Iran asserts Hormuz 'will remain Iranian' after Trump's US territory remark

Iran has pushed back against U.S. President Donald Trump's statement that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory, asserting that the strategic waterway, which Tehran closed earlier this year, remains under Iranian control.

"The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media platform X on Saturday. "This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran's command."

Mr. Trump made the territorial remark at a political rally in New York state on Friday, telling supporters that after the U.S. defeats Iran, "pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States." The Wall Street Journal reported that an unnamed White House official later clarified that the president was joking.

The exchange comes amid an ongoing conflict that began in late February, when Iran effectively closed the strait, a vital chokepoint for global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. The U.S. has imposed a retaliatory blockade on Iranian ports, with Mr. Trump telling the crowd, "We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to."

Diplomatic efforts to reopen the strait have made little progress. Last week, a senior Iranian official, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, laid out conditions for ending the closure, including an end to what he called "war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq," as well as the lifting of sanctions, release of frozen assets, and compensation for wartime damage.

Meanwhile, attacks in the waterway have continued. The United Arab Emirates' state-owned oil company ADNOC reported on Saturday that one of its vessels came under attack the previous night. The UAE on Friday blamed Iran for attacks on two other ADNOC-linked ships passing through the strait. Such attacks were cited as the reason for the collapse of a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran in April.

Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen have also declared a maritime blockade on Saudi ports in the Red Sea, affecting the oil exporter's only other maritime route. Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz carried roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and LNG exports, and repeated disruptions have driven up global energy prices, adding economic and political pressure on Washington.

A June agreement between Washington and Tehran, intended as a starting point for broader negotiations, had stated that Iran and Oman would work out future arrangements for the strait in consultation with other Gulf countries and "in line with the applicable international law." Tehran signalled last week that it had agreed with Oman on a route for ships to transit the strait and was finalising plans for joint management of the waterway.

But key differences remain. Iran seeks to control the strait and charge tolls, powers it did not exercise before the war, a prospect the U.S. has firmly opposed. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said this week that Washington's primary goal in the conflict is keeping energy prices low for Americans, with preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon as the second priority.

The closure of Hormuz has pushed up fuel costs for U.S. consumers, a sensitive issue for Mr. Trump as the November midterm elections approach. The dispute shows no immediate sign of resolution, with both sides maintaining rival blockades and neither willing to yield on the central question of control over one of the world's most crucial maritime passages.