worse than fake news.