Iran may have superior weapons and spending over the United States and Israel, but it has one major advantage: control of the Strait of Hormuz.
By attacking ships navigating the narrow waterway, Iran has effectively shut down the shipping route through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies pass. The British Maritime Authority said on Thursday that another ship had been collided in the Persian Gulf, the sixth such collision in two days. The Iranian government has reportedly dug mines in the strait, further blocking the passage of ships, marking a new escalation in the war.
Here’s what you need to know:
Iran has begun planting dozens of mines in the strait in recent days, according to two U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the matter. Although mining is not extensive, Iran still maintains more than 80% to 90% of its fleet of small boats and minelayers, one official told CNN. This contradicts US President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran “doesn’t have a navy.”
Such moves highlight Iran’s reliance on asymmetric warfare and the havoc these tactics can wreak, even as the country has been battered by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
On Wednesday, President Trump sowed confusion on the issue, saying he did not believe Iran had successfully laid the mines and that the United States had removed “almost all” of its mine-laying vessels.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British organization run by the Royal Navy and providing security information to interested parties, also warned that “there remains no confirmed evidence of mine deployment or explosions” in the waterway.
A U.S. Congressional report last year estimated that Iran has about 5,000 to 6,000 sea mines. This total includes different types of landmines, the report said. Some are limpet mines, usually manually attached to the hull by divers. There are also tethered mines, which float just below the water’s surface and explode on contact with a ship. Some are “bottom” mines, which are placed on the ocean floor before detonating when they detect nearby ships.
Sea mines are just part of the threat Iran poses to the Strait.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a military force with its own navy, remains capable of deploying land mines, explosive-laden suicide boats, and a “gauntlet” of land-based missile batteries, leading one U.S. intelligence source to describe the strait as a “valley of death.”
Despite 12 days of airstrikes, so far the Revolutionary Guard’s “main small ship fleet has remained largely intact,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute who has written about Iranian naval strategy.
This came to light on Tuesday when security officials said they opened fire on the Thai-flagged bulk carrier Mayuri Naree as it attempted to pass, causing an explosion in the ship’s engine room. According to Thai authorities, three of the 23 crew members who were believed to have been working in the engine room are still missing. The Iranian military added that another ship, the Liberian-flagged Express Roma, was also attacked by Iranian projectiles that morning.
U.S. Central Command said on Tuesday that it had destroyed several Iranian naval vessels near the strait, including 16 minelayers, but did not say it had destroyed any mines that may have already been laid.
Prior to this, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “If Iran has laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz and there are no reports, I want them removed immediately!”
Trump added that the country would face “unprecedented” consequences if it did not remove any mines that Iran may have laid. But if it “removed what might have been put there, that would be a big step in the right direction!”
America’s minesweeping capabilities in the Persian Gulf are not as strong as they once were. Last September, the U.S. Navy retired the last of its four specialized minesweepers in the region, leaving it to rely on less specialized ships.
At the time, the U.S. Navy’s Central Command announced that four Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) would carry out minesweeping missions. But these ships have had a troubled history, with critics calling them “little crap ships.”
The longer the Strait of Hormuz remains impassable, the more severe the impact on the global economy will be.
With the Strait effectively closed, nearly 15 million barrels per day (BPD) of crude oil and 4.5 million BPD of refined oil remain stranded in the Gulf, meaning storage tanks across the region are rapidly filling up, analysts said.
Even in peacetime, navigating the strait’s narrow channels and congested traffic requires advanced technology. Mines increase the danger to ships attempting to pass and make it more difficult to navigate again.
“They are trying to cause pain,” Nadimi told CNN. “The strategic goal is to inflict as much punitive pain as necessary on US military bases in the region, mainland Israel, the Persian Gulf states, and indirectly the US mainland, especially Trump’s support base, to submit to the fact that the Islamic regime cannot be defeated now or in the foreseeable future.”
President Trump has proposed providing escort for ships sailing through the straits, which would have no clear strategic benefit to the war itself and would involve endangering naval ships purely for the purpose of protecting oil carriers.
“While it is technically possible to create a limited transit window (for ships to pass) in the strait… restoring long-term sustainable security to the strait within days or weeks is very complex” and could take “months, not weeks,” he said, adding: “It cannot happen quickly and it is not possible under enemy fire.”
There are several other options for exporting crude via pipelines, but Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, warned on Tuesday that there could be “catastrophic consequences” for the oil market if the flow of crude through the strait does not resume.
yes. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, both countries targeted each other’s oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian Navy had planted mines near the Strait of Hormuz, and in April 1988, one of the mines attacked the U.S. warship USS Samuel B. Roberts.
The ship suffered heavy damage, and the Reagan administration retaliated by damaging or sinking three Iranian warships and three oil platforms, greatly reducing Iran’s ability to engage in the Gulf.
