US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. Navy holds "100 percent" control of the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran insists that Washington must meet its demands before reopening the critical waterway.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump asserted that the strait "is actually open now" and "the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy".
He described the U.S. naval blockade against Iran as a "steel wall", adding the U.S. military only "lets people in that we want to let in".
While acknowledging the situation remains "a little bit complex" due to Iran occasionally dropping mines, Trump claimed that the U.S. Navy has "mine swept the entire strait".
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday that over 20 U.S. warships have been deployed to the Middle East supporting military missions, including strict enforcement of the U.S. blockade against Iran.
As of that day, the U.S. military had forced 55 merchant vessels to alter their courses, disabled two commercial ships, and boarded and inspected two others, the CENTCOM said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, data from the ship-tracking platform Kpler indicates that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained "subdued" over the past week and "weakened further" into the weekend.
Confirmed crossings through the waterway fell from 15 on Friday to 11 on Saturday and just six on Sunday, according to Kpler.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened until the United States "corrects its behavior", Iranian media reported Saturday.
Zolghadr noted that the reopening of the strait depends on the United States meeting a series of conditions: it must permanently end the war against Iran and its armed allies in the region; it must stop threatening Iran; it must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports; it must compensate Iran for war damage; and it must lift sanctions and "unconditionally" release frozen or seized assets.
