Trump Claims US Has Full Control of Strait of Hormuz
President Donald Trump declared Monday that the United States has “100 percent” control of the Strait of Hormuz and that the US Navy has “mine-swept the entire strait,” even as Iran maintains the critical oil chokepoint remains closed and global energy markets brace for continued disruption. The statement, made to reporters in the Oval Office, came as Trump simultaneously demanded that Iran pay compensation for decades of US military deaths, a dramatic escalation that dimmed prospects for a deal to reopen the strategic waterway.
“Look, the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy,” Trump said, according to The Jerusalem Post. “We’ve mine-swept the entire strait.” He added that the US Navy is enforcing a maritime blockade, allowing only “those ships we want to pass through.”
A Chokepoint at the Center of a Regional War
The Strait of Hormuz, a 34-kilometer-wide waterway between Iran and Oman, carried roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day—about 25 percent of the world’s seaborne oil trade and 20 percent of global LNG—before the current crisis. It has been effectively closed since March, when Iran announced the strait’s closure in response to the US-Israeli military campaign against the country that began on February 28.
The closure represents the largest disruption to world energy supply since the 1970s energy crisis, according to Xinhua News. Oil prices have surged dramatically, with Brent crude surpassing $100 per barrel in March and reaching $126 at its peak.
US Blockade Operations Intensify
US Central Command reported on August 9 that the US has deployed more than 20 warships in the Middle East, strictly enforcing blockade measures against Iran. As of that day, US forces had forced 55 merchant ships to change course, disabled two merchant ships, and boarded and inspected two others, according to Xinhua.
Despite Trump’s assertion of full control, ship tracking data tells a different story. CNN reported, citing ship tracking firm Kpler, that Strait of Hormuz traffic has been “sluggish” over the past week, “weakening further over the weekend.” Ship transits fell from 15 on August 7 to 11 on August 8 and just 6 on August 9.
Iran’s Conditions for Reopening
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr stated on August 8 that the strait will remain closed unless the US meets five conditions: permanently stop military operations against Iran and its regional allies, stop threatening or insulting Iran, lift the maritime blockade and all sanctions, return Iran’s frozen assets, and compensate for losses caused by military operations. As Press TV reported, Zolghadr declared: “The Strait of Hormuz will not open until America corrects its behavior.”
IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi reinforced this position on August 9, stating that Iran’s strategy is to maintain control of the strait “until the enemy accepts all of Iran’s conditions and admits defeat.”
Trump’s Counter-Demands
Trump responded to Iran’s conditions with demands of his own, posting on Truth Social that he is “likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts… including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands of others killed in combat,” as The Guardian reported.
He broadened the scope further, writing: “Also, with respect to the Iran negotiations, Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!”
At the White House, Trump elaborated: “We’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period.” He also referenced the USS Cole attack of October 2000, in which 17 US sailors were killed, though that attack has been attributed to al Qaeda rather than Iran.
Oil Markets React
Oil prices settled 5 percent higher on Monday after Trump’s demands dimmed prospects for a deal to reopen the strait. Brent crude futures edged up to $88 per barrel on Tuesday, while US crude rose to $82.45, the highest levels for both benchmarks since July 31, according to Al Jazeera.
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen below 300 million barrels for the first time since 1983 amid the prolonged closure, as Al Jazeera reported.
Iran’s Military Leadership Reshuffle
In a significant development, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appointed six senior commanders across the armed forces, the IRGC, and the Basij on August 10, including Ali Abdollahi as chief of staff and Ahmad Vahidi as IRGC commander-in-chief. Former IRGC chief Mohsen Rezaei was named secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, a position that places a longtime advocate of Iranian control over Hormuz at the center of national security decision-making.
A Stalemate with Global Consequences
The US-Iran impasse over the Strait of Hormuz shows no signs of resolution. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that the US maritime blockade and military actions are the main obstacles to full restoration of safe navigation through the strait, according to Sina Finance.
Meanwhile, domestic pressure on Trump is mounting. A July AP-NORC poll found that 64 percent of Americans say the war has not been worth it, and the conflict has consumed nearly 80 percent of the US military’s THAAD interceptors and about half its Patriot stock, as WSWS reported. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy captured the growing bipartisan frustration, telling NBC’s Meet the Press: “Donald Trump has lost this war. America is weaker. Iran is stronger.”
What to Watch For
The 60-day period to negotiate a final deal under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding will end in mid-August but could be extended. Iran is reportedly “very close” to a separate agreement with Oman on managing shipping through the strait, though Tehran insists the waterway’s full reopening depends on additional conditions, primarily US compensation for violating the June agreement.
With oil prices climbing, global markets watching nervously, and both sides digging in, the Strait of Hormuz remains the world’s most consequential geopolitical flashpoint—a chokepoint where rhetoric, military power, and economic leverage collide with no clear endgame in sight.