President Donald Trump said that the US is in total control of the Strait of Hormuz and that the US will keep the strategic waterway. 

“The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” the President wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “There is nothing Iran can do about it. They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, their remaining soldiers are unpaid, the IRGC is decimated and fleeing, and their “Leadership” is uncertain, at best.”

President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Strait of Hormuz is open and under the control of the US. “The only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy. We have a blockade that’s been infallible — it’s a steel wall,” he said on Monday. “We control the Strait, 100%.”

On Tuesday, the Navy attacked a cargo ship attempting to break the US blockade and transit the Strait of Hormuz. 

“CENTCOM forces disabled the steering gear of Panama-flagged M/V Vela Nova as the cargo vessel attempted to transit the Gulf of Oman and violate the U.S. blockade against Iran by sailing toward an Iranian port,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said. A US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the Vela Nova’s engine room after the ship’s civilian crew ignored repeated warnings from American forces.”

The Strait of Hormuz was treated as an international waterway before the US and Israel started an aggressive war against Iran earlier this year. The Strait was the main export route for Persian Gulf oil. About a fifth of the world’s oil transited the waterway before the war. 

During the war, Iran seized control of the Strait and limited shipping traffic to vessels from neutral and friendly nations that follow Tehran’s protocols. Iran is negotiating with Oman to establish a new agency for regulating traffic through the Strait. 

Washington is demanding that Tehran return the Strait to its pre-war status. Iranian officials say Tehran will never allow the waterway to operate without Iranian oversight. 

On Tuesday, an Iranian official stated that Tehran will not allow the Strait to reopen until Washington complies with its demands. “As long as America does not change its behavior and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened,” Mohsen ​Rezaei, a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said. “America must end the war, pay Iran’s frozen assets, the war must end throughout the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza.”