Iran has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s claim that he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz US territory, insisting the blockaded waterway “will remain Iranian.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed the strait — effectively closed by Tehran since the war began in late February — is under US control, an assertion Iran denies.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X: “The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian. This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command.”
Trump made the claim at a political rally in New York on Friday, saying that once the US defeats Iran, “pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” He added, “It’s true.”
A White House official later told the Wall Street Journal that Trump had been joking.
Last week, senior Iranian official Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr set out conditions for reopening the strait, including an end to the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq,” the lifting of sanctions, release of frozen assets, and compensation for wartime damage.
